While in India Elliot maintained a diary with notes on a range of subjects. He also wrote to the journals of scholarly societies. In 1859 he published "Flora Andhrica, or plants of the Northern Circars" which included the names of plants in Telugu and English. In 1840 he wrote on the 'cromlechs and cairns' in the Nilgiri hills. In 1845 he excavated and collected the Amaravati Marbles which were at one time called the "Elliot Marbles" and were exhibited in Madras. These marbles eventually went to the British Museum. Elliot studied ancient inscriptions, beliefs and cultures. He was a keen numismatist and collector of coins and his main work on the topic was published in 1885, at a time when unable to see, he had to feel the coins to describe them and have written by a scribe for his "Coins of Southern India".