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Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, from the Year MDCCXLV to which is Prefixed a Dissertation on the Establishments Made by Mahomedan Conquerors in Indostan, London: Printed for F. Wingrave, 1803, Fourth Edition, revised by the author

Two volumes bound in three
Volume I: xcvi + 436 pp., including 8 folding maps
Volume II: 365 pp., including 10 folding maps and 2 panoramic views
Volume III: 374 pp., including 12 folding maps and 1 view
Uniformly bound in contemporary speckled calf, smooth spines gilt in compartments with central floral tools, twin morocco lettering-pieces in red and black titled “ORME’S INDOSTAN” and volume numbers; board edges with blind tooling (each)
11.4 x 8.8 in (28.6 x 22.2 cm) (each)
[Together with:]
Robert Orme, Historical fragments of the Mogul empire, of the Morattoes, and of the English concerns in Indostan from the year MDCLIX; origin of the company's trade at Broach and Surat, and a general idea of the government and people of Indostan; to which is prefixed an account of the life and writings of the author, London: F. Wingrave, successor to Mr Nourse, in the Strand, 1805

pp. [2], lxviii, 471 pp, 31 index pages, folding engraved map of the Carnatic and Coromandel Coast; contemporary full mottled calf covers with gilt fillet borders, a spine in six compartments with raised bands, richly tooled in gilt with floral devices, twin morocco title ticket pieces (one in red, one in green), marbled endpapers, and all edges marbled.
10.75 x 9 in (27.5 x 23 cm)

ROBERT ORME’S INDOSTAN: A COLONIAL ARCHIVE OF CONQUEST, CARTOGRAPHY AND EMPIRE

A foundational pair of 18th-century colonial historiographies authored by Robert Orme, the first official historiographer of the East India Company. These volumes represent a sustained attempt to chart, in both strategic and philosophical terms, the British military and political consolidation in India, grounded in Orme's own experience and extensive documentation gathered over nearly three decades of Company service.

The revised fourth edition of A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, issued in 1803, is presented here in two volumes bound in three, complete with 30 finely engraved folding maps and plans. Volume I opens with an extensive dissertation on the foundations of Mughal governance in India, placing British administrative ambitions in historical dialogue with Turko-Persian imperial structures. Volumes II and III continue the chronological military narrative, emphasising the Company’s engagements in the Carnatic and Bengal during the mid-18th century. The inclusion of siege diagrams, campaign routes, fort elevations, and panoramic battlefield views renders this not merely a historical account but also a visual strategic archive.

Orme’s meticulous cartographic programme, drawn from military surveys and correspondence, anticipates the later surveying ambition of the Great Trigonometrical Survey and gives critical insight into early colonial spatial knowledge systems. As Marshall has argued, Orme’s historiography is as much about military action as it is about the justification of Company rule through the rhetoric of order, rational governance, and providential conquest.

Paired with this is the 1805 edition of Orme’s Historical Fragments, issued posthumously. Envisioned as a supplement to the Military Transactions, this work delves into a broader historiographical canvas. It expands beyond Anglo-French rivalry to address the internal fragmentation of Mughal sovereignty, the rise of the Maratha confederacy, and the early mercantile operations at Broach and Surat. A long prefatory memoir on Orme’s life and methodology adds rare autobiographical and intellectual insight.

Together, these volumes constitute the most authoritative early English-language military-political chronicle of British ascendancy in India before James Mill and Mountstuart Elphinstone. They also document a transitional moment—published in the wake of Wellesley’s military assertiveness in the Deccan (1803) and at a time when the East India Company had just become the de facto sovereign power across most of India.

Orme’s style blends Enlightenment historiography with classical rhetorical flourishes. His reliance on both Persian and vernacular sources, as well as Company dispatches, foreshadows the hybrid methodologies of later colonial ethnographers and historians. These works served as essential reference points for British officers, administrators, and scholars alike through the 19th century.

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