Document

The notes are likely to have been written by an official writer for the East India Company based in India to assist them communicate effectively with local officials. It is one of over 100 documents, contained within a leather covered wooden casket, refering to Anglo-Indian financial and mercantile interaction in the late 18th century. The majority of the documents are written in Farsi (Persian), employing the adapted Arabic script but these notes are written in English and Deccani Hindustani with Carnatic translation. The official and private papers, in 5 rolls with additional papers, record often detailed accounts of the internal transactions of the Arakat (Arcot) State and its dealings with the British East India Company. It is likely the papers was returned to the UK on an Eastindiaman by a Company writer stationed in East India in the 1780s.

The papers reveal how the East India Company's sphere of influence extended from London through to the Indian subcontinent with allies such as Mohamed Ali Khan Walajan (1717-1795), the Nawab of Arakat (Arcot), who controlled important strategic trade routes in Southern India. Arcot, the capital of Carnatic is also associated with Clive of India who captured it in 1751.