14109.bb.24

Imprint: Allahabad: North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press. 1880.

Octavo, original brown cloth binding, measuring 248 x 163 mmm, with title and decorative work stamped in blind in English on upper board and in Urdu on lower board; edges gilt; with two metal clasps (broken); pp. 102, 86, and 109 pp. Urdu text at end of volume. The text, which supplies biographical details of the taluqdars (hereditary estate owners) featured in the work, is followed by a full-page portrait of Sir George Couper and then 342 carte-de-visite size prints, mounted on card leaves four to a page (recto and verso). Identifying letterpress identifications are printed beneath each portrait, with names in Urdu on the photograph itself. For various reasons, no portrait was available for 83 of the subjects, and in these cases a print stating the reason for their absence is inserted: 'Pardanashin,' ie female sitters who would not have been permitted by Islamic law to have their photograph taken (38 prints); 'unavoidably absent' (35 prints); 'deceased prior to the commencement of this work' (3 prints); 'sold' (6 prints); 'auctioned' (1 print). The last two categories refer to the disposal of the estates rather the photographs. The numbering of the photographs is inconsistent: where the a number of sitters are joint-holders of estates, the same print number has been assigned to several photographs (these have been differentiated by alphabetical suffixes in the present listing); and the last 13 prints (assigned 263-275 in this listing) are unnumbered.The purpose and organisation of the work are outlined in the preface: 'The compiler of these Memoirs had a twofold object in his undertaking. First, it was his wish to collect all interesting details regarding the ancestral and present history of each individual taaluqdar in Oudh; and, secondly, to trace and chronicle the several circumstances of the past which have led to the existing prosperity of the province, and which have gradually secured for the taaluqdars themselves the high influential position which they now hold in the country. For this purpose he found it necessary to divide the work into two parts — the one, general, bearing on the history of Oudh, and the other, personal, on that of its baronial proprietors. It was not possible to gather anything like a continuous history of the province from the family records of individual taaluqdars. The circumstances attending the individual advancement of each to his present position vary in nearly every instance. A large number of them (or rather their ancestors) came from other parts of India, and many of them have acquired their possessions by purchase, or by adoption, or more recently as a reward for services rendered during the Mutiny. As a whole, the present aristocracy of Oudh cannot be said to have come in lineal descent from chiefs and nobles who held any prominent place in the early annals of the country. On this account it has been deemed advisable to keep the 'Province' distinct from its 'Land-owners,' and to give a succinct account of both in separate parts of this volume.' Reference is also made to the reason for including photographs in the work: 'It is as well, in passing, to say a few words regarding the photographic portraits attached to this work. A likeness of every taaluqdar in the province has been secured at a great expenditure of time, labour and money, and photographs have been given in preference to any other kind of picture as giving more correct portraiture. The compiler has introduced these additional attractions, first, because he thinks that the friends and relations of the subjects of the Memoirs will prize them; and, secondly, because it may be gratifying to posterity to have by them correct representations of the faces and forms of those to whom they are indebted for their wealth and position. There is no doubt, too, that portraits of this nature are not only gratifying, but also give those who come after very good ideas for forming an estimate of the character of those who have gone before...'Another copy at APAC Photo 987.