Francis Buchanan-Hamilton

Dr Francis Buchanan FRS FRSE FLS FAS FSA DL (15 February 1762 – 15 June 1829), later known as Francis Hamilton but often referred to as Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist while living in India. He did not assume the name of Hamilton until three years after his retirement from India.

Quotes

• “Unfortunately, if these temples ever existed, not the smallest trace of their remains to judge of the period when they were built; and the destruction is very generally attributed by the Hindus to the furious zeal of Aurangzabe, to whom also is imputed the overthrow of the temples in Benarase and Mathura. What may have been the case in the two latter, I shall not now take up on myself to say, but with respect to Ayodhya the tradition seems very ill-founded. The bigot by whom the temples were destroyed, is said to have erected mosques on the situations of the most remarkable temples, but the mosque at Ayodhya, which is by far the most entire, and which has every appearance of being the most modern, is ascertained by an inscription on its walls to have been built by Babur, 5 generations before Aurangzabe.” (Buchanan’s original report, pp. 116-17)
  • Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

• “...from its name, Ramgar, I am inclined to support that it was a part of the building actually erected by Rama.”
  • Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 11

• I remained at Calicut... The proper name of the place is Colicodu... Tippoo destroyed the town, and removed its inhabitants to Nelluru, the name of which he changed to Furruck-abad ; for, like all the Mussulmans of India, he was a mighty changer of old Pagan names.
  • "A Journey From Madras Through The Countries Of Mysore, Canara, And Malabar Vol. 2" also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.

• During his extensive travels of South India, Francis Buchanan met one Mr Brown who was the Danish Resident in the French colony in Mahe. Brown gave him an exhaustive interview of the state of Malabar and its people, their customs and traditions and also their conditions before and during the rule of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan. He reveals to Buchanan: During the government of his father, the Hindus continued unmolested in the exercise of their religion; the customs and observances of which, in many essential points supply the place of laws . . . Tippoo, on the contrary, early undertook to render Islamism the sole religion of Malabar. In this cruel and impolite undertaking, he was warmly seconded by the Moplays [Mapillahs], men possessed of a strong zeal, and of a large share of that spirit of violence and depredation which appears to have invariably been an ingredient in the character of the professors of their religion, in every part of the world where it has spread. All the confidence of the Sultan was bestowed on Moplays, and in every place they became the officers and instruments of government. The Hindus were everywhere persecuted and plundered of their riches, of their women, and of their children. All such as could flee to other countries did so; those who could not escape took refuge in the forests, from where they waged a constant predatory war against their oppressors . . . the ancient government of this country was at last completely destroyed, and anarchy was introduced . . . During this period of total anarchy the number of Moplays was greatly increased, multitude of Hindus were circumcised by force, and many of the lower orders were converted . . . the population of the Hindus reduced to a very inconsiderable number.
  • Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• The only other passage from the private square was into the zenana, or women’s apartments. This has remained perfectly inviolate under the usual guard of eunuchs, and contains about six hundred women, belonging to the Sultan and his late father. A great part of these are slaves, or attendants on the ladies; but they are kept in equally strict confinement with their mistresses. The ladies of the Sultan are about eighty in number. Many of them are from Hindustan Proper, and many are daughters of Brahmans or Hindu Princes, taken by force from their parents. They have all been shut up in the zenana when they were young; and have been carefully brought up to a zealous belief in the religion of Mahomet. I have sufficient reason to think that none of them are desirous of leaving their confinement; being wholly ignorant of any other manner of living, and having no acquaintance whatever beyond the walls of their prison.
  • Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

Quotes about Francis Buchanan-Hamilton

• Buchanan opines that Babar had built the mosque not on empty land, but on the site of the Ramkot “castle”, which to him may well have been the very castle in which Rama himself had lived. This claim only differs from the local tradition and the VHP position by being even bolder. According to him, the black-stone pillars (with Hindu sculptures defaced by “the bigot” Babar) incorporated in the Masjid had been “taken from the ruins of the palace”, and at any rate from “a Hindu building”. Obviously, the site was considered by the devotees as Rama’s court, originally a castle and only later a temple.
  • Elst, Koenraad (2002). Ayodhya: The case against the temple.

• “Buchanan soon developed a reputation as an irritant to the orientalist establishment, which was (in Vicziany’s words) “inclined towards a Brahmanical interpretation of Indian society.” By publishing an essay on Burmese Buddhism, Buchanan juxtaposed “the egalitarianism of Buddhism against the oppressive, hierarchical nature of Brahmanism. Buchanan’s hatred of the entrenched Brahmin class in India, together with his critical reading of the religious scriptures, marked him out as a man ideally equipped to act as the Company’s reporter on native affairs’.”(Appendix 1, p. 15)
  • William R. Pinch in his book ‘Peasants and Monks in British India’. quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.