197 YEAR OLD MANUSCRIPT

Recently one of my friends gave me a xeroxed copy pages in a binding form to read it and translate the matter in to Telugu.For some days,I did not open it due to my busy personal works.By impulse,a couple of days back,I wanted to read and understand key points of the manuscript.

Really,I surprised at the beginning of  its very first reading.Because this manuscript was written by a British Officer named Captain Glasford,about 197 years back.In fact,this is a memorandum on the settlement report of the upper Godavary district.Captain Glasford described,in nutshell,about almost every important feature of the area besides  proprietary ownership of the land among the land lords.

Right now,upper godavary district is scattered in to pieces ,some are in chanda area of Maharashtra,some places adjoined in East Godavary and Khammam etc., districts according to present needs of administration.

The entire era stood in front of me regarding our area.I felt,my God,what changes have takan place in all these years..!Captain Glasford described the physical nature of the land Taluk wise,not only that,the details of rivers,its movements,people's data with caste,revenue assessments etc., given vividly.Every topic is a paragraph.I felt great information about colonial administration.

I always have a gratitude towards these British people for the rapid changes they made in the matters of  social stigmas and women education through  their inborn persistence and practical nature  about things.We must agree that we have learnt the art of preservation the ancient witnesses from them.As far as my knowledge concerned,Lord Curzon was the man who started the first  museum in India.