Prof R Nath

India As Seen by William Finch (1608-11 A.D) Prof R Nath

Observations of foreign travellers who visited India comtemporarily constitute a veritable source of Medieval Indian History and Culture. Great effort was invested, in England, to make these accounts available, through several learned editions, to the Englishmen who, of course, wanted to KNOW the country and its people, in order to GOVERN them. Sadly, we have yet to utilise the extremely valuable historical data contained in them. This is an attempt, the first of its kind, to present William Finch, one of the three most important travellers of the reign of Jehangir (two others being William Hawkins, 1608-13 and Thomas Roe, 1615-19), in a simple and readable form with appropriate and necessary chapter-heads and sub-heads, newly inserted, and an Introduction which gives an adequate appraisal of this source, as also of this account. References to Introduction contain a workable Bibliography to medieval travellers' accounts down to Shah Jehan, again in a way which would be most comprehensible and useful to the readers.