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First and only edition of an essay that integrates a sketch of the "origin and progress of Boodhism" with an impassioned plea for the government of India to deploy "proper persons to copy the painted caves of Ajunta" before they are further damaged by environmental conditions. A pioneering work in the movement to understand and preserve India's archaeological heritage. The Ajanta caves of Maharashtra, India, date from the second century BCE and comprise of the monasteries and worship-halls of various Buddhist traditions carved directly into rock. The 'discovery' of these structures by the British Army in 1819, and the desire to preserve them, led the Royal Asiatic Society to establish the Bombay Cave Temple Commission in 1848 to record and maintain the rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. The author Thomas Latter (1816-1853) was born in India the son of Major Barré Latter "who distinguished himself in the Anglo-Nepalese War" (ODNB). Thomas was commissioned ensign in the 67th Bengal Native Infantry, stationed in Arakan, Burma - now Rakhiner, Myanmar - in 1836, promoted lieutenant in 1840. He applied himself to the study of the Burmese language and in 1845 published what is recognized as the first scholarly treatise on the subject. His linguistic skills earned him the post of interpreter in negotiations following on the breaches of the treaty of Yandabo, and with Sir Henry Thomas Godwin, commander in the ensuing Second Anglo-Burmese War. Latter led the storming party against the eastern entrance of the Shwedagon pagoda at Rangoon (Yangon), and took part in the capture of Pegu in June 1852. He was appointed resident deputy commissioner at Prome (Pyay), the focus of anti-colonial activity, where "the vigilance and determination which Latter exhibited in repressing disaffection during the following year made him specially hated by the Burmese court, and at two o'clock on the morning of 8 December 1853 he was murdered in his bed". The recipient of Latter's address was Dr. Frederick J. Mouat (1816-97), educated at University College London and Edinburgh, he served with the Indian Medical Service, became professor of chemistry and materia medica at the Bengal Medical College. Mouat was a leading figure in the field of education in India, member of numerous learned societies and the founder of the Bethune Society, a non-theocratic and non-political institution established to promote "the spirit of inquiry and knowledge among the Bengalis on the one hand, and establish racial harmony between the Europeans and the natives on the other" (Puronokolkata website). Genuinely scarce, British Library only on Library Hub, WorldCat adds copies in Berlin, Hamburg, the Royal Danish Library, and Warsaw. Octavo, pp. 21. Stitched as issued in buff light card wrappers. Wrappers lightly rubbed and soiled, a few minor chips and splits, internally pale toning, but overall clean and sound, a very good copy.
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