About the Book :
These 2 volumes of History of
India have drawn the history from the earliest dawning of legend. It has reduced
the whole history to a compact form which, it is hoped, will render it both
interesting and useful to general readers, as well as to students in the
religion and politics of our Indian empire. The series of maps will draw the
attention of the reader for the illustrated and the successive changes in the
history.
About Author :
James Talboys Wheeler
(1824-1897), historian of India.In 1858 he came to India as editor of the Madras
Spectator, but gave up the profession of journalism on being appointed professor
of moral and mental philosophy in the Madras presidency college. In May 1860 he
was employed by the Madras government to examine the old records; the results of
his researches being a report, highly commended by the secretary of state, Sir
Charles Wood, in a despatch dated 25 May 1861, and a History of Madras in the
Olden Time. On 26 Feb. 1862 he was appointed assistant secretary to the
government of India in the foreign department, and removed to Calcutta, where,
among other duties, he had charge of the foreign and, later, of the home offices
when the secretaries were at Simla. Among the printed but unpublished volumes
which he compiled under orders of government were a memorandum on the Scinde
ameers, summaries of political affairs from 1864 to 1869, of Afghan affairs in
the eighteenth and nineteen centuries, and of Persian affairs, a valuable report
on Afghan-Turkestan, and a memorandum on the Wahabis. His services were
specially acknowledged by Lord Mayo in a minute dated 20 Feb. 1870. Early in
that year he was transferred to Rangoon as secretary to the chief commissioner
of British Burma. In that capacity in November 1870 he visited Mandalay and
Bhamo, and had an interview with the king of Burma. Since his appointment to the
foreign office his leisure had been devoted to the compilation of his excellent
and sympathetic history of India, the first volume of which was published in
1867. Returning to India in 1876, he was employed to report on the records in
the home and foreign departments at Calcutta; and, besides submitting reports on
his investigations, compiled two volumes, which he was allowed to publish. He
also prepared and published under the authority of government a History of the
Imperial Assemblage at Delhi. In 1891 he retired from the service. He wrote,
besides smaller text-books and articles in the Calcutta Review, Asiatic
Quarterly, and other periodicals.