Colonel Philip Meadows Taylor (25 September 1808 – 13 May 1876), an administrator in British India and a novelist, made notable contributions to public knowledge of South India. Though largely self-taught, he was a polymath, working alternately as a judge, engineer, artist, and man of letters.

Life and writings

Taylor was born in Liverpool, England, where his father, Philip Meadows Taylor, was a merchant. His mother was Jane Honoria Alicia, daughter of Bertram Mitford of Mitford Castle, Northumberland.

At the age of 15, Taylor was sent out to India to become a clerk to a Bombay merchant, Mr Baxter. See more at South Asian Stone Age. He was alternately judge, engineer, artist, and a man of letters.

thumb|left|Pen and ink sketch of [[Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple by Taylor, c. 1834]]

While on furlough in England in 1840, he published the first of his Indian novels, Confessions of a Thug, in which he reproduced the scenes which he had heard about the Thuggee cult, described by the chief actors in them. This book was followed by a series of tales, Tippoo Sultaun (1840), Tara (1863), Ralph Darnell (1865), Seeta (1872), and A Noble Queen (1878), all illustrating periods in Indian history and society and giving prominence to the native character, institutions and traditions, for which he had great regard. Seeta in particular was remarkable for a sympathetic, romantic portrayal of the marriage between a British civil servant and a Hindu widow just before the Indian Mutiny. Taylor himself is thought to have married in about 1830, although his autobiography states 1840, Returning to India he acted, from 1840 to 1853 as a correspondent for The Times and wrote a Student's Manual of the History of India (1870).

About 1850, Meadows Taylor was appointed by the Nizam's government to administer, during a long minority, the principality of the young Raja Venkatappa Nayaka. He succeeded without European assistance in raising this small territory to a high degree of prosperity. Such was his influence with the natives that during the Indian Mutiny in 1857, he held his ground without military support.

Colonel Taylor, whose merits were recognized and acknowledged by then by the British government of India – although he had never been in the service of the Company – was subsequently appointed Deputy Commissioner of the western "Ceded Districts". He succeeded in establishing a new assessment of revenues that was more equitable to cultivators and more productive to the government. By perseverance he had risen from the condition of a half-educated youth without patronage, and without even the support of the Company, to the successful government of some of the most important provinces of India, in extent with a population of over five million.

He received an Order of the Star of India on his retirement from service in 1860 and was given a pension.

Tributes

Richard Garnett commented, "His Confessions of a Thug is a classic adventure novel, which inspired the young of several imperial generations and was much imitated by other colonial fiction writers for over a century."

Arms

References

  • Philip Meadows Taylor. The story of my life, by M. Taylor. Ed. by his daughter (A.M. Taylor). Oxford University, 1882
  • Philip Meadows Taylor. Confessions of a Thug. Oxford University Press, 1839
  • Philip Meadows Taylor. Tippoo Sultaun; a tale of the Mysore war C K Paul, 1880
  • David Finkelstein Philip Meadows Taylor – Victorian Fiction Research Guide