Colin Mackenzie arrived in India in 1783 and was employed as a surveyor in the Madras Presidency. From the 1780s till 1814, he travelled extensively, conducting military surveys, and accumulating the drawings, maps and manuscripts that now make up the Mackenzie Collection. In 1815, he became the first surveyor general of India. Mackenzie had a group of Calcutta-based assistants — natives as well as Europeans — who collated and copied his collections. In ILLUSTRATING INDIA: THE EARLY COLONIAL INVESTIGATIONS OF COLIN MACKENZIE (1784-1821) (Oxford, Rs 2,750), Jennifer Howes resurrects this fascinating archive containing a wealth of information on pre-colonial and early colonial India. Left is an oil painting of Mackenzie with three Indian pandits by Thomas Hickey (c. 1816). Top shows actors performing a scene from the Ramayan. Bottom left is a bard from the Chhatri caste in Kattekoppa, while right is a watercolour by Bhavani Baksh of the Vishnupada Temple in Gaya.