Indolstani Imperij Totius Asiae ditissimi descriptio [A description of the Hindustani Empire, the wealthiest in all of Asia]

1619

Copper engraving on paper

Print size: 15.25 x 19.25 in (39 x 49 cm)
Sheet size: 16.75 x 23 in (42.5 x 58.5 cm)

The first English map of India—William Baffin’s landmark 1619 depiction of the Mughal Empire, produced from intelligence gathered during Sir Thomas Roe’s embassy to Emperor Jahangir

The Latin phrase "Indolstani Imperij Totius Asiae ditissimi descriptio" translates to "A description of the Hindustani Empire, the wealthiest in all of Asia".

This map formed the basis for all future maps of India for the next hundred years. A number of contemporary mapmakers copied the Baffin map, including Purchas, Thevenot, Blaeu, Hondius, De Wit, Van der Aa, among others.

This extraordinarily rare first edition of William Baffin’s celebrated 1619 map is widely regarded as the earliest English cartographic statement on Mughal India and among the most influential European maps of the subcontinent produced in the seventeenth century. So central is its place in the history of Indian mapping that it is one of the few early modern cartographic documents to be known by its own name: the Baffin–Roe Map.

Published in 1619 and sold as a loose sheet upon Roe’s return to England, the map was never widely preserved in bound form, and very few examples have survived. The British Museum holds a reference copy in the King George III Topographical Collection (K 115 [22]), underscoring the institutional significance and rarity of the work. Issued independently rather than within an atlas, this first edition has seldom appeared at auction.

The map was drawn from first-hand intelligence gathered at the court of Emperor Jahangir by Sir Thomas Roe, the East India Company’s ambassador in Agra between 1615 and 1618, and engraved by William Baffin, one of the great navigators of the age, renowned for his Arctic voyages as well as hydrographic work in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Baffin delineates the Mughal Empire at the height of its territorial and administrative reach, extending from Kandahar and Kabul across the Indo-Gangetic plain to Bengal and Assam, and southwards into the Deccan. Provinces are named with spellings that anticipate modern regions—Chishmeere, Penjab, Bengala, Guzarat, Orixa—while imperial centres including Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Ajmer, Patna, Gwalior, and Surat are prominently positioned.

Cartographically, the sheet represents a marked advance in the European rendering of India’s river systems. The Indus here assumes, for the first time, something approaching its proper course, correctly entering the ocean near Diulsind (modern Sindh) rather than being misdirected toward the Gulf of Khambhat as on earlier maps. Although the Ganges is still imperfectly shown flowing in a broadly north–south direction, its depiction is a significant improvement over previous models, while the course of the Jemni fluvis (Yamuna) is delineated with notable relative accuracy.

A striking feature is Jahangir’s dynastic seal in the upper right: a great central roundel bearing the Emperor’s name, encircled by eight smaller discs tracing Timurid lineage back to Tamerlane, with Babur, Humayun, and Akbar among the identified predecessors. Such seals were potent instruments of Mughal authority, appearing on firmans and diplomatic correspondence—including Jahangir’s own letter to James I, carried by Roe to England. Above, a lion crouched before the sun reinforces the language of kingship and empire, an emblem resonant in both Mughal and Stuart royal symbolism.

The engraving is further enlivened by details that would have captivated contemporary viewers: the earliest Western cartographic appearance of Haridwar (“Hardware”), marked with the charming conceit of the Ganges issuing over a cow’s-head-like rock; the tree-lined “Longe Walke” between Agra and Lahore, reflecting Jahangir’s order to plant mulberries along the imperial road; and Roe’s own modestly traced itinerary from Surat inland to Agra and back toward Cambay.

Combining court-derived geographical intelligence with imperial iconography, ethnographic curiosity, and genuine hydrographic progress, Baffin’s map shaped Europe’s understanding of Mughal India for generations and remains a cornerstone acquisition in the printed cartography of South Asia.

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