Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: The Origins of Modern Historiography in India -- 1. Conquest and History: The Making of Colonial Archives -- 2. Colin Mackenzie and the Search for History -- 3. The Kavali Brothers: Native Intellectuals in Early Colonial Madras -- 4. Colin Mackenzie's Archival Project and the Telugu Historical Record -- 5. "Colonial Philology and the Progressive History of Telugu -- Conclusion.

"Intellectual encounters abound in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century India, comprising surveyors, collectors, antiquarians, philologists and their Indian assistants. The Origins of Modern Historiography in India uncovers everyday practices surrounding acts of collecting, surveying, and antiquarianism in the early period of British colonial rule in India. The new historical method construed by antiquarians, philologists, and their assistants profoundly shaped access and perception of the Indian past. By examining early imperial strategies of producing historical knowledge, this book traces the colonial conditions of the production of "sources," the forging of a new historical method, and the ascendance of positivist historiography in nineteenth-century India"-- Provided by publisher.