YOU’VE BEEN MAPPED
Rare maps of India from the 19th century are on view at an ongoing exhibition at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai
Tracing a finger across a map is a beautiful way to time travel across vast expanses of land. At the exhibition titled Mapped!: Surveys
that Left Behind a Legacy, at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, the experience of studying contour lines and topographical terrains quickly turns into the stories of the surveyors who believed in their methods and assigned survey parties that partook the journey to gather the data.
In 2019, the Urban Heritage Committee of the Rotary Club of Bombay extended their support to the Asiatic Society of Mumbai for a Cartographic Conservation Project, with an aim to conserve around 100 maps from the library’s rare map collection. Out of these, around 12 are on display at the ongoing exhibition.
Surveys and cartography in India were fuelled by Britain’s imperial ambitions, their primary purpose being to deepen the hold on the land and maximise revenue. For the scientists and surveyors, on the other hand, the exercise stemmed from a curiosity to discover unexplored lands and measure them as accurately as possible. The exhibition opens with the marine survey and the first ever accurate map of India (1788) by James Rennell, the Surveyor General of Bengal. Studying the coasts meant trade openings and entry points into the subcontinent (look out for Pirate Coast along the Konkan).
The most intriguing section covers the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, spearheaded by William Lambton in the early 1800s. This involved the measurement of the Great Arc of the Meridian, which runs 1,600 miles from Cape Comorin to Dehradun. After Lambton’s death, the survey was completed by British geodesist Sir George Everest.
The maps are supported by stories of the people who made it possible, technology that promised accuracy and trials faced by survey parties, ranging from mental illnesses to plague.
Col. Montgomerie trained native Indians as spies to venture into countries situated north of India. Dressed as monks, they relied on rosaries to measure their footcounts and prayer wheels to hide their notes. One of them, a Sikkimese tailor named Kinthup, was sold as a slave to a village headman, and his discovery of the Brahmaputra went unrecognised at the time. He did eventually make it back to India, though.
Deepti Anand, co-founder, Past Perfect Heritage Management that has curated the exhibition, says, “There’s a larger story behind each map and we believe people can discover layers of a single object through these stories.”
The last section zooms into Bombay in the 1870s—neighbourhoods of present-day Tardeo, Kamathipura, Grant Road, Girgaon, Umerkhadi, Mazgaon and Byculla are part of the Second Bombay Revenue Survey (1865-72) done by Col. George Laughton. Here, one gets to visualise the city in its formative years, first caged within the fort walls, and how it slowly expanded into unique cultural pockets. There are tales of the advent of mills and the now-submerged Belvedere Hills of Mazgaon waiting to be discovered.
By now, the eye has acclimatised to squinting for details as the maps turn into articulate storytellers. Stop by at the interactive digital screen to zoom into regions on the map, or pick up a map print at the gift booth if the exhibition leaves you hungry for more. ■