Book brings alive city of Shahjahanabad using exquisite map

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) A book uses a beautifully-drawn coloured map found in the British Library to bring alive the city of Shahjahanabad as it had stood prior to its mid-19th century changes.
    In "Shahjahanabad: Mapping a Mughal City", historian Swapna Liddle shows how this map is not only a valuable resource for the study of the city in the first half of the 19th century, but also about Mughal city planning.
    The map shows in great detail what existed in the city in the 1840s.
    "This picture was drastically altered in the years immediately after the revolt of 1857. Large areas were almost completely cleared of buildings. The demolitions took place in and around the Red Fort for security reasons; in Chandni Chowk and Daryaganj after the confiscation of royal and other properties, and in the northern part of the city for the railways," the book mentions.
    Liddle says two factors emboldened her when Pramod Kapoor of Roli Books suggested that she should write a detailed analysis of this map of Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi).
    "One was some knowledge of Shahjahanabad as it was during the period of the East India Company when the map was made," she says, adding the second was a familiarity with the streets and landmarks of Shahjahanabad today, which in many ways has not changed much over the last two centuries.
    The book asserts how Shahjahanabad was a planned city, the only living, planned Mughal city extant in largely its original form.
    "Encircled by a city wall, it was situated on the bank of the Yamuna. The citadel housing the emperor and the royal family (officially named Qila-e-Moall, 'the exalted fort', but today known as the Red Fort) was an important focal point of the city, and the congregational mosque, the Jama Masjid, was the next most prominent landmark," it says.
    Apart from these landmarks, which were a result of imperial planning, the city contained the homes of its diverse population, and a variety of commercial and religious spaces, it says.
    The book describes how Shahjahanabad remained the seat of the Mughal royal family for more than two centuries after its foundation and important changes took place in the city during this period.
    In 1803, Shahjahanabad and the territory around it came under the control of the East India Company.
    "The Company became the de facto ruler of the city, while the emperor and the royal family continued to live in the palace complex, the Qila," the book says.
    Dated 1846-47, the map that is the subject of the book is the most detailed available cartographic record of the city before the major changes that were affected immediately following the revolt of 1857. The inscriptions are in Urdu.
    "A first look at the map leaves us with a few initial impressions, one being the clear limits within which the city is laid out, without much indication of its setting, apart from the Yamuna river flowing on its eastern flank," the book says.
    According to Liddle, the information supplied by the map itself can be further fleshed out when it is supplemented by other sources.
    "Studying the map in the light of these other maps and texts, supplemented by other official records of the British administration in Delhi in the first half of the 19th century can help us to better understand pre-1857 Delhi," she writes.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)