Course of the Ganges and Ghaghara Rivers

This fascinating map of the courses of the sacred Ganges and Ghaghara (Karnali) Rivers represents a synergy of Indian and European sources and a bridge between Indian Pilgrimage mapping and European Enlightenment era cartography. The map is of great intellectual interest, as it represents the earliest accurate geographical depiction of a region and its great rivers which are sacred to Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, and which form the heart of the economic, political and cultural life of Northern India.

The composition is dominated by the principal map which is based on the explorations of the Jesuit cartographer Joseph Tieffenthaler, who spent over 40 years wandering India, charting the countryside and making astronomical measurements with a quadrant.

During the late 1760s Tieffenthaler carefully mapped much of the length of the Ganges River through the Gangetic Plain down to Calcutta. Distinctly, however, of the five inset maps depicting various interpretations of the sources of the Ganges and the Ghaghara Rivers, four are based on maps made by Indian cartographers. Some of these sources, such as the ‘Gomukh’ (the ‘Cow’s Mouth’), at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier (Fig. II), and Lake Manasarovar, Tibet (Fig. III), are ancient pilgrimage sites and identifying their true locations had long been a source of curiosity to Europeans.

Interestingly, portions of the composition feature toponymy and annotations in both French and Persian (the language of the Mughal Court). The present map was assembled and published by the esteemed French orientalist Abraham-Hyacinthe Antequil du Perron, based on the original manuscripts that Tieffenthaler had sent him from India.