Map of the Province of Malabar

A rare commissioned map

Arrowsmith published this large, separately issued map in 1809 rather than as an ordinary atlas plate. The three sheets bring together recent military and regional surveys of the Company’s Malabar province, covering much of northern present-day Kerala at a density previously unavailable in print.

Conquest, resistance and survey

The province had been assembled after the Anglo-Mysore wars and remained a site of resistance to Company rule. Roads, settlements, rivers, passes and administrative divisions therefore had immediate practical value. The map was commissioned as an aid to the army and civil service and later supplied important material for Arrowsmith’s general map of India.

Compilation and hidden labour

‘Drawn from various surveys’ is both a claim of authority and an admission of collective production. The finished sheet carries Arrowsmith’s name, but its information was generated by officers, survey parties, guides, local officials and informants working across the region.

The gaze

Here mapping is not a metaphor for rule; it is part of rule’s machinery. Malabar is transformed into routes, taluks and measurable terrain for officials charged with occupying, policing and administering it.