Maps vs Reality:
Illustrated Indian History with Maps
Chapter 1: Genesis - 1500 C.E
Maps have been a part of the human story from genesis. Maps were one of the first abstractions of human intelligence. Knowledge of geography was essential to survival.
Knowledge of migratory routes, water sources, safe shelters, good hunting grounds, predators & enemy tribes was the difference between life & death.
Knowing one’s location is a privilege enjoyed by humanity only recently.
For most of history, humans never saw a map of the entire world in their lifetime.
The oldest known visual map is the Babylonian Map of the World (Imago Mundi) from the 6th century B.C.
Maps have come a long way since then. Maps are so popular, it is used as a verb: “to represent or delineate on or as if on a map.”
In Indian history, our geographical knowledge is well documented. But visual maps are almost non-existent.
How was location and navigation transmitted in ancient or medieval India?
Did ancient Indians make maps?
These were the gnawing questions that started me on this mapquest.
Let us take a historical look at maps, I can assure you that you will never look at a map the same way again.
First, Let’s understand maps a little better.
I. Understanding Maps
Maps and Manipulation:
A Map is a representation of the features of an area of the earth usually on a flat surface. Maps show the geographical features, their sizes, and location according to a convention of representation.
Photographs are different from maps because maps include interpretation.
Maps are scaled down from reality. Makes sense, a map of India cannot be as big as India. It is significantly smaller.
Space on a map is at a premium, it forces the map-maker to prioritize. Mapmakers have to choose what stays in and what is to be left out.
Enter Cartography, the science and art of creating maps. All maps start with an Intention. Let’s look at an example to understand this better.
In 1933 a technical draughtsman created one of the most iconic and successful maps of modern times.
If you have lived or travelled in a modern city, you would surely have to thank Henry Beck for making your travel a bit easier.
Harry Beck was a technical draughtsman in London who used the London underground subway network daily. The subway map back then was a terrestrial map of London superimposed with subway lines.
Imagine trying to figure out your next train change on crowded & dimly lit complicated terrestrial map.
Harry Beck revolutionised subway travel by drawing inspiration from electrical schematics.
In electrical drawings, lines are always straight. Turns are elegant 45 and 90 degrees turns.
He replaced electrical lines with colour coded train lines and electrical components with stations. The stops were equidistant.
It took London by storm. After 80 years, it is one of the iconic map designs globally.
Why was Harry Beck’s map was a success? It was useful.
The key criteria of a map’s success is its usability.
In a subway, you intend to get to your destination. Knowing where you are, where to change and where to get off is all that matters. So Beck did away with showing the above ground of London altogether.
Now, all you had to know was the current and destination station. Distance did not matter. Harry Beck kept only useful information & left out everything else.
There was another reason this map was popular. The new map made the new outer stretches of London seem closer to central London. This encouraged millions of Londoners to spread out and decongest the central city area.
Is that manipulation or simplification?
Therein lies the greatest asset of a map and its greatest flaw. Maps are human interpretations, they are as good as the humans who create them.
Navigation: Is it a map only if it is written?
Humans had to communicate location information to plan a migration or an elaborate hunt.
Early humans read nature & remembered landmarks to navigate. When we needed more stable reference points, we relied on the sky for direction. Bees are the only other species known to use the sun as a reference to communicate locations in a hive.
Humans first created oral maps. Oral maps were one of the first uses for language.
Here we have to consider a key aspect of Indian History, it relies extensively on oral traditions. We use celestial objects, mountains & rivers as reference. They represent stability and assurance in ruthless existence.
Is navigation by stars really possible over long distances?
Yes, we know that thanks to the Polynesians.
In 1976 a Polynesian raft, The Hōkūle‘a, a double-hulled traditional design sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti over 2000kms. It was led by master navigator Mau Pialug using only traditional navigation methods. The Polynesians use an orientation system based on the night sky and by reading the ocean currents. Like Indians, their navigation methods are transmitted predominantly orally.
The only catch is oral maps need an unbroken lineage to survive.
Cartographic evidence and ancient maps are strikingly missing in Indian History. The lack of maps does not signify a lack of geographical knowledge, rather, the reliance on oral maps and existence of busy routes indicate extensive travel.
How did ancient Indians navigate?
Simple, you just asked someone on the way.
Even in contemporary India, it is relatively easy to navigate on Indian highways with sparse signage. It works only if you are sure to find someone on your way. Indians are usually around, especially along travel routes. For oral navigation to work, it has to be a living tradition.
Kautilya’s Arthashastra gives detailed accounts of trade routes in the North (Uttarapatha) & the south (Dakshinapatha). Ancient Kingdoms had highways, rest stops & toll stations. Travellers banded together in caravans or Sarthas on the ancient highways.
It worked because one was sure to find someone to guide them. So we had terrestrial routes covered.
How about maritime navigation in ancient India?
Surely, there were no friendly Indians randomly in the ocean for navigation.
Indian maritime history is rich with long voyages. Indus Valley seals, some depicting boats have been found as far as Mesopotamia.
The famous sacking of SriVijaya near modern Singapore by the Cholas in 1025 A.D was the height of ancient Indian naval prowess. There are references of a Matsyayantra, a compass in Sanskrit & Tamil literature.
Kautilya & Kalidasa mention Ayaskanta or the lodestone several times. Extensive knowledge of Astronomy certainly aided us in navigation.
II. Mapping Indian History:
The Bharatavarsha :
Knowledge of Indian Geography is well documented in the Vedas & later Puranas.
On the Jambudvipa (The wood apple Island), Bharatavarsha is a kingdom of sacred mountains (Kula Parvathas) & sacred rivers.
We have references of ancient kingdoms and cities in our texts. Routes taken by Lord Rama to Lanka and the exodus of the Yadava clan from Mathura to Dwarka are part of our stories.
The map of Bharatavarsha is the Geography of our History.
The Ancient Voice project has done an excellent job of mapping ancient India on a modern map. Most as maps of India known today were made by visitors.
Maps are for seekers, One maps what one seeks.
From an Indian Perspective, History is for seekers of the 4 Purusharthas, Artha, Kama, Dharma & Moksha.
Let us take an Indian History perspective of our maps:
Maps for Moksha: Mandalas, Indian Maps of Cosmology :
Interestingly, the first maps were not for navigation on earth, they were maps of the cosmos. Early descriptions merged Cosmology with Geography.
Let’s look at the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata. Just before the revelation of the Bhagavadgita, there are 2 key chapters. The Upaparvas are aptly titled Jamvu – khanda Vinirmana Parva & Bhumi Parva.
Dhritarashtra asks Sanjaya now blessed with a divine vision to describe what he sees.
‘The names of rivers and mountains, O Sanjaya, as also of provinces, and all other things resting on the earth, and their dimensions, O thou that are acquainted with the measures of things of the earth in its entirety and the forests,
O Sanjaya, recount to me in detail.”
Sanjaya replies, —
“Listen to me, O king, as I speak of what thou hast asked me. Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Rakshavat, Vindhya, and Paripatra,–these seven are the Kala-mountains (of Bharatvarsha).
Besides these, O king, there are thousands of mountains that are unknown, of hard make, huge, and having excellent valleys …
Besides Meru are situated, O lord, these four islands, viz., Bhadraswa, and Ketumala, and Jamvudwipa otherwise called Bharata, and Uttar-Kuru..”
The description fluidly combines actual geographical references of mountains and rivers with metaphorical & mythological worlds.
It is interesting to note that India (Jambudvipa/ Bharatavarsha) is not considered the centre of this cosmology.
Genesis stories of other cultures keep themselves at the centre of the earth. Our acceptance of a Heliocentric world was early and without religious resistance.
A mandala is a map in the same way Harry Beck’s representation of the London underground is a map. It is a scaled-down, two-dimensional representation filled with symbols shown with reference to each other.
The word mandala is extremely diverse in its original Sanskrit. It is used to signify a circle, constellation, an administrative unit and much more.
In cosmology, the mandala is used to represent the Surya mandala (Solar System), Bhu- mandala/ Dharani- mandala (Terrestrial Earth) and the Saptarishi mandala (Stellar Constellation).
The Mandala view of cosmology is accepted in Vedic, Buddhist & Jain traditions.
Mandalas today are popular for their representation as spiritual maps containing concentric circles and squares. Typically the sides of the outer square represent the 4 or 8 directions.
The representation of a spiritual quest placing the primary deity in the centre. Traditional mandalas keep Mount Meru/ Sumeru at the centre.
In the Hindu Tantric tradition, various yantras continue to represent this spiritual construct.
The Ranakpur Jain temple bas relief indicates the Jambudvipa Rachana as per Jain cosmology.
It is in the Buddhist tradition we see mandalas develop into a specialised art form. Even time is represented in Kalachakra mandalas in 2-dimensions.
The principal deity of the mandala usually represented by its Bodhisattva form is placed at the centre. The outer boundaries are symbolic of a perennial ocean.
Numerous other symbols and shapes represent obstacles in the path to the centre, signifying spiritual liberation, Moksha.
Maps for Dharma: Pilgrimages & Raja Dharma:
The Nala Damayanti Upakhyana of Mahabharata describes Damayanti’s travels with a caravan. The ancient caravans as detailed in Motichandra’s Sarthavaha were a melting pot.
Merchants, guards, beasts of burden and also pilgrims travelled together.
Early Hindu pilgrim sites primarily included sacred river sites as indicated in the name Tirth Yatra. Mountain circumambulation or the Pradakshina/ Parikrama were also part of pilgrimages.
In the travels of Buddhist monks, we see the extent of the intermingling of religion and trade routes.
Ancient universities of Takshashila and Tamralipti we on the Uttarapatha. It is on the Bamiyan rocky cliffs that merchants prayed to Buddha statues before their treacherous journey ahead.
The route taken by Faxian in the 4th century shows the maturity of trade routes in China and India, both overland and by sea.
There was a steady flow of students from the Eastern countries to ancient India. India was seen as the centre for learning. Indian experts and scholars were revered and found patronage of royals in Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand & Laos. Mandalas of Buddhist Cosmology with Jambudvipa also travelled with them.
An interesting Japanese map from a 17th-century Buddhist monk combines Buddhist cosmology with actual geography. The map is one of the first to represent Europe and Africa in a traditional Japanese map. The Buddhist heartland is centred around Lake Anavatpata (Manasarovar).
Placing holy places at the centre can also be seen in the classic T & O maps of Europe. Maps from Anaximander (6th century B.C) to Isidore of Seville (6th-century C.E) placed Jerusalem at the centre of the world. Interestingly east was depicted up in the T & O representation placing Asia at the top of the map.
It seems surprising that the cardinal direction North does not have to be represented in the top. European T & O maps represented East at the top, Early Arabian maps represented South at the top.
In Indian administrative system, the Rajamandala theory of diplomacy was propagated by Kautilya in his Arthashastra and by Nitisara of Kamandaki.
A mandala view of diplomacy identifies allies, enemies and neutral neighbours. The doctrine of mandala provides a categorisation of states and their inter-relationships. It advises how to exploit this mandala matrix to one’s advantage.
A visual representation of a kingdom’s mandala would provide a visual representation for its political strategy. As a result, diplomatic missions were commonplace in ancient Indian politics.
Maps for Artha & Kama:
It was Trade which accelerated the art and science of cartography. Maps of India made by outsiders have mostly been maps of navigation for trade.
From the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (1st-century C.E), we get a fair understanding of the ports and goods of trade from India. It is a Greco-Roman handbook of the locations and trade in and around the Western part of the Indian ocean.
Beyond this the Tabula Peutingeriana indicated the spread of Roman road network from the Atlantic to India.
For the next centuries, progress in maps was slow in Europe. Only merchants who travelled on the seas were aware of faraway places beyond their homelands.
Meanwhile, in the Indian Ocean, the Monsoon market place was the chief hub of global economic activity. Arab, Indian and Chinese merchant ships crisscrossed the Indian ocean. The naval conquest of Srivijaya by the Cholan navy in the 11th century shows economic motivation to control in the Indian Ocean trade. Maritime innovations like the Astrolabe for stellar navigation and Mariners compass spread across the trading cultures.
It is from the 8th century onwards during the Golden Age of Arabic travel that Arab merchants improved the early Hellenistic maps from Ptolemy.
This reached its pinnacle with Al-Idrisi and the Tabula Rogeriana commissioned by King Roger of Sicily in 1138 C.E.
In the 14th century, before the Portuguese came on the scene, The treasure fleet of Zheng He under the Ming dynasty from China made several voyages to dominate the Indian Ocean trade.
These voyages have been documented in the Mao Kun map. It includes stellar navigation guides, for e.g from Hormuz to Calicut.
The Composite Ming dynasty map from this era is one of the first Chinese maps to represent Europe and Africa.
The 15th Century brought with it sweeping changes. Maps would redraw the world and the power balance between the East and the West.
III. 500 years ago, A Global Disruption:
Mediterranean trade was flourishing in 15th century Europe. The Iberian peninsula had so far economically depended on continental Europe. The lucrative Mediterranean routes were dominated by Venice & Genoa. The Northern Atlantic routes to Flanders was a competition between Castile (later Spain) & Portugal. Young Prince Henry of Portugal, invested time and resources to explore the Atlantic.
The Iberians would come to dominate the oceans for the next 200 years until the Dutch and English started flexing.
In Iberia, the Moors were cornered in Granada. Capturing Ceuta on the Moroccan coast in 1415 C.E gave Iberians first-hand trade information. Gold on the rich African caravans.
African gold trade was dominated by Arab merchants. To undercut the Arab merchants, the Portuguese under Henry used caravel boats to hug the western coast of Africa. Their mission, to find the source of the Gold.
By the time Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good hope in 1488, Portuguese and Spanish trading posts had come up along the African coast.
Portolan charts were the nautical standard for navigation. They depicted the ports along a coastline, Rhumb lines from the compass rose crisscrossed to give direction to sailors.
In 1492, Columbus returned from his voyage to Portugal with information on new lands. The voyage was funded by Spain. Portugal and Spain went to the Pope for a clear demarcation of the unknown world between Portugal and Spain. This led to the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 C.E.
This was the first instance of European nations using maps to decide the fate of foreign countries, which only a handful of people actually visited. A grim precursor to colonisation.
In 1497 when Vasco da Gama set sail to India, his path until the southern tip of Africa was well documented. The Indian ocean was unknown to European explorers.
European explorers are often portrayed as solo pathfinders. For Vasco da Gama it was hardly the case. When he entered the Indian Ocean, it was already a bustling marketplace.
After several stops on the Africa coast, local Lascar pilots steered his ships from Malindi to Calicut. Portugal had finally made it to the promised land. India.
The first European use of the word ‘Lascar’ dates back to the Portuguese employment of Asian seamen in the early 1500s. Lascars and local sailors are conveniently left out of glorious tales of European explorers.
Over the next century, Portuguese began spreading into the Indian ocean. With the conquest of Hormuz and later Malacca in 1511, they controlled the major routes.
The Spanish continued the exploration of the American continent.
The Age of European Discovery would change the world and its maps forever.
Wrapping up Chapter 1:
Maps have been part of the Human Story since the beginning, they shape our world view and will continue to be part of our lives.
Like the human story, the story of maps is also complex. We need diverse stories and we need diverse maps to understand our place.
There is no ideal map, it is as real as our perception of imaginary lines on paper.
Do Perceptions matter? Yes.
Join us in Chapter 2, as we look at the basis for modern maps in the aftermath of the Age of Discovery: 1500 C.E – 2000 C.E
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