James Tod

James Tod went to India as a cadet in the Bengal army of the British East India Company in 1799. He commanded the escort attached to the Resident at Sindhia from 1812 to 1817. In the latter year he was in charge of the Intelligence Department which largely contributed to the break up of the Maratha Confederacy in the Third Anglo- Maratha War, and was of great assistance in the campaign in Rajputana. In 1818 he was appointed political agent for the states of western Rajputana, where he successfully acted as an arbitrator between rival chieftains, settling their feuds. While Resident in Rajputana, Tod collected materials for his Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, a work of great importance for South Asian scholars. Tod presents the contemporary geography and a detailed history of Rajputana along with the history of the Rajput clans who ruled most of the area at that time. Tod's work drew on local archives, Rajput traditional sources, and monuments such as the Edicts of Asoka found at Junagadh. He returned to England in 1823 with a wealth of material for what became a fundamental study of Rajasthan's historical development. University of London Library