More than two centuries ago, British geographer James Rennell printed a map showing the course of the Ganges River from Haridwar to the Bay of Bengal. Rennell, who worked for the East India Company, set out from what was then Calcutta to find a waterway to northern India. His 1786 map, which features a cartouche of a native man bowing before the British Imperial Crown, greatly benefited the East India Company's trade along the newly discovered route and, later, the colonization of India.
The map by Major Rennell, who served as the East India Company's Surveyor General of Bengal in the late 18th century, is part of a new exhibition charting the turbulent course of the Indian subcontinent over four centuries. The exhibition, “The Story of Cartography: India Through Maps,” which opened at the Ojas Museum near the capital's Qutub Minar on August 2 and will run until September 22, stitches together key periods in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
Commemorating the 78th anniversary of Indian Independence, the exhibition features 78 maps by renowned cartographer-publishers of the time, including Rennell, his compatriot John Tallis, Pierre Mortier, Rigobert Bonne and Pierre M. Lapy of France and Matthaus Setter of Germany. Maps printed in countries such as Britain, Austria, Germany, France and Italy are on display at the Ojas Museum and date back to the 15th century and span the history of the country over the next four centuries. The oldest map, a map of Asia, was printed in Venice in 1598 and the latest is from 1946.
“The maps spanning four centuries reflect the changes in the Indian subcontinent during this critical period,” says Anubhav Nath, director of Ojas Arts. “The maps were commissioned by the British or Portuguese governments and were made for practical purposes,” Nath adds, referring to the needs of colonial powers such as the Navigation Chart created by Rennell for the East India Company in 1786. “For the British in particular, mapmaking was a practical need.”
Collected over two decades, the maps in “Cartographical Tales” are a stark testament to the hegemony of colonial rulers. “British maps always glorified Britain by showcasing its imperial power,” explains Nath, who first unveiled his map collection five years ago at the exhibition “India: A Cartographical Tale” at the Ojas Museum.
These maps include the German engraver Johann Baptist Homann's Indian Peninsula, Malabar, Coromandel, and Ceylon, published in 1736 (12 years after his death), the Austrian cartographer Franz Anton Schlemble's New Map of Hindustan (1788), an adaptation of Rennell's original Map of Hindustan (1782), and a rare map of the Theotar from India to Australia, published in 1730. Cartography, the art of map-making, is thought to have originated in ancient Greece. The Romans used maps to help them win military victories, a strategy that was quickly adopted by subsequent rulers. Cartography came into the spotlight as a science in the 16th century with the publication of the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator's World Map in 1659.
“Cartography, the art of mapping geographic areas, reached its peak between the 17th and 19th centuries, when explorers mapped new territories and recorded their exact locations using longitude and latitude. During this period, Western countries commissioned mapping on a widespread basis,” Nath says. “As countries compete for territorial integrity and borders become increasingly defined, maps of the past and the stories they tell are more relevant today than ever before,” he adds.
“India's geography has taken shape over centuries, but these maps tell a story beyond its complex borders. These rare maps help people empathise with eras and time periods through their complex geographical representations and shifting borders. You discover something new every day on the same map,” says Nath.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is a 1687 map by the German Wagner Cartographic Company showing the territory of the Mughal Empire and including an illustration of the Red Fort to mark the 50th anniversary of its construction, while the other is a 1672 map of Goa with a cartouche showing 43 buildings and an illustration of a port full of ships and two working elephants.
Faizal Khan is a freelancer.
