Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c26.7

c26.7

The above references to map-like paintings in an eighth century Sanskrit drama remind us of the following remarks of Wilford made about a century and a half ago: “Besides geographical tracts, the Hindus have also maps of the world both according to the system of the Pauranics and of the astronomers; the latter are very common. They have also maps of India and of particular districts, in which latitudes and longitudes are entirely out of question, and they never make use of a scale of equal parts. The sea shores, rivers and ranges of mountains are represented by straight lines. The best map of this sort I ever saw was one of the kingdom of Nepal presented to Mr. Hastings.