Page 324 - Eye of the beholder

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Another important and very decorative cartouche from the “MMI”. This cartouche provides information in Latin about the printers and publishers of the map.
Many of the maps in these volumes were executed by Jacques-Nicholas Bellin for publication elsewhere. Other maps were joint creations of Prevost and Bellin. Bellin (1703–72) was the official cartographer
of the French navy, and a member of the Académie de Marine and of the Royal Society of London. Over a 50-year career he produced a large number of maps, many of which are a part of the Histoire Generale des Voyages. The illustrations from the Histoire are a rich visual source of information about Mughal India. All the maps and the illustrations were made from copperplate etchings.
The “Nouvelle Carte du Royaume de Bengale”, like almost all other illustrations and maps of the time, is a monochromatic work in black ink on white paper, thus less visually appealing than the “MMI” (figure 7). Moreover, it covers an area substantially smaller than that of the “MMI”. Unlike the “MMI”, which is described in Latin, the “Nouvelle Carte” is described in French.
It is interesting to note that while many of the conventions used to depict geographical features have remained the same over the 100-odd years between the execution of the two maps, some have changed. For example, while the hills and the forests are still depicted in pretty much the same manner, arable land in the latter map is depicted by motifs of paddy fields. Though the forts along the trading routes are depicted in
the same way in both the maps, elaborate illustrations of boats no longer adorn the seas in the “Nouvelle Carte”.
Due to the increase in knowledge
about India in the over 100 years since the “MMI”, the “Nouvelle Carte” also mentions many smaller towns and cities. These cities presumably were either important trading ports, or situated along important inland trading routes. While it is difficult to identify some of them today, many are easily recognizable by virtue of their location and the similarity of their names to extant cities. Thus Kolkata/Calcutta, the most important
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“Nouvelle Carte du Royaume de Bengale”, from the book Histoire Generale des Voyages published 1746–59.
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