HISTORICAL CARTOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT INDIA

INDIA DURING THE TIME OF PANINI

     Maps are indispensable for those who wish to travel and understand culture. For thousands of years adventurers and explorers had painstakingly made maps of unchartered portions of the world. In this entry, I intend to focus upon the collection of maps of Charles Lesley Ames of Minnesota, who collected over a lifetime, nearly 700 maps on different aspects of ancient India. In fact in the Ames Library of South Asia apart from priceless maps he had collected nearly 80,000 trinkets and souvenirs which were later donated to the University of Minnesota. Ames interest in South Asia was kindled by a book named ‘Tales of the Great Mutiny’ by W.H.Fitchell. He read voraciously and travelled extensively in and around India gathering whatever materials he could find about the sub-continent. 

INDIA DURING THE TIME OF KAUTILYA

     Though this immense resource was available the Ames Library was not fully utilized. It was however Jan Otto Marius Broek a professor of Geography and Burton Stein a professor of History who conceived the idea of a historical atlas in 1962 and christened it as the Historical Cartography of Ancient India. The project however took off only in 1964 with Prof. Joseph E Schwartzberg as the editor. The team comprised of eminent historians and cartographers who slogged for nearly twelve years which was  later published as a book by the University of Chicago Press. 

     The work was very comprehensive and had five sections which were:

RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

• ·         Maps

• ·         Text

• ·         Bibliography

• ·         Index

• ·         Inserts

Though it was historically oriented the book contained matters pertaining to Economic geography, Demography as well as religious and social movements. The range of subjects covered were exhaustive ranging from ethnic groupings to maps showing rural house types. I have included in this blog maps of India as revealed in the RAMAYANA, MAHABHARTA, PANINI’S ASHTADYAYI, KAUTILYA’S ARTHASHASTRA and also religious movements during the 8^th to 12^th century.