What is the book about?
This is a coffee-table book filled with historical maps featuring India, sourced from map archives and private collections from across the world. The study of how India has been mapped over the centuries, is inextricably linked to a study of the country’s history, the military and commercial interests in the country and the very development of cartography itself.
Who is it by?
Manosi Lahiri is a geographer and author of several books.
Why should I read it?
This book is a treasure trove of information for anybody interested in history, exploration and cartography. Painstakingly compiled over six years, the book covers subjects ranging from Indian cosmographic traditions, European maps of the 1500s, the days of ‘graphic designer cartographers’ who had never visited the country they depicted and the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India that took 40 years to complete.
An edited version of the article was published in Culturama’s October 2012 Issue.
