Colonel Philip Meadows Taylor, (25 September 1808 in Liverpool, England; 13 May 1876 in Menton, France), 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.
At the age of 15, Taylor was sent out to India to become a clerk to a Bombay merchant, Mr Baxter and then, he was speedily transferred from military duty to a civil appointment, and in this capacity acquired a proficient knowledge of the languages and the people of southern India.
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).
Philip Taylor
