Hyderabad-based Prshant Lahoti has been collecting maps for over 12 years and all these years, he was waiting for not only his collection to become robust but also a platform equally electric to showcase the rare heritage.
In Whorled Explorations, the second edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) he found a perfect foil. So at Heritage Arts, an antique warehouse in Matancherry, Kochi, are displayed some exquisite 47 maps from 16th to 19th centuries in vegetable dyes on cotton, woodcuts, copper engravings, watercolour on paper etc.
Titled 'Cosmology to Cartography', it is divided into three sections - Jain Cosmic, pilgrimage and cartography.
The maps culled out from the 3000 maps that Prshant has, an early 18th century Japanese map depicting India as the centre of the world because of Buddhism, piligrimage maps of Shatrunjaya in Gujarat, Ganga, Vraj yatra, a Dutch map of the subcontinent and the first map of India, without any political divisions, showing it as a single entity.
The 18th century map of ganga, attributed to a Rajasthani artist, charts the river's course from Alaknanda to Badrinath marking out some key shrines on it.
A highly detailed map is the pichwai of Vrajyatra, depciting the entire piligrim landscape of Vraj, pilgrims visiting sacred sites and performing rituals at Mount Govardhana, Barsana, Nandgram, temples of the Vallabha sect.
"These pilgrimage maps may not be cartographic maps but we felt that yet they are maps because it presents measurement of a space in some way," says Prshant, who is exhibiting his collection in public for the first time. The exhibition also has political maps made by the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English.
The first map showing India as one was made by the leading French mapmaker Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon D'Anville, at the behest of French East India Company in 1752. Upto this point, the maps would focus on some regions, states and colonies but never presented India as one. There are Venetian maps focussing on Peninsular India, with labelled coastlines, Portueguese ship caravels representing sea routes between Europe and India. The antiques that dot the Heritage Arts, the antique warehouse in Jews Town, complement the history narrated by these maps. " Riyas (Riyas Komu, General Secretary, Kochi Biennale Foundation), Bose (Bose Krishnamachari, President, Kochi Biennale Foundation) and I, none of us wanted a gallery-gallery space for the show and thought this space to be the best," says Prshant, who runs Kalakriti, a contemporary art space promoting art.
The response to the exhibition has stimulated him to take the exhibition to different States and may be one day build a map museum.
(The exhibition, a partner project, is on at Kochi-Muziris Biennale, is on till March 29)
If you are planning to visit Kochi Biennale, here are a few things which will help.
a) Beginning January 2015, Mondays are going to be ticket free entry.
b) If you have elderly people accompanying you, then there is a free buggy service introduced by Bangalore-based Maini industries. The six seater electric vehicle can be sighted at different venues and is exclusively for elderly people and people with special needs. The free buggy service was inaugurated by actor Mammooty a few days ago.
C) In case you miss them, there are scores of autorickshaws available. More than willing to ferry you to the KMB venues, they charge anywhere between Rs.20 to 50. The autowallahs in Fort Kochi can also claim their place as the brand ambassador of the Biennale alongside P.T. Usha.
Don't be surprised if they ask you for a pass to the Biennale.
