Indian fish taxonomy has a long history, which started with Kautilya’s Arthasastra describing
fish as a source for consumption as early as 300 B.C and the epic on the second pillar of
Emperor Ashoka describing the prohibition of consumption of fish during a certain lunar
period which can be interpreted as a conservation point of view. Modern scientific studies
on Indian fishes could be traced to the initial works done by Linnaeus in 1758. M. E. Bloch
is one of the pioneers in the field of fish taxonomy along with the naturalists, zoologists
and botanists who laid the foundation for fisheries research in India such as Bloch and
Schneider (1795-1801) and Lacepède (1798-1803). Russell who worked on 200 fishes off
Vizagapatanam during 1803. Hamilton (1822) described 71 estuarine fishes of India in
his work An Account of Fishes Found in the River Ganges and Its Branches. The mid 1800s
contributed much in the history of Indian fish taxonomy since the time of the expeditions
was going through. Cuvier and Valenciennes described 70 nominal species off Puducherry,
Skyes, Gunther and The Fishes of India by Francis Day and another book Fauna of British
India Series in two volumes describing 1,418 species are the two most indispensable works
on Indian fish taxonomy to date
