Map of the Province of Malabar — Sheet 1

One part of a larger instrument

This is Sheet 1 of the 1809 Malabar map, not a separate cartographic conception. The complete province was divided into three sections so that a large-scale regional survey could be printed, mounted and folded for practical use.

The significance of the sheet

The composite view restores the province as a whole; the individual sheet restores the material object. Its edges, folds and partial geography remind us that maps used in offices and in the field were handled one section at a time. Administrative vision depended on such physical compromises.

The gaze

At sheet level, the abstraction of ‘Malabar’ breaks into particular roads, rivers and settlements. Yet the purpose remains generalising: local places are made interoperable within one survey grid and portable within the case of an imperial officer.