Southern India, including the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras

The atlas object

Published in the Tallis Illustrated Atlas, the plate combines John Rapkin’s map with vignettes drawn by A. H. Wray and engraved by J. H. Kernot. The cartography is enclosed within the elaborate architectural and pictorial border characteristic of the series.

Presidencies and pictures

The title names British administrative units rather than older kingdoms or broad classical regions. Around that political map, views and emblems turn southern India into an illustrated possession for the atlas reader. The East India Company’s insignia makes the institutional frame explicit.

A popular imperial object

This was not an official survey sheet. It translated administrative knowledge into a handsome commercial product: sufficiently informative to instruct, sufficiently ornamental to display. The viewer is invited to understand the presidencies and enjoy their visual difference at once.

The gaze

Southern India is presented as both governed territory and picturesque scene. The sheet exemplifies the mid-Victorian popular atlas, in which imperial administration could be made attractive without ceasing to be administrative.