PREFACE.

IN 1867 a Gazetteer was published for these Provinces with the following remarks from Sir R. Temple, the then Chief Commissioner :-

"It has long seemed to the Chief Commissioner that a Gazetteer is needed for the Central Provinces. None will dispute that for the good management of districts local knowledge is necessary. The more detailed and intimate such knowledge is, the better. This remark, however general may be its application, is particularly applicable to provinces like these, where the areas are widespread; where the tribes and circumstances are diverse; where the component parts are separated from each other by mountain barriers or other physical obstacles; where information is often difficult of acquisition by reason of the remoteness of localities; and where the annals of the country, though to some extent existing, are for the most part inaccessible to the majority of our countrymen.

"When such knowledge is merely acquired by individuals, it is apt to be of a fugitive character, owing to those frequent changes which are inevitable in Indian administration. It constantly happens that when an officer has, by travelling about, and by communicating with the people, learnt very much regarding his district, he is obliged by ill health, or by the requirements of the service, or by other reasons, to leave, and then he carries all his knowledge away with him, his successor having to study everything ab initio.

"Thus it becomes of importance that the multiform facts of local interest and value should be recorded by all who have the

means of knowing them; and that such record should be embodied in an abiding shape, patent to, and within the reach of all, so that everyone who is concerned to ascertain these things may have the ordinary resources of information ready to hand.

"Therefore it was in 1864 resolved to collect materials for a Gazetteer. With this view all officers serving in these Provinces were furnished with a sketch of the information required. In due course every officer transmitted the data for his district. Advantage was also taken of the Settlement Department being in operation to obtain therefrom all the facts bearing on the subjects in question. Thus in the course of two years a mass of information in manuscript was accumulated.

"The work thus brought out, though probably as complete as it can be made at the present time, is yet avowedly imperfect, and is in some respects only preliminary. The information generally may from year to year be supplemented by further details, and on numerous points will doubtless be found susceptible of emendation. The statistics especially will constantly be open to enlargement and rectification. Still a broad foundation for future superstructure has at least been raised.”

The impression of the earlier numbers was soon exhausted, and it became a question whether they should be reprinted. On revision of the sheets, however, so many inaccuracies-unavoidable perhaps in a first attempt of the kind-were discovered, that I undertook to prepare a new edition. I am glad to have this opportunity of cordially thanking Captain Forsyth, Deputy Commissioner of N i már, Dr. Townsend, Sanitary Commissioner, Lieutenant Bradshaw of the Police, Mr. Barclay and Mr. Vásudeva Ballál Khér of the Chief Commissioner's Office, and most of all Mr. J. Neill, Assistant Secretary, for the assistance which they have kindly rendered me, and also of recording my grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Morris, Officiating Chief Commissioner, for a degree of interest shown in the undertaking, and of consideration to myself during its progress, without which it would have been difficult to carry through a laborious task under the pressure of regular daily duties.