Pioneering manuscript map of the interior of Sri Lanka

[Sri Lanka]. Manuscript map of the interior of Ceylon.

[Kandy, Ceylon?, ca. 1815].

Drawn in watercolour and pen on laid paper, mounted on contemporary linen (310 x 475 mm). (Bound in): Fellowes, Robert ("Philalethes"). The history of Ceylon, from the earliest period to the Year MDCCCXV; with characteristic details of the religion, laws, & manners of the people and a collection of their moral maxims & ancient proverbs ... To which is subjoined Robert Knox's historical relation of the island, with an account of his captivity during a period of near twenty years ... (With): Knox, Robert. An historical relation of the Island of Ceylon in the East Indies: together with an account of the detaining in captivity the author, and divers other Englishmen now living there; and of the author's miraculous escape. London, Joseph Mawman, 1817. 4to. 2 parts in one. XXII, 341; (1), VIII, 383 pp. With a folding engraved map of Sri Lanka by J. Smith, dated 1816, mounted on contemporary linen, an engraved portrait of Knox by Smith, dated 1816, and 15 engraved plates. Contemporary half calf with gold-tooled spine, marbled edges, marbled endpapers.

 12,000.00

Manuscript map of the middle third of the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), made before any detailed map of this area had been published. Bound in a book containing the first edition of Fellowes's history of Sri Lanka, published together with a then-current edition of Robert Knox's own account of his stay in Sri Lanka (first edition 1681).

The manuscript map provides great detail for inland Sri Lanka, ranging from Puttalam (upper left) to Kalutara (lower left) and from Batticaloa (upper right) to Kataragama (lower right). This area spans several provinces, including the ancient Kingom of Kandy, showing many roads, towns and villages in great detail, especially around the city of Kandy. The various provinces are distinguished by colour. The map is contemporary with the book, made on English paper watermarked "G L Paine 1813", indicating George Leeds Paine of Kent (cf. Shorter 1971, p. 198). The map thus dates between 1813 and 1817, the period leading up to the last armed conflict between the British colonial government and the Kingdom of Kandy, which resulted in the final defeat of Kandy and the British seizing control of the entire island.

The first part of the book has several manuscript annotations in the same hand as the manuscript map, primarily concerning the bureaucracy and administration of the Kingdom of Kandy. Several corrections are written in the margins of chapter LVI (Offices, Casts and Miscellaneous Particulars), and the list of Singhalese sovereigns on the last page of the first work is expanded in manuscript up to the year 1815, ending with: "The English government established 2 March 1815 - Esto perpetua (may it always be so)". There is no owner's inscription, but the person who drew the map and added the annotations was evidently an Englishman with special interest in Kandy, and the notes, the paper and the circumstances suggest a British officer with a knowledge of the Singhalese language and cartography stationed in Kandy at the time of its capture.

In 1821 John Davy published his new map of Sri Lanka, which for the first time showed especially fine detail in the area around Kandy. No earlier map provided detailed information on the topography of the interior of Sri Lanka, as only the coastal areas were well documented. The present manuscript map is therefore a very early - or maybe even the first - attempt to record the topography of the interior. It was a forerunner to Davy's map and might have provided Davy with information, lending it great importance for the history of Sri Lankan cartography.

Several manuscript corrections in ink in the margins of the first work and several faded annotations in pencil in the margins of the second work. Folding engraved map foxed and first title-page slightly foxed. Spine repaired. The manuscript map has a tear at the foot of the fold, otherwise in good condition.

References

For the manuscript map cf. Ian J. Barrow, Surveying and Mapping in Colonial Sri Lanka: 1800-1900.

For Knox: Cox I, 276f. Henze III, 46f.