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depicted through drawings of small hills. Certain regions in the Deccan, near Kutch, and further north have been depicted as having a preponderance of forest groves – for no apparent reason. All the forts along the coast and on the mainland are depicted with great accuracy, presumably because of their geopolitical importance at that time.
The presence of animal motifs in this map is another point of importance and interest. Camels are illustrated to represent the arid regions of Afghanistan, in the vicinity of Kabul. Pictures of elephants indicate the region of the Indo-Gangetic plain in north India. In addition to representing the natural fauna of the land,
it is tempting to imagine that these pictures were put in to increase the saleability of the maps as novelty items. Elephants and camels were exotic species for the Europeans who were the intended purchasers of these maps. Since Latin was the pan-European language of erudition at the time of the production of this map, the names of regions, rivers, and important landmarks have been Latinized
to a large extent in the “MMI”. The region
shown in the map, for example is titled “India Intra Gangem Indostan”. The Ganga is Latinized to “Ganges fluvius”; the Yamuna/ Jamuna to “Gemini fluvius”. The province
of Punjab is written as “Peniab”, while some of the regions can no longer be identified from their names. It is interesting also to
see that many of the major Indian cities do not feature in this map. In eastern India, Calcutta finds no mention, as the city was
to be founded more than 100 years later. In the west, Bombay is not mentioned, though the nearby city of Surat finds prominence. Bombay as a port settlement was founded only in the mid-1700s by the Portuguese. Engravings of Bombay printed in Europe
as late as the 1840s depict it as just a coastal hamlet (figure 3). It is thus fair to assume that at the time the “MMI” was drawn, Bombay was not a settlement deserving special mention. Interestingly, there is a coastal settlement labelled “Bombaira” in the map at almost the same location as modern Mumbai/Bombay, leading one to believe that this village of “Bombaira” grew to become Bombay. Obviously, Delhi finds a prominent
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3
This picture of Bombay in the 1800s shows a coastline dotted with intermittent fortifications
and a few local Indian and British soldiers. From the Conversational Encyclopedia for the Cultured Classes published in 1839 by Joseph Meyer of the Bibliographical Institute in the German town of Hildburghausen. The Institute
was considered one of the most successful publishing houses of the 19th century and has left an indelible mark on European publishing history.
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