https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Edgar_ThurstonEdgar Thurston - Revision history2026-07-31T04:38:52ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Edgar_Thurston&diff=129418&oldid=prev>Shyamal at 16:48, 28 June 20212021-06-28T16:48:03Z<p></p>
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{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| honorific-prefix =<br />
| name = Edgar Thurston<br />
| honorific-suffix = [[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]]<br />
| image = E_Thurston.jpg<br />
| office1 = Superintendent of the [[Government Museum, Chennai|Madras Government Museum]] and [[Connemara Public Library]]<br />
| term_start1 = 1885<br />
| term_end1 = 1908<ref>{{cite book |title=Autobiography of an Archive: A Scholar's Passage to India |first=Nicholas B. |last=Dirks |author-link=Nicholas B. Dirks |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-23153-851-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qp4vBgAAQBAJ&q=%22edgar%20thurston%22%20criticised&pg=PA72 |page=72}}</ref><br />
| predecessor1 =[[George Bidie]]<br />
| successor1 = [[John Robertson Henderson]]<br />
| birth_date = 1855<br />
| birth_place = <br />
| death_date = 1935<br />
| death_place = [[Penzance]], England<br />
| party = <br />
| religion = <br />
| alma_mater = [[King's College, London]]<br />
| profession = Museum superintendent, [[zoologist]], [[anthropologist]]<br />
| spouse = <br />
}}<br />
<br />
[[File:Castesandtribes.jpg|thumb|The title page of the first volume of ''[[Castes and Tribes of Southern India]]'' (1909).]]<br />
<br />
'''Edgar Thurston''' <small>[[Order of the Indian Empire|CIE]]</small> (1855– 12 October 1935) was a superintendent at the [[Government Museum, Chennai|Madras Government Museum]] who contributed to studies in the [[zoology]], [[ethnology]] and [[botany]] of India and published works related to his work at the museum. Thurston was educated in medicine and lectured in [[anatomy]] at the [[Madras Medical College]] while also holding his position at the museum. His early works were on [[numismatics]] and geology and these were followed by researches in [[anthropology]] and [[ethnography]]. He succeeded Frederick S. Mullaly as the superintendent of ethnography for the [[Madras Presidency]].<ref name=DanielPeck /><br />
<br />
==Early life==<br />
Edgar Thurston was the son of Charles Bosworth Thurston of [[Kew]], London. Schooled at [[Eton College]], he then studied medicine at [[King's College, London]], qualifying as [[Royal College of Physicians|LRCP]] in 1877. He worked as a medical officer in [[Oakwood Hospital|Kent County Lunatic Asylum]] and became a curator of the museum at King's College before joining the Madras Museum in 1885 as a superintendent.<ref name=cornishman>{{cite news|newspaper=Cornishman|date=17 October 1935|page=10|title=Noted botanist's death at Penzance| url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000331/19351017/104/0010| via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref><br />
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==Ethnography and geography==<br />
Whereas early European ideas on [[phrenology]] were applied to identify mental traits of individuals, advocates of [[scientific racism]] used what they considered to be more refined [[anthropometry|anthropometric]] measurements to identify [[Caste system in India|castes]]. Thurston was one such person. He believed that intelligence was inversely proportional to the breadth of the nose and claimed that he scrutinised this as well as handwriting when recruiting clerks in his office. He gave lectures to the students of the Madras University and sometimes to the Madras Police on practical anthropology during the 1890s, and he trained the Madras Police in the use of anthropometry for criminal identification. The [[Bertillon system]] had already been incorporated in the [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] and Madras Police departments by the 1890s and Thurston's training was intended to help the police identify membership of what were then termed as "[[Denotified Tribes|criminal castes]]".<ref name=DanielPeck>{{cite book |pages=281–286 |title=Culture/Contexture: Explorations in Anthropology and Literary Studies|editor1-last=Daniel |editor1-first=E. V. |editor2-last=Peck |editor2-first=J. M. |first=Nicholas B. |last=Dirks |author-link=Nicholas B. Dirks |chapter=Reading Culture: Anthropology and the Textualization of India |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |url=http://www.ucpress.edu/op.php?isbn=9780520084643}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |pages=163–167|title=Colonial Subjects: Essays on the Practical History of Anthropology |last1=Pels |first1=P. |first2=O. |last2=Salemink |year=2000 |publisher=University of Michigan Press}}</ref><br />
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In 1901, Thurston was appointed to the Ethnographic Survey of India project, established at that time following the success of [[Herbert Hope Risley]]'s Ethnographic Survey of Bengal.<ref name=Hindu20100124>{{cite news |title=Mosaic of communities |first=Raja Sekhar |last=Vundru |date=24 January 2010 |url=http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/01/24/stories/2010012450180400.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100131104818/http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/01/24/stories/2010012450180400.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 January 2010 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |access-date=9 November 2011}}</ref> Risley was an adherent to the theories of scientific racism and had been appointed as director of Ethnology in India. Thurston worked as a part of this project to collect accurate anthropometric measurements. These included a number of measurements of the skull and derived indices or proportions such as the [[nasal index]].<ref name=Bates1995p238>{{cite book |title=The Concept of Race in South Asia |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Delhi |year=1995 |editor-first=Peter |editor-last=Robb |first=Crispin |last=Bates |chapter=Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: the early origins of Indian anthropometry |isbn=978-0-19-563767-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwNkQgAACAAJ |pages=238–240 |access-date=2 December 2011}}</ref> He did this work alongside his role as superintendent of the Madras Museum, a position that he did not leave until 1908.<ref>{{cite book |first=Nicholas B. |last=Dirks |author-link=Nicholas Dirks |page=183 |title=Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-691-08895-0}}</ref><br />
<br />
Among other published works, Thurston wrote the seven volumes of ''[[Castes and Tribes of Southern India]]'', published in 1909 as part of the Ethnographic Survey of India. In that work he was assisted by [[K. Rangachari]], a colleague from the Madras museum who had also assisted him in a 1906 ethnographic study, ''Ethnographic Notes in Southern India''. Rangachari had supplied most of the forty photographs used in this earlier study.<ref name=Hindu20100124/> The September 1910 edition of ''[[Nature (magazine)|Nature]]'' described the 1909 publication as<br />
<br />
{{quote|a monumental record of the varied phases of south Indian tribal life, the traditions, manners and customs of people. Though in some respects it may be corrected or supplemented by future research it will long retain its value as an example of out-door investigation, and will remain a veritable mine of information, which will be of value.<ref name=Hindu20100124/>}}<br />
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Thurston also authored ''The Madras Presidency, with Mysore Coorg, and the associated States'', being the third volume of the four-volume series "[[Provincial Geographies of India]]" which was published between 1913–23 by the [[Cambridge University Press]] under the editorship of [[Thomas Henry Holland]] which included physical information and ethnographic notes.<ref name="Philip2003">{{cite book|author=Kavita Philip|title=Civilising Natures: Race, Resources and Modernity in Colonial South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CevmNs63nM0C&pg=PA149|year=2003|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-250-2586-3|pages=149}}</ref><br />
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==Botany and zoology==<br />
Thurston made numerous collections of plant and animals specimens, many of which were sent to the [[British Museum]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=W. L. |year=1891 |url=https://archive.org/details/returnbritishmus91brit |title=Statement of the progress made in the arrangement and description of the collections and an account of objects added to them in the year 1890 |publisher=British Museum, London |pages=[https://archive.org/details/returnbritishmus91brit/page/114 114], 115, 121}}</ref> In the late 1880s he was involved in studies on pearl fishing in the Gulf of Mannar. On a visit to Europe he sought to find electric lights that would work at a depth of 20 fathoms so as to assist in pearl harvesting.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000081/18881129/030/0007 |newspaper=Liverpool Mercury |date=29 November 1888 |page=7 |title=Science Notes |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]] |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Some species have been named after him, including the marine organisms ''[[Manaria thurstoni]]'' (E.A. Smith, 1906), ''[[Sepia thurstoni]]'' (W. Adam & W. J. Rees, 1966), ''[[Mobula thurstoni]]'' (Lloyd, 1908), and ''[[Ecteinascidia thurstoni]]'' (Herdman, 1890).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tmbl.gu.se/libdb/taxon/personetymol/petymol.tu.html |title=Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names: T and U |publisher=Tjärnö Marine Biological Laboratory |access-date=26 September 2012}}</ref> Also, a species of Indian snake, ''[[Gerrhopilus thurstoni]]'' ([[Oskar Boettger|Boettger]], 1890), is named in his honor.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Thurston", p. 265).</ref><br />
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{{botanist|E.Thurst.|inline=yes}}<br />
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==Museum and art==<br />
Aside from his role at the Madras Museum, Thurston was for some time Honorary Secretary to the now-defunct Fine Arts Society of Madras and was influential in promoting the artistic works of [[Raja Ravi Varma]] and his brother [[C. Raja Raja Varma]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850–1922: Occidental Orientations |first=Partha |last=Mitter |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-52144-354-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9mRTtkri8E0C&pg=PA69 |pages=69, 193, 208}}</ref><br />
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==Later life==<br />
Thurston was awarded the [[Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]], first class, on 26 June 1902.<ref name=IndiaList1905>{{cite book |title=The India List and Office List |publisher=India Office |year=1905 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3VQTAAAAYAAJ/page/n212 172] |access-date=11 November 2011}}</ref> He was made C.I.E. in 1909. He retired to England and spent his winters at [[Penzance]] where he studied the local plants and regularly hosted a New Year party for the local botanists. He died on 12 October 1935 at Penzance.<ref name=cornishman /><br />
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==Works==<br />
*{{cite book |title=Coins&nbsp;– Catalogue No. 1: Mysore |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1888 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Central Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/coinsindiamad00goveuoft |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Catalogue of the Batrachia, Salientia and Apoda (Frogs, Toads, and Coecilians) of Southern India |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1888 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/catalogueofbatra00thur |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Coins&nbsp;– Catalogue No. 3: Sultans of Dehlí |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1889 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Central Museum |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008432557 |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=History of the coinage of the territories of the East India company in the Indian peninsula and catalogue of the coins in the Madras museum |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |orig-year=1890 Madras: Government Central Museum |location=New Delhi |publisher=Asian Educational Services |edition=Reprinted |year=1992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJulW2GX4gkC |isbn=978-81-206-0720-0 |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Notes on the pearl and chank fisheries and marine fauna of the Gulf of Manaar |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1890 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Central Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/notesonpearlchan00thur |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Coins&nbsp;– Catalogue No. 2: Roman, Indo-Portuguese, and Ceylon |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1894 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Central Museum |edition=2nd |url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008432556 |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=Pearl and Chank Fisberies of the Gulf of Manaar |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1894 |journal=Bulletin |issue=1 |location=Madras |publisher=Madras Government Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/bulletin02indigoog |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=Anthropology of the Todas and Kotas of the Nilgiri Hills : and of the Bráhmans, Kammálans, Pallis, and Pariahs of Madras City |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1896 |journal=Bulletin |issue=4 |location=Madras |publisher=Madras Government Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/anthropologyofto00thur |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=Kadirs of Anaimarais&nbsp;– Malaialis of Shevaroys&nbsp;– The Dravidian Head&nbsp;– Dravidian Problem |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |journal=Bulletin |orig-year=1896 Madras: Government Central Museum |volume=2 |issue=3 |edition=Reprinted |location=New Delhi |publisher=Asian Educational Services |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uKLDRKsiOm4C |isbn=978-81-206-1859-6 |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book|title=Monograph on the silk fabric industry of the Madras presidency |last=Thurston| first=Edgar| year=1899| publisher=Government Press|place=Madras|url=https://archive.org/details/SilkIndustry}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=Anthropology: Notes on some of the people of Malabar&nbsp;— Mala Vedars of Travancore&nbsp;— Miscellenea |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1900 |journal=Bulletin |volume=3 |issue=1 |location=Madras |publisher=Madras Government Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/bulletin01indigoog |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
* {{cite book|last=Thurston|first=Edgar |year=1901|title=Monograph on the ivory carving industry of Southern India. |publisher=Government Press|place=Madras|url=https://archive.org/details/IvoryIndia}}<br />
*{{cite journal |title=Anthropology: Visions of the Uralis and Sholagars&nbsp;— More Marriage Customs in Southern India&nbsp;— Hook-Swinging&nbsp;— Paliyans |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1903 |journal=Bulletin |volume=5 |issue=1 |location=Madras |publisher=Madras Government Museum |url=https://archive.org/details/bulletin00indigoog |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Ethnographic Notes in Southern India |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1906 |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/ethnographicnot01edgagoog |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=I (A and B) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso01thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=II (C to J) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso02thuruoft |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=III (K) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso03thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=IV (K to M) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso04thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=V (M to P) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso05thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=VI (P to S) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso06thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Castes and Tribes of Southern India |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=K. |last2=Rangachari |year=1909 |volume=VII (T to Z) |location=Madras |publisher=Government Press |url=https://archive.org/details/castestribesofso07thuriala |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=Omens and Superstitions of Southern India |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1912 |location=New York |publisher=McBride, Nast & Company |url=https://archive.org/details/omenssuperstitio00thur |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=OMENS AND SUPERSTITIONS OF SOUTHERN INDIA ( New digital version) |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=2016 |location=Deverkovil |publisher=VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS |url=https://archive.org/details/OmensDIGITAL}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=The Madras Presidency, with Mysorg, Coorg and the Associated States |first=Edgar |last=Thurston |year=1913 |series=Provincial Geographies of India |editor-first=T. H. |editor-last=Holland |volume=3 |location=Cambridge |publisher=University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/provincialgeogra03holluoft |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
*{{cite book |title=A Supplement to F. Hamilton Davey's Flora of Cornwall |first1=Edgar |last1=Thurston |first2=Chambré C. |last2=Vigurs |year=1922 |location=Truro |publisher=Royal Institution of Cornwall |url=https://archive.org/details/supplementtofham00thurrich |access-date=8 November 2011}}<br />
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==See also==<br />
*[[Robert Vane Russell]]<br />
<br />
==Notes==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite book |title=Rise of Anthropology in India: A Social Science Orientation: A Social Science Orientation |volume=1 |first=Lalita Prasad |last=Vidyarthi |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=1978 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c3TqmBoQnf4C}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Thurston,+Edgar | name=Edgar Thurston}}<br />
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edgar Thurston |sopt=t}}<br />
* {{Librivox author |id=2873}}<br />
* {{OL author}}<br />
* [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Edgar+Thurston%22&sa=X&ei=w5UETvaYDYePswbv2KWmDA&ved=0CDUQ9Ag&biw=1280&bih=614 Works on Google Books]<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thurston, Edgar}}<br />
[[Category:1855 births]]<br />
[[Category:1935 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:British Indologists]]<br />
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]<br />
[[Category:British male writers]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]<br />
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]</div>>Shyamal