GENERAL INTRODUCTION

THE GAZETTEER FOR THE HYDERABAD ASSIGNED DISTRICT WAS first compiled in 1870 under orders of the Government of India. This Volume was edited by Sir A. C. Lyall, Commissioner of West Berar, who wrote in the Preface:

“.... a Gazetteer should be restricted within somewhat narrow conditions of time and space; of time, because much of as contents will not keep; of space, because to be useful a Gazetteer must be brief and compendious, The first object of the publication is taken to be that of presenting a statistical account of the Province, of its people, its state of economy and natural resources, with some narrative of its antecedent History as framework, and background to the picture. The second object as yet very inadequately attained—should be (it is conceived) to encourage and promote the compilation for each province of something like what is called in England a County History."

The Volume, in its ' District Selections ' contained a few pages on the then Wun (Wani) district which included the Wun, Yeotmal, Darwha and Kelapur talukas of the present Yeotmal district. It may he recalled that this district alongwith the rest of Berar was assigned to the British Government by the Nizam of Hyderabad following the treaty of 1853. In 1903 the Treaties of Assignment were superseded by an agreement under which the Nizam leased Berar to the British in perpetuity. Berar was joined to the Central Provinces in 1903 and the Wun district was renamed as Yeotmal in 1905.

Subsequently the Government of Central Provinces and Berar compiled the Gazetteers for various districts including Yeotmal in the beginning of this century. In this series the first Yeotmal District Gazetteer was edited by Mr. C. Brown and Mr. R. V. Russell, I.C.S. Volume A of the Yeotmal Gazetteer, published in 1908, was mainly descriptive and furnished a narration of the sociological, economic, historical and archaeological aspects as also places of interest and administrative set-up in the district. Volume B was devoted to statistics on various subjects for the period 1891—1911 and was published in 1914. Accordingly all the District Gazetteers for Central Provinces and Berar were published in two parts, viz., Descriptive and Statistical Tables.

In the Bombay Presidency also the scheme of Gazetteers was taken up in the last century.

In October 1867, the Secretary of State for India desired the Bombay Government to take concrete steps for the compilation of a Gazetteer of the Presidency on the model of the Gazetteer prepared during that year for the Central Provinces. The Government of Bombay then requested some of its responsible officials to submit a scheme for carrying into effect the orders of Secretary of State and in 1868, appointed the Bombay Gazetteer Committee to supervise and direct the preparation of the Gazetteer. After a few organisational experiments the responsibility was finally entrusted to Mr. James M. Campbell of the Bombay Civil Service, who commenced the compilation in 1874 and completed the series in 1884. The actual publication, however, of these volumes was spread over a period of 27 years between 1877 and 1904 in which year the last General Index Volume was published.

Though a Gazetteer literally means only a geographical index or a geographical dictionary, the scope of this particular compilation was much wider. It included not only a description of the physical and natural features of a region but also a broad narrative of the social, political, economic and cultural life of the people living in that region. The purpose which the Gazetteer was intended to serve was made clear in the following remarks of Sir William Hunter, Director-General of Statistics to the Government of India, when his opinion was sought on a draft article on Dharwar District in 1871 [Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency, Vol-I, Part I (History of Gujarat), P. vii.]. He said—

" My own conception of the work is that, in return for a couple of clays' reading, the Account should give a new Collector, a comprehensive, and, at the same, time, a distinct idea of the district which he has been sent to administer. Mere reading can never supersede practical experience in the district administration. But a succinct and well-conceived district account is capable of antedating the acquisition of such personal experience by many months and of both facilitating and systematising a collectors personal enquiries... But in all cases a District Account besides dealing with local specialities should furnish a historical narration of its revenue and expenditure since it passed under the British rule, of the sums which we have taken from it in taxes, and of the amount which we have returned to it in the protection of property and person and the other charges of Civil Government."

The Gazetteer was thus intended to give a complete picture of the district to men who were entire strangers to India and its people but who as members of the ruling race carried on their shoulders the responsibility of conducting its administration.

The Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency had 27 Volumes, some split up into two or three parts, making a total of 35 books including the General Index which was published in 1904. Some of the Volumes were of a general nature and were not confined to the limits of a particular district. For example, Volume I dealt with History and was split up into two parts, one dealing with Gujarat and the other with Konkan, Deccan and Southern Maratha Country; Volume IX was devoted to the Population of Gujarat and contained two parts, one describing Hindus and the other Musalmans and Parsis, but there was no corresponding Volume devoted to the population of Maharashtra or Karnatak; Volume XXV gave an account of the Botany of the area covered in the whole Presidency. The remaining volumes dealt with various districts of the Presidency and with what were then known as Native States attached to the Bombay Presidency. Some of the District Volumes had two or three parts, for example, those of Thana, Kanara, Poona and Bombay. On the other hand, there was only one combined volume for some districts as for example, Surat and Broach and Kaira and Panch Mahals.

The scheme of the contents was more or less the same for all the District Volumes though the accounts for particular items varied considerably from district to district. Information was collected from Government offices and in respect of social and religious practices, from responsible citizens. Eminent scholars, experts and administrators contributed articles on special subjects.

This Gazetteer compiled over many decades ago had long become scarce and entirely out of print. It contained authentic and useful information on several aspects of life in a district and was considered to be of great value to the administrator, and scholar and the general reader. There was a general desire that there should be a new and revised edition of this monumental work. The then Government of Bombay, therefore, decided that the old Gazetteer should be revised and republished, and entrusted the work of revision to an Editorial Board specially created for that purpose in 1949. This new edition has been prepared under the direction of that Editorial Board. In view of the reorganisation of States in 1956 and the coming into existence of the State of Maharashtra in 1960, areas for which no District Gazetteer had previously been compiled are taken up and new District Gazetteers are being compiled in accordance with the common pattern.

In the nature of things, after a lapse of over many decades after their publication, most of the statistical information contained in the old Gazetteers had become entirely out of date and had to be dropped altogether. In this edition an attempt has been made to give an idea of the latest developments whether in regard to the administrative structure or the economic set-up or in regard to social, religious and cultural trends. There are portions in the old Gazetteer bearing on archaeology and history which have the impress of profound scholarship and learning and their worth has not diminished by the mere passage of time. Even in their case, however, some restatement is occasionally necessary in view of latter investigations and new archaeological discoveries by scholars, and an attempt has been made to incorporate in this edition, the results of such subsequent research. The revision of old Volumes has, in fact, meant an entire rewriting of most of the chapters and sections. In doing so, statistical and other information is obtained from the relevant Departments of Government, and articles on certain specialised subjects are obtained from competent scholars.

In this dynamic world, circumstances and facts of life change, and so do national requirements and social values. Such significant changes have taken place in India as in other countries during the last half-a-century, and more so after the advent of Independence in 1947. The general scheme and contents of this revised series of the Gazetteers have been adapted to the needs of altered conditions. There is inevitably some shift in emphasis in the presentation and interpretation of certain phenomena. For example, the weighted importance given to caste and community in the old Gazetteer cannot obviously accord with the ideological concepts of a secular democracy, though much of that data may have considerable interest from the functional, sociological, or cultural point of view. What is necessary is a change in perspective in presenting 'that account so that it could be viewed against the background of a broad nationalism and the synthesis of a larger social life. It is also necessary to abridge and even to eliminate, elaborate details about customs and practices which no longer obtain on any extensive scale or which are too insignificant to need any elaboration. In the revised Gazetteer, therefore, only a general outline of the practices and customs of the main sections of the population has been given.

Every attempt has been made to incorporate as up-to-date information as possible. However in a monumental work like this, a time-lag between the date of collection of information and its publication is inevitable. It has, therefore, been decided to issue Statistical Supplementaries to the parent volumes from time to time. The Supplementaries will furnish tabulated statistics pertaining to the important subjects during the subsequent years.

An important addition to the District Volume in this edition is the Directory of Villages and Towns given at the end which contains, in a tabulated form, useful information about every village and town in the district. The district map given in this edition is also fairly large and up-to-date.

Diacritical marks to explain the pronunciation of names of places and of words in Indian languages have been used in Chapters 2 and 3, but not in Chapter 19 as also in the Directory of Villages and Towns as was done in the Volumes previously published. However the names of places and of words in Indian languages which occur in Chapter 19 have been given in Appendix II with their current spelling and diacritical spelling. A key to diacritical marks used is also given in Appendix II.

The revised Gazetteers arc published in two series:—

1. General Series.—This comprises volumes on subject which can best be treated for the State as a whole and not for the smaller area of a district. As at present planned, they will deal with Geography, Fauna, Maharashtra-Land and its People, History, Language and Literature, Botany, Public Administration and Places of Interest.

2. District Series.— This contains one Volume for every district of the Maharashtra State. The information given in all the Volumes will follow the same pattern, and the table of contents will more or less be the same for all the districts.

In the preparation of this Volume, this Department has received every assistance from the Gazetteers Unit, Ministry of Education, Government of India. A draft copy of this Volume was sent to the Gazetteers Unit and was returned with valuable suggestions which have been incorporated in the Volume.

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