I picked this gem up – a (rather poorly ocr’d in parts) copy of John Bradshaw’s Sir Thomas Munro and the British settlement of the Madras presidency.
The man introduced a whole lot of what has now become the IAS .. plus got himself almost god like status (with legends that he was descended from Mandavya Rishi, that Raghavendra Swamy appeared to him and convinced him to exempt the Mantralaya mutt from Tax + gave him "mantrakshadai", that just before his death, he saw the "bangaru thorana", an arch of golden flowers that Vayu is supposed to have strung between two cliffs at Gandi near Cudappah, AP, to welcome Rama on his way back from Lanka .. and extraordinarily pure souls are supposedly able to see the thorana just before they die). Then there's a whole lot of stuff about the anglo mysore wars, polygar wars, wars against the Marathas, etc etc - plus a lot of things that, on a "if the hare hadn't stopped to get a nap, it'd have outrun the tortoise" basis, would mean that if more senior british administrators were like him, India'd probably end up still being a british colony without the frictions that led to the independence struggle). http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-British-settlement-presidency-ebook/dp/B002LLN45Y/
