The first ' Manual ' of this district was The Madura Country of Mr. J. H. Nelson, I.C.S., published at Madras in 1868.
The chief features of his work were its sections on the political and revenue history of the district ; and these have been freely utilized in the present volume. The early part of the former of them, however, has naturally been largely superseded by the discoveries due to the progress of epigraphy in recent years ; and limits of space have necessitated the ruthless condensation of much of Mr. Nelson's picturesque account of the Nayakkan dynasty in the latter part of the same section. Most of the rest of the book is new. It is arranged on the system followed in the other District Gazetteers of the new series now being brought out, and statistical matter appears in a separate Appendix which is to be revised decennially, after each census.

Under instructions, the volume does not deal with the Ramnad and Sivaganga zamindaris, which are to be transferred to another district, and treats the area which will be included in the proposed new Nilakkottai taluk as though this taluk were already in existence. The absence of statistics for this latter tract has, however, in some cases prevented the consistent carrying out of this method of referring to it.

Thanks to the various gentlemen, non-official and official, who have been kind enough to help with the undertaking have been rendered wherever possible in the body of the volume. The plan of the Madura temple at p. 267 and the early portions of the lists of Collectors and Judges on pp. SOS and 218 were prepared for the revised District Manual which was begun by Sir Harold Stuart.