Mountstuart Elphinstone and the Making of South-Western India

Materials for the life of Mountstuart Elphinstone are abundant. In 1861, two years after his death, Sir T.E. Colebrooke, Bart., who had known him intimately during his later years, contributed an obituary of exceptional length and authority to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Old Series, xxviii, 221 sq.). The whole of his voluminous papers – journals, letters, dispatches, and minutes – were afterwards entrusted to Sir T.E. Colebrooke, for the purpose of writing a formal biography, which was published in 1884, in two volumes, illustrated with portraits and maps. These form the basis of the present sketch; and from them all the quotations, unless otherwise specified, have been taken. In the same year (1884) appeared a volume of “Selections from the Minutes and other Official Writings of Mountstuart Elphinstone,” edited by Prof. George W. Forrest, with an introductory memoir. Much use also has been made of this volume, though the dates of the documents given in it often require to be corrected from other sources. Finally, Sir J.W. Kaye’s Memoir, in his “Lives of Indian Officers” (new edition, 1890), contains some information, both personal and documentary, not to be found elsewhere. The engraving that forms the frontispiece has been kindly lent by Mr. John Murray.