Delhi and Its Environs Before 1857: The Account of Ramji Das, Sarishtadar

Delhi and Its Environs Before 1857: The Account of Ramji Das, Sarishtadar provides a rare description of the city-the alam mein intikhab-where even Lord Indra chose to alight, and this work commands a distinctive place amongst the Persian and Urdu works recorded between the mid-eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Can history be written through structures? Yes! thought Ramji Das, the newly retired deputy sarishtadar, a great admirer of Saiyid Ahmad Khan and his work, who engaged in a dialogue with the past through the material edifices of Delhi and its neighbourhood. In other words, Ramji Das could not just adhere to the prevalent nineteenth-century ecumene by carrying out a survey of structures, but went beyond this to discuss popular cultures, the administrative divisions and the revenue jurisdiction of Delhi. His account included a knowledgeable scrutiny of water bodies and dams that also defined the undulating topography of the city's geographical regions, the fiscal tight-fistedness of the department of the Collectorate headed by English officials and made a note of some unregistered places of interest. In this annotated translation of the text, Shama Mitra Chenoy brings forth a work about the way Delhi once was.