361 
GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 
Geography of Rajasthan, or Rajpootana ; from the “ Annals and Antiquities 
of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India.” By 
Lirut.-Cou. JAMES Top. Vol. I. Smith, Elder, & Co. London, 1829. 
RasastT’HAN is the collective and classical denomination of that portion of 
India which is “‘ the abode * of Rajpoot princes.”’ In the familiar dialect of these 
countries it is termed Rajwarra, but by the more refined Ract’hana, corrupted to 
Rajpootana, the common designation amongst the British to denote the Rajpoot 
principalities. 
What might have been the nominal extent of Rajast’han, prior to the Maho- 
medan conqueror Shabudin, (when it probably reached beyond the Jumna and 
Ganges, even to the base of the Himalaya,) cannot now be known. At present 
we may adhere to its restrictive definition, still comprehending a wide space and 
a variety of interesting races. 
Previous to the erection of the minor Mahomedan monarchies of Mandoo sae 
Ahmedabad (the capitals of Malwa and Guzzerat) on the ruins of Dhar and Ar- 
hulwarra Ruttun, the term Rajast’han would have been appropriated to the space 
comprehended in the map prefixed to the work quoted above: the valley of the 
Indus on the west, and Boondelkhund+ on the east; to the north, the sandy 
tracts (south of the Sutledge) termed Jungul dés ; and the Vindhya mountains 
to the south. 
This space comprehends nearly eight degrees of latitude and nine of longitude, 
being from 22° to 30° north latitude, and 69° to 78° east longitude, embracing a 
superficial area of 350,000 square miles. 
The states are as Fallon :—1. Mewar or Oodipoor. 2. Marwar or Jodpoor. 
3. Bikaner and Kisengush. 4. Kotah. 5. Boondi, (these two states are some- 
times comprehended under the common appellation of Harouti.) 6. Amber or Ja- 
poor, with its branches dependent and independent. 7. Jesselmér. 8. The In- 
dian desert to the valley of the Indus. 
The laborious research, in the course of which the data for the geography and 
history of the Rajast’han were accumulated, commenced in 1806, when the author 
was attached to the embassy sent,'at the close of the Mahratta wars, to the court 
ef Sindia. This chieftain’s army was then in Méwar, at that period almest a 
terra incognita, the position of whose two capitals, Oodipoor and Cheetore, in the 
the best existing maps, was precisely inversed ; that is, Cheetore was inserted 
S. HE. of Oodipoor, instead of E.N.E., a proof of the scanty knowledge possessed 
at that period. 
In other respects there was an almost total blank. In the maps prior to 1806, 
nearly all the western and central states of Rajast’han will be found wanting. It 
had been imagined but a little time before, that the rivers had a northerly course 
into the Nerbudda,—a notion corrected by the father of Indian geography, the 
distinguished Rennell. 
This blank our author filled up; and in 1815, for the first time, the geography 
of Rajast’han was pnt into combined form, and presented to the Marquis of Has- 
tings on the eve of a general war, when the labour of ten years was amply re- 
warded, by its becoming in part the foundation of that illustrious commander’s 
plans of the campaign. Every map, without exception, printed -since this pe- 
riod, has its foundatien, as regards central and western India, on the labours of 
the author. 
* Or regal (raj) dwelling (t’han.) 
+ It is rather singular that the Sinde river will mark the eastern boundary, 
as does the Indus (or g great Sinde) that to the west. East of this the Hindu 
princes are not of pure blood, and are excluded from Rajast’han. 
VOL. I. 2Z 
