A revolutionary period of Indian map making explored in Mapped! of the Mumbai Asiatic Society. exhibition

Sagar Srivastava, 33, has been fascinated by maps since he was a child. His father, who was in the merchant navy, regularly brought home huge navigational books and told him about countries all over the world. “I started drawing maps on whatever I could get my hands on,” recalls the aspiring filmmaker.

Today, he works as a researcher at a major production company in Mumbai, giving him the opportunity to demonstrate his passion for history. Cartography, however, is a hobby that Srivastava has had to cultivate in isolation.

In an age where your phone’s GPS can guide you to any destination and even plot alternate routes to account for real-time traffic, many of us have forgotten the thrill of adventure that physical maps can inspire. Still, Srivastava was able to access some niche mapping communities online: during lockdown, he started posting his sketches on subReddits like Geography, World History, and Mapping, where he got a very positive response. He posts regularly on his blog, Sagar Maps, who has 1.7K followers at the time of writing. And even he managed to earn some money by selling his sketches on a large scale.

sagar srivastava

It is still a rare pleasure for him to meet like-minded mapping enthusiasts in person. So when the Mumbai Asiatic Society and the Bombay Rotary Club announced Mapped! — a month-long exhibition of 22 archival maps, curated by heritage management company PastPerfect and organized with support from the Tata Group — Srivastava was more than ready to make the trip to the old town hall in southern Horniman Circle from Mumbai.

At the Mumbai Asiatic Society Mapped!

Chart of the Gulf of Cutch built by Lieutenant Middleton of the East India Company’s Bombay Cruiser, Sulfur while stationed there in 1821 for the protection of trade against pirates.

GTS Days Tracking

The exhibition highlights maps that were created as part of the Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS), a scientific venture to map and measure the subcontinent launched in 1802, and the Bombay Revenue Survey, an urban planning and revenue mapping initiative undertaken in the 1860s. “It’s about concepts of precision and how that was achieved in the 19th century,” explains Deepti Anand, co-founder of PastPerfect. “At the time, various colonial powers were at war to claim control of territories on the Indian subcontinent, knowing that the landmass was an invaluable source of revenue. Then India witnessed the most advanced mapping methodologies in the world. Mapped! it explores everything from how they achieved those levels of precision, to the stories of the people who made it possible.”

‘India witnessed the world’s most advanced mapping technology’

The exhibition is accompanied by a program of talks, tours and even a map-guided treasure hunt. “The way geography is taught in schools doesn’t get into the nuances of why something exists where it exists,” shares Ashwin Tahiliani, urban designer and founder of the geography-inspired art collective ATLASkeeda, who was invited to host a session storytelling about the GTS. “Our goal is to shed light on the lesser-known stories across the country.”

Ashwin Tahiliani Storytelling Session on the GTS

Riaz Dean, scholar and author of Mapping the Great Game, he also led a public talk on the Survey of India, amplifying a forgotten group, the Pundits, who carried out the secret mapping of India’s northern neighbours. “The Indians, as dedicated employees of the GTS, were equally responsible for mapping their own country, although they were often not given due credit as the focus at the time was mainly on the British GTS officers,” shares Dean. “Native Indians included sub-assistant surveyors, Khalasis [survey helpers], and the experts. For example, the best-known Pundit, Nain Singh, is still relatively unknown in this country, and yet the famous orientalist Sir Henry Yule once said of him: “His observations have added a great deal of important knowledge to the map of Asia.” than those of any living man.”

Outside of the exhibition, the Asiatic Society has now begun making digital copies of the 1,600 maps in its archive available to view on its digital portal, Granth Sanjeevani.

Visitors in Mapped!

revive interest

Like all specialized interests, cartography remains a niche hobby, but over the years various institutions have attempted to preserve India’s cartographic legacy.

Since 2015, Bangalore-based mechanical engineer Udaya Kumar has been traveling across the country in an attempt to raise awareness of the Great Trigonometric Survey and preserve the stone poles and other landmarks that still remain. In 2019 in Pune, local corporator Arvind Shinde and architect Abhijit Kondhalkar restored the neglected ‘zero stone’ outside the GPO to its original position and added outdoor exhibits along the trail to showcase the history of GTS.

The exhibition is accompanied by a program of talks, tours and even a map-guided treasure hunt.

The Hyderabad-based Kalakriti Archives’ collection of historical maps remains one of India’s largest, some of which are open to the public on Google’s Arts and Culture web portal. Over the years, the maps have also been auctioned off as artifacts, selling for between ₹20,000 and a few lakhs, depending on rarity, size, condition, and cartographer.

Entrepreneur, film producer and industrial engineer by training Mrinal Kapadia, owner of a private collection of archival maps, is confident that as institutions invest in more such offerings, public interest will continue to rise. “Events organized by institutions like the Asian Society, or CSMVS, are drying up. There is a huge repository of centuries-old works, in different parts of the country, waiting to be shared. It’s just a matter of time, ”he concludes.

‘India in and out of the Ganges’ by Christoph Weigel the Elder

Bombay, as it was in 1710 (collection of Mrinal Kapadia, India Visual Art Archive)

Mapped! It is until June 4 in the Mumbai Asiatic Society.

The freelance writer and playwright is based in Mumbai.