1817 Arrowsmith / Hall Map of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Himalayas

Here is a vivid 1817 map of India made by Aaron Arrowsmith and engraved by Sidney Hall for the first edition of James Mill's The History of British India. This map was made as the British East India Company (E.I.C.) was quickly acquiring territory in India, mostly at the expense of the Maratha Confederacy, and gaining allies (protectorates) among the smaller 'princely states.'

A Closer Look

This map shows the Indian subcontinent in considerable detail. Though not noted in the legend, settlements, roads, and rivers are indicated. Scales are given in miles, fursangs (parasangs, فرسنگ), and cosses (kos, कोस). Partly legible handwritten notes appear in the margin discussing different locations in India, while Ajmeer (Ajmer), near Jaypoor (Jaipur), is circled. This map, and Mill's book in which it appeared, reflect a growing familiarity with, or at least attention to, India in Britain.

The stunning coloring used here distinguishes polities on the Indian subcontinent, which fell into three broad categories: the E.I.C. Presidencies (Madras, Bengal, Bombay), territories that were under the protection and indirect control of the E.I.C. (often dubbed 'princely states'), and territories independent of E.I.C. control, though the company lurked in the background of their domestic politics. The 'Rajpoot states' in blue here had friendly relations with the E.I.C. and entered a formal subsidiary alliance with it in 1818. The main rival of the E.I.C. at this time was the Maratha (Mahratta) Confederacy, outlined in green, mighty when united but internally divided in the early 19th century, which the E.I.C. was ready to exploit.

The same year this map was published, the Third Anglo-Maratha War broke out; when the war ended a year and a half later, the entirety of the lands of the Confederacy were under some form of British rule. At that point, the E.I.C. controlled nearly the entire subcontinent, save the Punjab, Sindh, and mountainous Himalayan regions, though even there they had gained territory in the recent Anglo-Nepalese War (1814 - 1816). In the following decades, the E.I.C. would push further north, setting them on a collision course with the growing Sikh Empire, which had recently relocated its capital from Lahore to Gujranwala (near Eminabad) when this map was published.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Aaron Arrowsmith and engraved by Sidney Hall for James Mill's The History of British India, published by Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy in 1817, the first edition of Mill's book, a popular and influential work that had an enduring influence on (negative) British perceptions of India for decades. The map faced the title page of Volume III of Mill's work, as noted at top-right.

Arrowsmith had previously collaborated with the engraver Samuel Lewis in Philadelphia to produce a map of Hindoostan for their New and elegant General Atlas Comprising all Discoveries to the Present Time, the first edition of which was published in 1804. The same year that this map was published, Arrowsmith and Hall produced a smaller map of Hindoostan for the first edition of their A New General Atlas, Constructed from the Latest Authorities….

The present edition of the map is only independently cataloged in the holdings of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the University of Edinburgh, and is scarce to the market, while the 1817 edition of Mill's book is held by a handful of universities and research institutions in North America, Europe, and across the former British Empire.