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first edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India was published in nine volumes in 1881. A second edition, augmented to fourteen volumes, was issued in the years 1885–7. A revised form of the article on India, greatly enlarged and with statistics brought up to date, appeared as an independent volume in 1893, under the title of 'The Indian Empire: Its Peoples, History, and Products'. All of these were edited by the late Sir William Wilson Hunter, K.C.S.I., who formed the original plan of the work as far back as 1869, when he was first entrusted with the duty of organizing a statistical survey of the country, and who wrote most of 'The Indian Empire' in its final form with his own hand. His untimely death in 1900 has deprived the present edition of the advantages of his ripe experience and literary skill.

The second edition having for some time passed out of print, it was resolved by the Government of India that a new edition should be prepared in connexion with the Census of 1901. The changes, however, that have been introduced, both in the general scheme and in the methods of compilation, may justify its being considered as a new work rather than a new edition. The bulk will be raised from fourteen to twenty-six volumes, including a companion Atlas; and the single volume of The Indian Empire has been expanded into four volumes, including a four volumes, entitled respectively 'Descriptive,' 'Historical,' 'Economic,' and 'Administrative.' Moreover, while the main work will be arranged as before in alphabetical order, it is intended to issue in India, for official and local use, a parallel series, in which the several articles relating to each Province or large group of States will be collected together in