Description

About the Book:-Though India has certainly been visited by a greater number of intelligent Englishmen than any other foreign country, and has been the subject of innumerable publications, it is remarkable that there is no work in our language containing such a popular and comprehensive view of its scenery and monuments, and of the manners and habits of its natives and resident colonists, as we are commonly furnished with by travellers in countries incomparably less deserving of notice. In 1808 the author travelled to India with her two siblings and father, a naval officer who had been posted to Bombay. She visited Madras (Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as well as the ancient city of Maliaballipooram and the temples at Elephanta, Carli, and Canary. She kept a diary of her two-year stay, documenting, as she put it, the country’s ‘scenery and monuments’ and the ‘manners and habits of its natives and resident colonists’. This was published in 1812 and contains more studied descriptions of the Hindu religion and culture, which continued to interest Maria throughout her life. It contains 15 plates to make it more compact and interesting.