March II 2021 Catalogue

B a u m a n R a r e B o o k s F a i t h 2 0 2 1 70 First Edition Of Thurston’s Castes And Tribes Of Southern India , Illustrated With 176 Photographic Plates 71. (INDIA) THURSTON, Edgar and RANGACHARI, Kadambi. Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Madras, 1909. Seven volumes. Thick octavo, original gilt-stamped pictorial green cloth. $1650. Click for More Info First edition of Thurston’s ethnographic account of the population in the Madras Presidency with important information about religious customs, generously illustrated with 176 photographic plates, in original cloth. As part of the Indian government’s 1901 ethnographic survey, Thurston, superintendent of the Madras Central Museum, “compiled seven volumes on the castes and tribes of the south India in alphabetical sequence, covering a brief history of their origin, customs, religious practices and occupation, and classed them within particular groups” (Bhukya, 104-105). Although his racial science has been rightly discredited, Thurston’s work remains valuable as a record of diversity—particularly religious—in Colonial India and the folkways, some now long- vanished, of its people. With 176 black-and-white photographic plates. Small bookseller tickets. Inner hinges expertly reinforced, just a few plates expertly reattached, texts lightly embrowned, scattered light foxing, original cloth lightly rubbed with mild spotting, several spines lightly toned, gilt bright. A very good set.