Real olde world directions
The history of mapping can be traced to more than 5,000 years ago. The Babylonians used clay tablets to trace their cities. The Chinese brought in silk maps. Picturing Place: Painted and Printed Maps at the Udaipur Court at the Maharaja Fatesingh Museum, Vadodara, attempts to showcase this depth and finesse of chroniclers of the past. It features a diverse collection from The City Palace Museum, Udaipur, of paintings, photographs and printed maps that depict the city, its landscape, its hills and palaces.
Shailka Mishra, curator of the show reveals the two-fold purpose of the show: “The first is to showcase masterpieces from the museum collection that have never been exhibited before, The second is to recognise the sustained presence of cartographic knowledge which lends the ability to look, draw and understand maps at the Udaipur court from the mid-17th to the early 20th century.”
There are also paintings that mirror maps on display. Mishra notes, “Celebrations in Manek Chowk made around the 1730s, depicts the celebrations on the birth of Prince Sangram Singh. The artist has mapped the rectangular arcade of the Manek Chowk courtyard, enclosed by the iconic façade of the Mardana Mahal (Men’s Palace) in the background, which is one of the most frequently depicted spaces of the Palace.”
This is an example of artistic finesse and an extensive knowledge of the palace. The artists capture the smallest details in their work. To delineate the palace and its retaining walls, the former is painted in pearly white and the latter demarcated with tones of buff-pink.
In the mid-19th century, the British initiated a topographical mapping of Rajputana and Central India, including Mewar, for military, administrative, and economic purposes. These precise maps enabled them to mark boundaries, evaluate land use, and examine resource distribution. Among the printed maps are topographical sheet maps which are a part of the British surveys.
In the treasure trove of maps displayed, is an early lithographed map of India from 1837, crafted by Jean-Baptiste Tassin, the celebrated French cartographer who established the Oriental Lithographic Press in Calcutta. Mishra says, “The map employs a dominant pink palette, subtly indicating areas under control of the English East India Company in the 1830s. Notably, Ajmer in Rajputana is marked in pink, symbolising its British acquisition following the 1818 Anglo-Maratha war.”
Another fascinating find is the 1935 Tourist Map of Udaipur which marks one of the initial efforts to market Udaipur as a tourist spot. It features the stunning Fateh Sagar and Pichola lakes. The show does justice to the cartographic brilliance that defined Udaipur’s landscape and cultural heritage. The show is a map of history itself.