[INDOLOGY] Maps of Ancient India

[Divya Kumar-Dumas]

Dear Jarrod, 

For Aśoka, I would ask to republish the recently published "Map of Ashokan inscription sites and geographical names" by Pankaj Chakraborty of Kolkata in Patrick Olivelle, Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King (Yale, 2023), xxxii. It is well drawn and labeled but quite small in the book (so difficult to read) and deserves a second chance to be seen. Mapping inscription sites avoids taking a position on debates about the extent vs. porosity of Ashoka’s empire.  

For Ancient India, I would look at the numismatic maps presented in the work of Joe Cribbs or Wilfried Piper. I don’t have the material on hand to give you a page number. Numismatic evidence is the clearest way to map pre-Ashokan South Asia. You might also check in with MAHSA (Mapping Archaeological Heritage in South Asia) <https://www.mahsa.arch.cam.ac.uk/> to see if they can lend a hand with the data they have collected, largely by digitizing much later maps, if I understand correctly. 

All best, 
Divya

--
Divya Kumar-Dumas, PhD <https://arthistory.umd.edu/directory/divya-kumar-dumas>
President’s Postdoctoral Fellow: South Asian and Global Art & Architecture, Art History, and Archaeology
Department of Art History & Archaeology  
University of Maryland
divyais at umd.edu <mailto:divyais at umd.edu> 

Research Associate | Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), NYU <https://isaw.nyu.edu/people/affiliates/research-associates/divya-kumar-dumas>


> On May 22, 2026, at 4:40 AM, tiziana.lorenzetti--- via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Dear Jarrod, 
> the recent volume Splendori dell'India / Splendours of India (Rome 2026, ed. Sabinae) contains reproductions of ancient maps of India, dating back to the 15th/16th century. I don't know if the maps you're looking for are in the book. However, many are rare and never published.
> Best wishes, 
> Tiziana Lorenzetti
>  
> ps If you want more info, please, email me off list (tiziana.lorenzetti at libero.it <mailto:tiziana.lorenzetti at libero.it>)
>> Il 21/05/2026 17:48 CEST Whitaker, Jarrod via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info <mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> ha scritto: 
>>   
>>   
>> Dear Colleagues
>> 
>> I'm in need of two maps of 1) "Ancient India," and 2) "Mauryan Empire under Aśoka" for a chapter on "Warfare in Ancient India" (forthcoming Cambridge History of War). One of the editors passed away unexpectedly a few year ago and we cannot identify the sources of the maps he produced for my chapter.
>> 
>> If you have high quality maps and would let me use or reproduce them (with explicit email permission), I would be externally grateful (and acknowledge you in the chapter). Or can you point me to a public source. I can't see anything in WikiCommons. 
>> 
>> Please email me off-list!
>> 
>> Cheers
>> 
>> Jarrod
>> 
>> -- 
>> Jarrod L. Whitaker, Ph.D.
>> Professor for the Study of Religions
>> Department Chair
>> 
>> Department for the Study of Religions
>> Wake Forest University
>> 1834 Wake Forest Rd
>> Winston-Salem, NC, 27106
>> 
>> 336.758.4162
>> whitakjl at wfu.edu <mailto:whitakjl at wfu.edu>
>> 
>> ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ
>> 
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