JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Memoir on Indian Earthquakes. By Lieut. R. Baird Smith, 

 Bengal Engineers. 



Part II. — Historical Summary of Indian Earthquakes, with some 

 Remarks on the general distribution of Subterranean Disturbing 

 Forces throughout India and its Frontier Countries. 



The following summary is offered, not as a perfect Register of the 

 Earthquakes that have occurred in India and its adjoining countries 

 during past times, but rather as a first step towards the formation of 

 such a Register, which from its nature, must necessarily be a work 

 requiring much time and much research. The requisite materials are 

 scattered in detached notices throughout numerous works, to a limited 

 number only of which, circumstances admit of my having access. I 

 cannot therefore but feel conscious of the imperfections of this first 

 effort to trace the history of Indian Earthquakes, and I would solicit 

 the assistance of those who feel an interest in the subject, in so far as 

 to furnish me with accounts of Earthquakes I may have omitted to 

 notice, or with references to the sources whence such accounts are to be 

 obtained. Materials thus furnished by the combined efforts of many 

 would accumulate, and in process of time it might be hoped, that from 

 them a complete historical summary of our Earthquakes may be pre- 

 pared. 



While as a matter of curiosity, it would be interesting to trace the 

 occurrence of Earthquake shocks in this country, to the earliest prac- 

 ticable periods, I feel very doubtful whether the results obtained, would 

 be of scientific importance sufficient to afford any adequate compensa- 

 tion for the time and labour that must be expended upon the work. 

 Native authorities must be almost exclusively depended upon, and ac- 

 counts of events of this class furnished by such authorities are invaria- 

 bly, in so far as I am yet acquainted with them, of a very unsatisfactory 

 character : confined usually to a mere record of their occurrence, or if 

 extending beyond this, to a detail, in exaggerated terms, of the des- 

 truction in life and property caused by them. It is not until European 

 intelligence has been brought to bear upon the phenomena of Earth- 

 quakes in India, that the records become of scientific value, and it is 

 to these records, (unfortunately much more limited than is desirable,) 

 that any interest the following summary may be found to possess, is 

 chiefly attributable. Imperfect, however, as notices of shocks by 

 native authors certainly are, I am very anxious to procure as many of 



No. 144. New Series, No. 60. 6 u 



