An Open Map Collection

The European Gaze
on India

Four centuries of foreign maps, 1519–1946 — and what they reveal about the eye behind the pen. A map records not only a land but who is looking, what they want, and what they cannot yet see.

01Antiquity and RenaissanceCoastline and rumour — India inherited from Ptolemy and revealed, piecemeal, by Portuguese pilots.Enter →02Baroque Mughals and CompaniesThe empire of the Great Mogul, drawn from the outside by French savants and Dutch traders.Enter →03The Survey TurnRennell and the surveyors: India stops being reported and starts being measured — and possessed.Enter →04Home Ground Bombay and DeccanThe gaze tightens to a region — harbour, district and city, down to the street corner.Enter →05Administered Empire and Victorian AtlasEmpire as analysis: India counted, classified and coloured for the high-Victorian atlas.Enter →06The Sea and the RouteThe maritime thread — the ocean as Europe's original approach to India, charted and re-charted.Enter →07Last FrontiersEnter →