MAPS OF MUGHAL INDIA
Drawn by Colonel Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil, agent for the French Government to the Court of Shuja-ud-daula at Faizabad, in 1770
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Gentil's map of India from 'Essai sur I'lndoustan ou Empire Mogol', Paris 1785.
MANO HAR
1988
MONG the original works of art made
for Colonel Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gentil
at Faizabad in 1770 was a finely decorated atlas. For the first time, the map of
India was drawn from an indigenous
source and showed the political divisions of local
-administrative units according to local sources, not
from the garbled accounts o'f foreign visitors. The
twenty-one maps were based on the A'in-i Akbari of
Abu-I Fazl, the detailed record of the country made
for the emperor Akbar, which was available to Gentil
during his long stay at the court of Oudh, and was
shortly after to be translated into English.
Gentil's atlas had no influence on the European
cartography of India, though it contained far more
place names than any other map of the 18th century.
Only two copies existed, the one that is reproduced
here, and which was probably his personal copy,
and a copy that he made after his return to France
and presented to the King for the royal library. It has
been said that the maps are of little geographical
importance since they were based on literary
sources, not on surveys, but in the 18th century very
few parts of the world had been accurately surveyed.
Most maps of India were based on hearsay and a
few stray latitude readings. Maps made from route
marches were begun in Bengal by the British at about
the same time, but there was little accuracy over
most of the country till the triangulation surveys of
the next century. Gentil's maps covered areas that
were hardly known to Europeans till many decades
later, and especially in parts of the north-west, even
the names were known only from the geographical
descriptions, the places themselves being often
inaccessible to Europeans.
The few Mughal maps that have survived are
based on route marches, and were possibly inspired
by foreign maps from the west. There does not seem
to have been any indigenous Indian school of cartography, or even a need for maps. The Hindu,
Buddhist and Jain cosmographies have little to do
with the earth on which we live, though it is possible
that the ancient geographical texts can be shown to
have described actual areas known at the time they
were written. Yet the A'in-i Akbari was written in
such great detail that Gen:til was able to construct
maps in a European style from the lists of places
given in the Persian text. How specific his maps
were can be discovered by comparing them with
those printed on the facing pages, which are details
taken from the most recent French maps available to
Gentil, and which he probably used as a model
while preparing his suba maps. A feature of the
maps by d' Anville that immediately strikes one is the
large area in central India for which no information
was available in France, which d' Anville therefore
.
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U: C'Ol.!>NEI. !il~:'.'iTIL.
filled with his various scales of measurement. Gentil's
maps for this same area are covered with names,
and he might have visited some of the towns himself.
Comparison should also be made with the maps
in Irfan Habib's Atlas of the Mughal Empire since they
too show the place-names of the A'in-i Akbari, but on
modem maps, and correctly located. The variation
between the spellings in Gentil's atlas and that of
Habib is large, and may be partly solved by the second
column in the lists at the end of this volume, containing Sarkar's version of the place-names in 1949.
Respectable soldier, good Frenchman
Colonel Gentil spent twenty-five years in India,
and obviously enjoyed the life there. In a letter written
in 1777 to the due de Choiseul in France, Chevalier,
commandant of the French post at Chandemagore,
wrote about Gentil that his long-standing custom of
living among Asiatics had caused him to contract
their manners, so that he had almost lost those of his
native country; yet he did not attempt to deceive by
a seductive exterior, nor spare himself by deviating
from the truth. (The stereotyped European view of
Indian demeanour is apparent at this early date.) Gentil
was popular in Oudh, and particularly so with the
Nawab, Shuja-ud-daula who honoured him with titles
and continually increased his emoluments. When
Gentil's son was publishing his father's memoirs
he had the titles translated by Anquetil du Perron:
Rafi-ud-daula-raised in honour; Nazir Jangcommander in battle; Bahadur-valiant, great warrior;
and Tajbir-ul mulk-counsellor of the Emperor.
Though titles were cheaply earned during this
period, few Europeans were so honoured while
they were in residence there, or received such titles
in genuine regard, not as an act of servility on the
part of an obsequious local ruler.
Gentil went to India in 1752 as an ensign in an
infantry regiment. He had been born at Bagnols in
Languedoc on 25 June 1726 into a military family of
good lineage, but as the youngest of three sons he
had no inheritance, and preferred to travel to India
'to satisfy his curiosity after hearing of the wealth of
the Mughal empire'. We know so much about his
life and background because the biographical entry
for Michaud's Biographic universelle was written by
Louis Langles who knew him personally and who
dedicated his translation of George Forster' s A Journey
from Bengal to England in 1802 to Gentil, with a long
note on his life. In 1814 Gentil's son published a
pamphlet about his father, which was later included
in the Memoires of 1822.
In India, Gentil served with distinction under
Dupleix, de Bussy, Law de Lauriston, de Conflans
and Lally, being promoted to lieutenant in 1760 and
captain ten years later. As Langles wrote, he contributed to French successes, and was also witness to the
reverses. After the English capture of Masulipatam in
1759, Gentil was made prisoner, but soon released
and made his way north to join de Lauriston in time
for the capitulation at Chandemagore. Seeing no
future for the French army in India, Gentil found his
way to the court of the Nawab of Bengal, Mir Kasim,
and offered his services in the fight against the English.
He allied himself with Gourgin Khan, minister to
Kasim, and was ·horrified to see him assassinated
before his eyes. He risked his life attempting to save
the English prisoners at Patna, murdered by Sombre
under the orders of Mir Kasim, and this atrocity
persuaded Gentil to move on to the court of Shujaud-daula, Nawab of Oudh.
There he quickly became a valued friend, and
was chosen to conduct negotiations on behalf of the
Nawab with the English after the battle of Buxar.
The success of this mission increased his prestige
and influence, and he was entrusted with the reorganisation and training of the Nawab's army. He
collected together the French deserters from the
English army and formed them into a corps of 600
men, thus saving many from starvation, and hoping
gradually to lead the Nawab towards an alliance
with the French king. He was appointed the official
French agent at the court of Oudh, and sent home
regular reports on the situation in north India.
As long as Shuja-ud-daula was alive, Gentil
enjoyed a privileged position at the court, a handsome salary, and freedom to indulge his literary and
artistic interests. He kept open house to any who
chose to visit him and spent lavishly from his pocket
to help the needy. He was ill-repaid for this generosity,
however, since many of those he helped were scoundrels, according to Modave in his Voyage du Bengale a
Delhi. In particular, he was harmed by the deeds of a
private French merchant named Debraux who stole
a document dealing with some commercial transactions from Gentil's room, and pretended in Paris
that it was a letter of authority from the Nawab,
seeking an alliance with France. When the letter was
translated and its contents became clear, Debraux
claimed it was written in code. He managed to persuade the minister concerned and was sent out to
India as chief of the French factory at Patna. For his
supposed part in the alliance, Gentil was rewarded
with the Cross of St. Louis. All this, it was claimed,
was done without the knowledge of the French
establishment at Chandernagore or of its head,
Chevalier, though the English at Calcutta learned of
it much sooner. They sought to remove all French
influence from Oudh, especially the presence of
Gentil, whom they saw as the leader through his
close connection with the Nawab. Under the terms
of the treaty made at Allahabad, they were in a position to dictate to the Nawab whom he should employ,
and they were anxious that no other Europeans
should remain. They also learnt that William Bolts,
whom they were hying to have deported from India,
had been in correspondence with Gentil in 1767,
informing him of the confusion in the Company's
affairs in England. The Nawab managed to avoid dismissing Gentil, claiming that he was under obligation
to him for concluding the peace with the English,
and without Gentil to act as go-between he might
not have known the English at all. The Nawab was
able to resist all demands from the English, though
they pressed strongly, and at one stage he had to
agree to dismiss Gentil if a suitable pretext could
be found. After accompanying the Nawab on an
expedition against the Rohillas, Gentil actually took
his leave, but when he learned of Shuja's illness he
hurried back to Oudh, and under the pretence of
seeking audience to take formal leave, he brought a
French physician into the chamber who might have
been able to cure the Nawab. Jealousy in the harem
and among the nobles of the court prevailed, however, and the services of the foreign doctor were
refused. Shuja died on 26 January 1775. Within a
month his successor Asaf-ud-daula had bowed to
the wishes of the English and Gentil was dismissed.
He went to the French settlement at Chandemagore,
and by October 1777 was back in France. So ended
his very fruitful ten years at Oudh. Like many foreigners who spend quarter of a century away from
their country of birth, he found it difficult to settle
back in his own country, and died in poverty on 15
February 1799 at Bagnols.
While at Oudh, Gentil married Therese Velho
in 1772. She was the daughter of Sebastian Velho
and Lucia Mendece and a great niece of Juliana, the
Portuguese lady so powerful at the Delhi court during the first thirty years of the 18th century. Therese
died three months after their arrival in France, but
her mother who had accompanied them lived until
1806. In the disturbances following the French Revolution, Gentil lost the military pension that was
his sole means of livelihood. His life in India had
been spent in collecting literary and historical manuscripts, paintings and coins and these formed the
only wealth he brought back with him. He scorned
an English offer to buy the complete collection for
Rs 120,000, and presented it to his king, whom he
had served so loyally. S. P. Sen traced the beginning
of Indological studies in France to this gift of so
many fine manuscripts and claimed that 'for this
reason alone Gentil deserves to be remembered in
India more than any other Frenchman, more than
Duplei.x, Lally or Bussy, who played such an important part in the political history of the country.'
The manuscript collection
It was perhaps due to the political upheavals in
France after his return that none of Gentil's works
were published during his lifetime. The Memoires
had not been written for publication, but Gentil's
son felt his duty lay in informing the world of his
'virtuous father, respectable soldier and good Frenchman', and so had them published, including with
them various passages from the manuscript works.
Almost all Gentil's bound manuscripts are in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and they cover a wide
range of interests. Most are dated, and were written
while he was at Oudh. The earliest was a geographical
and historical description of India with the title 'Essai
sur l'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol tire de plusieurs
historiens et geographes lndiens a Faisabad capitale
de la province d'Avad. Par Gentil.' (Cat. no. FR
12,217). It was mainly a translation of the geographical
portions of the text by Abu-I Fazl and though undated
was probably made in 1769, as there is a reference
(page 43) to Shah Alam II having been emperor for
ten years, and living at Allahabad. An addition
made here in different ink states that harassment by
the English has driven the Emperor to withdraw to
Delhi, an event which took place in 1771. The atlas
reproduced here was probably made to accompany
this text, and is dated 1770.
In 1772 Gentil wrote 'Abrege historique des
Souverains de l'lndoustan' (Cat. no. FR 24,219) which
was drawn mainly from Ferishta, beginning with
the flood and concluding with the death of Shujaud-daula and Gentil's move to Chandernagore.
Each page of text is enclosed in double red lines, and
there are numerous paintings of the rulers, though
these are less in the second half, and many are unfinished. At a special audience in June 1778 Gentil
personally presented this manuscript to King Louis
XVI. A copy of his translation of part of the A'in-i
Akbari, again without maps or pictures, is dated
1773. On the title page is 'lndoustan ou Empire Mogol.
A Faizabad 1773, ParM. Gentil, CapitaineenService
de France, dans l'lnde, Chevalier de l'Ordre royal et
militaire de St Louis' (Cat. no. FR 9091). The same
year he also wrote 'Histoire des Pieces de Monnayes
qui ont ete frappees dans l'Indoustan' (Cat. no. FR
25,287), which contained 243 drawings of Indian
coins with their inscriptions and ninety royal portraits. In 1774 he wrote 'Divinites des Indoustans,
tirees des Pourans ou Livres historiques ou Samscretam' (Cat. no. FR 24,220) again embellished with
paintings of the divinities 'with the characters, colours
and bizarre physiognomies that are proper to them'.
After his return to France Gentil made another
copy of his translation from Indian authors and also
redrew the maps he had made for the atlas of 1770.
These were now dispersed throughout the text,
appearing in the appropriate place, and forming a
complete book of geography of India (Cat. no. FR
24,217). He kept the same title 'Essai sur l'lndoustan
ou Empire Mogol .. .' as in the original of 1769,
though the order of the maps was altered so that the
six maps of north-west India followed that of Gujarat
instead of coming last, and the order of the ten maps .
of eastern, central and sou them India varied slightly
within the group. This was presumably done to
focus attention on the north-westerri provinces of
India which were not yet under the control of the
British, especially Sind, where Gentil thought the
French might profitably manufacture cotton goods.
However Gentil did not attempt to copy the drawings which are such an attractive part of the earlier
atlas, though the toponymy is the same. He also
omitted the animals scattered over some of the
maps, replacing them with trees, which were easier
to draw. The date the copy was made is established
by examination of the passage referred to above
about the English harassment of Shah Alam II which
is now incorporated into the text, and the Emperor
is stated to have been ruling for eighteen years, not
ten. This provides a date of 1777, the same year in
which Gentil reached France. So po
the copy during the voyage home.
however, has been altered. In place o
have been added the words 'a VE
Possibly, Gentil felt that his earlier g
library had been ignored, and hopec
would bring an enhanced pecuniary
tion, little knowing that he was soon
the abolition of the monarchy. Thi
worth giving in translation, as it su
life and aims in his own words.
To the King, Sire,
Zeal for the glory of the
during my stay in the Indies tc
might provide some idea of tltries.
The Geography and the
have the honour to present tc
arc the work of several histori
all of the wazir {Aboulfasel) '\'\
been regarded as the wisest
capable minister of this empirE
1 waited, Sire, to place th
your eyes till the moment wh1
have humiliated the enemies·
our commerce in this part
Today, when your glorious rei;
the name of France the greates
parts of the globe, this is the tir
of your victory to enlarge tht
the nation. This volume can
design.
My travels, the twelve ye<
at the court of the grand wazir, r.
that this minister granted me
me in a position to provide tt
and most exact information th
Your Majesty will care to cast~
this work, you will see what ad
ministers might sain from b
opening new centres, especia
vince of Tatta where cloth for F:
produced; in this way the ne
much gold and silver to India mi
and the circulation of curre
more plentiful in a kingdom of
the delight and the glory.
Gentil's signature follows the usual fe
There is one more manuscript all
and this, like the atlas, has recently fc
England. In 1980 the Victoria and A
acquired a volume titled 'Recueil de le
Dessins sur Jes Usages et Coutumes c
l'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol, d'a1
peintres Indiens NEV ASILAL, MC
he Nawab towards an alliance
g. He was appointed the official
court of Oudh, and sent home
1e situation in north India.
uja-ud-daula was alive, Gentil
d position at the court, a hand·edom to indulge his literary and
e kept open house to any who
1d spent lavishly from his pocket
:! was ill-repaid for this generosity,
1 of those he helped were scoun,foda vein his Voyage du Bengalea
he was harmed by the deeds of a
:hant named Debraux who stole
with some commercial transacroom, and pretended in Paris
of authority from the Nawab,
vith France. When the letter was
ontents became clear, Debraux
en in code. He managed to perconcerned and was sent out to
French factory at Patna. For his
e alliance, Gentil was rewarded
. Louis. All this, it was claimed,
the knowledge of the French
'handernagore or of its head,
1e English at Calcutta learned of
?Y sought to remove all French
:ih, especially the presence of
saw as the leader through his
th the Nawab. Under the terms
~Allahabad, they were in a posi~awab whom he should employ,
fous that no other Europeans
y also learnt that William Bolts,
ing to have deported from India,
pondence with Gentil in 1767,
1e confusion in the Company's
1e Nawab managed to avoid disting that he was under obligation
ng the peace with the English,
to act as go-between he might
! English at all. The Nawab was
1ands from the English, though
;ly, and at one stage he had to
mtil if a suitable pretext could
:ompanying the Nawab on an
1e Rohillas, Gentil actually took
he learned of Shuja's illness he
dh, and under the pretence of
take formal leave, he brought a
:o the chamber who might have
~ Nawab. Jealousy in the harem
les of the court prevailed, howces of the foreign doctor were
nn ?f.. hn11~n1
177'i. Within
i1
month his successor Asaf-ud-daula had bowed to
the wishes of the English and Gentil was dismissed.
He went to the French settlement at Chandemagore,
and by October 1777 was back in France. So ended
his very fruitful ten years at Oudh. Like many foreigners who spend quarter of a century away from
their country of birth, he found it difficult to settle
back in his own country, and died in poverty on 15
· February 1799 at Bagnols.
While at Oudh, Gentil married Therese Velho
in 1772. She was the daughter of Sebastian Velho
and Lucia Mendece and a great niece of Juliana, the
Portuguese lady so powerful at the Delhi court during the first thirty years of the 18th century. Therese
died three months after their arrival in France, but
her mother who had accompanied them lived until
1806. In the disturbances following the French Revolution, Gentil lost the military pension that was
his sole means of livelihood. His life in India had
been spent in collecting literary and historical manuscripts, paintings and coins and these formed the
only wealth he brought back with him. He scorned
an English offer to buy the complete collection for
Rs 120,000, and presented it to his king, whom he
had served so loyally. S. P. Sen traced the beginning
of Indological studies in France to this gift of so
many fine manuscripts and claimed that 'for this
reason alone Gentil deserves to be remembered in
India more than any other Frenchman, more than
Dupleix, Lally or Bussy, who played such an important part in the political history of the country.'
The manuscript collection
It was perhaps due to the political upheavals in
France after his return that none of Gentil's works
were published during his lifetime. The Memoires
had not been written for publication, but Gentil's
son felt his duty lay in informing the world of his
'virtuous father, respectable soldier and good Frenchman', and so had them published, including with
them various passages from the manuscript works.
Almost all Gentil's bound manuscripts are in the
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and they cover a wide
range of interests. Most are dated, and were written
while he was at Oudh. The earliest was a geographical
and historical description of India with the title 'Essai
sur l'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol tire de plusieurs
historiens et geographes lndiens a Faisabad capitale
de la province d' Avad. Par Gentil.' (Cat. no. FR
12,217). It was mainly a translation of the geographical
portions of the text by Abu-I Fazl and though undated
was probably made in 1769, as there is a reference
(page 43) to Shah Alam II having been emperor for
ten years, and living at Allahabad. An addition
made here in different ink states that harassment by
the Enelish has driven the Emperor to withdraw to
Delhi, an event which took place in 1771. The atlas
reproduced here was probably made to accompany
this text, and is dated 1770.
In 1772 Gentil wrote 'Abrege historique des
Souverains de l'Indoustan' (Cat. no. FR 24,219) which
was drawn mainly from Ferishta, beginning with
the flood and concluding with the death of Shujaud-daula and Gentil's move to Chandernagore.
Each page of text is enclosed in double red lines, and
there are numerous paintings of the rulers, though
these are less in the second half, and many are unfinished. At a special audience in June 1778 Gentil
personally presented this manuscript to King Louis
XVI. A copy of his translation of part of the A'in-i
Akbari, again without maps or pictures, is dated
1773. On the title page is 'Indoustan ou Empire Mogol.
A Faizabad 1773, Par M. Gentil, Capitaine en Service
de France, dans l'Inde, Chevalier de l'Ordre royal et
militaire de St Louis' (Cat. no. FR 9091). The same
year he also wrote 'Histoire des Pieces de Monnayes
qui ont ete frappees dans l'lndoustan' (Cat. no. FR
25,287), which contained 243 drawings of Indian
coins with their inscriptions and ninety royal portraits. In 1774 he wrote 'Divinites des lndoustans,
tirees des Pourans ou Livres historiques ou Samscretam' (Cat. no. FR 24,220) again embellished with
paintings of the divinities 'with the characters, colours
and bizarre physiognomies that are proper to them'.
After his return to France Gentil made another
copy of his translation from Indian authors and also
redrew the maps he had made for the atlas of 1770.
These were now dispersed throughout the text,
appearing in the appropriate place, and forming a
complete book of geography of India (Cat. no. FR
24,217). He kept the same title 'Essai sur l'Jndoustan
ou Empire Mogol ... ' as in the original of 1769,
though the order of the maps was altered so that the
six maps of north-west India followed that of Gujarat
instead of coming last, and the order of the ten maps
of eastern, central and southern India varied slightly
within the group. This was presumably done to
focus attention on the north-western provinces of
India which were not yet under the control of the
British, especially Sind, where Gentil thought the
French might profitably manufacture cotton goods·.
However Gentil did not attempt to copy the drawings which are such an attractive part of the earlier
atlas, though the toponymy is the same. He also
omitted the animals scattered over some of the
maps, replacing them with trees, which were easier
to draw. The date the copy was made is established
by examination of the passage referred to above
about the English harassment of Shah Alam 11 which
is now incorporated into the text, and the Emperor
is stated to have been ruling for eighteen years, not
ten. This provides a date of 1777, the same year in
which Gentil reached France. So possibly he made
the copy during the voyage home. The title page,
however, has been altered. In place of Gentil's name
have been added the words 'a Versailles, 1785.'
Possibly, Gentil felt that his earlier gifts to the royal
library had been ignored, and hoped that this book
would bring an enhanced pecuniary benefit or position, little knowing that he was soon to lose all with
the abolition of the monarchy. The dedication is
worth giving in translation, as it sums up Gentil's
life and aims in his own words.
To the King, Sire,
Zeal for the glory of the nation led me
during my stay in the Indies to collect all that
might provide some idea of these vast countries.
The Geography and the maps which I
have the honour to present to Your Majesty
are the work of several historians, but above
all of the wazir (Aboulfasel) who has always
been regarded as the wisest and the most
capable minister of this empire.
I waited, Sire, to place this work before
your eyes till the moment when your armies
have humiliated the enemies ever jealous of
our commerce in this part of the world.
Today, when your glorious reign has given to
the name of France the greatest renown in all
parts of the globe, this is the time to make use
of your victory to enlarge the commerce of
the nation. This volume can help fulfil this
design.
My travels, the twelve years that I spent
at the court of the grand wazir, and the honour
that this minister granted me there, placed
me in a position to provide the most recent
and most exact information that we have. If
Your Majesty will care to cast your eyes over
this work, you will see what advantages your
ministers might gain from business, from ,
opening new centres, especially in the province of Tatta where cloth for France might be
produced; in this way the need to send so
much gold and silver to India might be avoided
and the circulation of currency rendered
more plentiful in a kingdom of which you are
the delight and the glory.
Gentil's signature follows the usual felicitations.
There is one more manuscript album by Gentil,
and this, like the atlas, has recently found its way to
England. In 1980 the Victoria and Albert Museum
acquired a volume titled 'Recueil de toutes sortes de
Dessins sur Jes Usages et Coutumes des Peuples de
l'lndoustan ou Empire Mogol, d'apres plusieurs
peintres lndiens NEV ASILAL, MOUNSINGUE,
u Nabob Visio Soudjaadaula, Gou:fes provinces d'Eleabad et d' Avad,
te fait par les soins du Sr GENTIL
?rie, en 1774, a Faisabad.' Here, on
are many of the paintings already
, the 'Abrege historique' and the
; and deities. Yet each drawing is
:. For example, the two fighting
::aboul map have different stances
md the strongmen of the Eleabad
gorous and alive than the similar
1eil'. The volume appears to be a
>llection of the paintings that Gentil
~ most expressive in his attempt to
eh government and people about
re.
:>lio volume is about the same size as
1tains paintings on one side of the
1e facing pages, manuscript notes
hands have been pasted in. Many
kal with the text published in the
~ntil's son in 1822; others are
~ figures in the pictures. It is likely
m to France, Gentil assembled his
ntinuous narrative, combining his
with the geographical and histori:the country that he had translated
ors, and it is this manuscript that
; in 1822, and did not return, and
•n paper to be pasted into the 'Re:;entil or by his son. Som~ of the
certainly seem to be in Gentil' s
in the 'Recueil' follow a rational
st part deals with life at the court,
I durbar, ladies in the harem gar1ousehold staff (each one carefully
f transport, and the royal hunt and
;times. The second half covers the
s of India, and their practices and
lso includes sections on weapons
ere are also two pictures of Gentil
he is fair-skinned in European
.ong red coat, being presented to
1e Nawab. On f.17 he is part of the
al Carnac and is indistinguishable
>uring from the other emissaries
daula. A note below states that he
so that he might travel more easily
ryside. In both pictures the style is
we thus get little idea of what
>kcd like. Fortunately, we have a
P. Boudier, which was used as a
Memoires in 1822.
e manuscripts listed above, Gentil
l large number of Indian miniature
..... ""' ...... _:_,.,. •-
l~A•~..-. l~rtn1t-:.,n.oc-
I-lo
excellent milk, and hoped they might be cross-bred
for use in France.
In a Memoire (in manuscript) dated 25 May 1778
that Gentil sent to Paris soon after reaching France
in order to secure his pension, he named as one of
his achievements 'travailler pour la litterature',
since he had collected all the manuscripts he could
lay his hands on which might one day aid him in
writing a full history of Hindustan, and wrote that
the Geography accompanied by twenty-one maps
'ne laissent rien a desirer' (leave nothing to be
desired) for the knowledge of this empire, since
they were made on the spot according to local geographies. Unfortunately his plans did not mature,
as there is no record of his having assembled all his
material into a comprehensive history, and we have
only the manuscript volumes listed above and the
Memoires published later by his son.
The title page of the Memoires sur l'lndoustan, ou
Empire Mogol gave Gentil's full credentials as author:
'M. Gentil, ancien colonel d'infanterie, Chevalier de
I' ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis, resident
franc;ais aupresdu premiervezyrdel'empire, nabab
et souverain d' Aoude, d'Eleabad, etc, Choudja-aed-doulah, general des troupes mogoles au service
de ce prince, etc.' The octavo volume was published
had employed three Indian artists at Oudh and it is
difficult to know how many of these miniatures were
copied on his orders, and how many he bought
or collected while he was there. They are in the
Cabinet des Estampes at the Bibliotheque Nationale,
bound in several volumes. They cover a wide range
of subjects and possibly supplied the originals for
the royal portraits in the 'Abrege historique' and the
decoration to the atlas maps. Before Gentil's return
the royal library held a total of 124 Indian manuscripts, according to the leading French scholar of
Indian studies, Anquetil du Perron. Gentil' s gift of
133 manuscripts in Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit,
Marathi, Bengali and Tamil thus more than doubled
the collection. He also donated his collection of
arms, a. large number of coins, thirty-five of them
gold, and some medals depicting the Emperors. He
was interested in objects of natural history, and dispatched from India twelve ewes and six rams from
Tibet, the type whose wool was used for the famous
shawls of Kashmir. They reached as far as the Ile-deFrance, while the musk-deer that he sent went further,
and was the only one of its kind to reach the zoo at
Versailles alive. He also sent to He de Bourbon four
cows and two bulls from Gujarat as he found them
cheap to maintain while giving ;:i large quantity of
.
----------,...-...-·"'""°~,- '·.-·,-_-~.:c-.
- '
· :: f~!{"(·:~~~~-~¥:.riili
The title page to Gentil' s Atlas. Compared to the neat work on the maps, the design here is crude. The paper with lettl'ring
has been pasted on the page, and the outline added later. At the bottom Gentil's name has been erased and the title
'Colonel' written in its place. The smudges are in the original. Though Gentil's Mughal seal was stamped correctly on the
r<•v<>rc: nf th<> :otl:ac: it ic: invPrlPd hPrP Pnc;c;ihlv th<• 1.\'holv n,,pp "'a<: alt .. rPd at a lat.•r ""'" hv r..-ntil'c:: c::nn
in Paris by Petit of the Palais-Royal, Galeries de Bois,
and contained over 400 pages. It was dedicated 'A la
Memoirc de Choudja-a-ed-doulah. D fut constamrnent
I'ami et le protecteur des franc;ais', to Shuja-uddaula, ever the friend and protector of the French.
In addition to the portrait of Gentil by Boudier, it
contained portraits of Nadir Shah and Shuja-uddaula, and also an anonymous map of India, made
entirely in the European style of the day, with no
influence from Gentil's maps.
After a brief geographical and historical description of the Deccan the first chapter outlined the
political situation in south India, and the French
struggles there against the British. The second chapter
concerned Thomas Quli Khan-the European name
for Nadir Shah--and his 'conquest of India'. Chapters
three and four dealt with the situation in Bengal and
events in the life of Shuja-ud-daula. The fifth chapter
described an event of 1788, when, in Paris, Gentil
was appointed interpreter and guide to the emissaries sent by Tipu Sultan. This was followed by a
short chapter on Warren Hastings, whom Gentil
had tried to assist during the impeachment by writing
letters to London. The book closed with sketches of
five women who had played an important role in
India: Razia, Nur Jahan, Jahanara, Juliana, and
Begum Samru. Appendixes added by Gentil's son
gave accounts from others, such as Langles and
Anquetil du Perron, letters and citations, lists of
items brought back by Gentil, and additional information thought relevant by his son. The book seems
to have had little success, since it remained almost
unknown. In a paper read at the tenth public meeting of the Indian Historical Records Commission
held at Rangoon in December 1927, Sir Evan Cotton
summarized the book, adding comments on matters
omitted by Gentil and highlighting the English view
of certain events. Cotton expressed surprise that
the book was so little known, even by those writing
specifically about events at which Gentil was present,.
Possibly the book had appeared too long after the
events which it described, and in the interim the
French people had been occupied with other
momentous affairs.
European map-making
The European maps of India available to travellers at this time were more suited to giving a general
idea of the country than for finding a particular place
or route. India had been shown on maps since the
days of Ptolemy and the early circular world maps,
but rarely in a recognisable shape. Marco Polo's
account added more modem names, and the early
mariners' reports brought the triangular shape that
we know today. In 1619 a detailed map of north
India was made bv William Baffin under the guidance
of Sir Thomas Roe, who had been sent as ambassador
by the EngJish King to the court of Jahangir. Dutch
and French maps during the 17th century gradually
added more detail. As individual travellers returned
home and published their journals, the cartographers in Europe attempted to fit the towns, rivers and
mountains into the existing outlines. Measurements
were vague and rarely meant the same distance in
all parts of the country. The names, too, were hard
for Europeans to transcribe into their own language,
and this problem was compounded when they were
translated within the languages of Europe. It sometimes happened that the same place occurred twice
on the map with a different spelling, thus appearing
to be two different places.
In the first half of the 18th century war between
t~e English and the French in south India emphasised t~e need for better maps, and army engineers
were given the task of surveying the route through
which the army had marched, or where the battle
was expected to be fought. This development came
later to the north and it was not until the British had
gained large tracts of territory that actual surveys
were begun. James Rennell was appointed the first
Surveyor General of Bengal in 1767, but his map of
the whole of India was not published until after his
return to England, in 1782. The first map based on
his surveys was of Bengal and Bihar in 1776, with an
extension as far as Delhi the following year. Soon
the value of correct maps was apparent to the revenue
collectors, and as the British acquired territory, so
their maps became more detailed and covered wider
areas. The triangulation surveys were begun in 1802
in the south, and by the middle of the century had
spread over most of the sub-continent.
If Gentil had a map of India with him when he
was at Oudh it would probably have been the large
four sheet map drawn by J.B.B.d' Amrille in 1752. This
was on a scale of 17 French leagues of 2500 yards
(about 60 miles) to an inch, and there were many
large areas completely blank, for which d' Anville
had no reliable information. To the north it went
hardly eighty miles beyond Delhi and except for two
short routes into Rajasthan there was nothing north
of a line from Delhi to Somnath. For information
about the lndus river and the northern part of India
the reader was directed to the same author's map of
Asia, on an even smaller scale.
D' Anville's map of India showed six different
scales of measurement. Two were French, the French
league of 2500 yards and the marine league of 20 to a
degree. The other four were all Indian, different
versions of the cos. There was the cos of the minars
between Agra and Delhi, equal to 1335 yards, the
large cos of 33 to a degree, the common cos of 37 to a
degree, and the 'gos' or 'gau', a nautical measure
from the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, which
was four times the length of the northern cos. In his
text Gentil wrote that a cos equalled three-quarters
of a league of 25 to a degree. However he was aware
of the difficulties he faced in making his maps, without any accurate surveys on which to base them, or
even detailed route journals. In the atlas of 1785 he
added a Note:
In the maps shown here, the author has
included only the most important towns,
market-towns and villages or aldees in the
circars or parganas. Their position cannot be
correct, as he has located them in accordance
with the Indian geographies which are texts
only, and have no maps. This means they
also have no scale. The size of each province
follows the Ayin-i Akbari, as do their boundaries and their produce. The intention in
making the maps was to give the best possible
idea of the country to the Ministers, and to
show them how important it is that France
does not permit the further strengthening of
English power there. (page 238)
Since many of the words he used were new to
him, Gentil was careful to define their meanings. A
soubah was a large area with a governor-general,
called a soubahdar. A drear was an area containing
between three and 50 parganas. A pargana was smaller
and contained between three and 50 aldees. An a/dee
was a village whose size depended upon the
number of bigahs it held. A bigalz was a field of 80
square yards. A yard was estimated at 3 feet 2
inches.
Colonel Gentil's Atlas
As can be seen from the title page, Gentil made
this atlas while he was at Faizabad, in 1770. It is thus
one of his earliest works. He had already been at
Faizabad for about five years by the time the date
was written, but there is no reference as to how long
he had been working on it, or who else had been
employed on it with him. Translation of part of the
Ain-i Akbari had been included in the Essai sur
l'Indoustan' of 1769, and it is presumed that the
atlas was made to ac.company and illustrate this text.
The original Persian manuscript that he used is possibly one of those he deposited with the royal library
after his return to France. In addition, he used other
untraced manuscripts for the southern part of India
of which the sarkars and parganas had not been
listed by Abu-I Fazl.
The atlas is oblong in shape, 55 cm by 38 cm.
The sheets were loose when they were painted or
inscribed, but were then bound by pasting a band
of blue silk along one of the shorter edges of the
paper, and then this silk strip was stitched with six
stitches to hold the sheets together. They were then
bound within two quite thick boards which were
covered with patterned blue silk cloth. The paper is
European with a fleur de lys and crown watermark.
There is no identifying maker's name or mark, but
similar watermarks are found in French and English
books of the 1760s, especially on paper used for
maps (Heawood Watermarks, 1950, no. 1743 is the
nearest). A note on the back cover reads '42 feuille',
and the page number at the top centre of the last
map, that of Lahore, is '83 et dernier'. That means
that there were 42 folios, and page 83 was the last,
with its verso blank. Another set of numbers is in
lighter ink at the upper comers of the pages; they
run from 12 through to 98, omitting 14-15 and 20-21,
so perhaps Gentil planned an introduction or text
which he later omitted. The title page is not included
in either set of numbering, and was probably added
after the other pages were complete. It is inscribed
with heavy black ink, 'Empire Mogol divise en 21
soubas ou Gouvemements tire de differens ecrivains
du pals a Faisabad MDCCLXX'. Below is Gentil's
Persian seal, but next to it his name has been crudely
erased, and 'Colonel' put in its place (he was
awarded this rank after his return to France, in
1778). The seal appears three times, here where it is
upside down, and correctly inside the front and
back covers. Next to it on the front cover is the
inscription 'Cet atlas appartient aMr Gentil l'indien'
(This atlas belongs to Monsieur Gentil the Indian)
and just below it is his signature and 'l'indien'
repeated, this time in brackets.
On the verso of the title page is a list of the maps
with their page numbers written in ink; to the left of
these numbers is another column in pencil referring
to the pages which have text only. This table of contents is on blue paper and has been pasted on the
outer half of the page. The inner half contains coi_ns
of the various Indian dynasties, as do folios 2, 2
verso, and 4 verso. These coins are beautifully
drawn, both sides shown, each with a gold rim, and
the name of the king in French below. The numbering is from right to left, suggesting that they were
designed and drawn by a Persian-speaking person,
not Gentil himself. The dates of each are given
according to A.H., not A.D. All the pages are
inscribed on one side only, except the verso of the
title page, two pages with coins as noted above, and
folio 14 verso where the long list of subas in Bengal
requires two pages. Each map folio is preceded by a
folio listing the sarkars and parganas which are to be
found in the map and which have been translated
from the Indian texts. The handwriting is fairly clear
though some letters are difficult to distinguish, and
often they seem to be rather carelessly written. For
example, frequently the crossb
omitted, so that it is read as an 'I
torn in half vertically, apparen
use, since there were insufficiE
Kabul to fill a whole page-poss
this size was difficult to obtain.
inadvertently tom horizontally,
third is missing, and along with
Blank blue paper has been pasted
sing portion. The number of coh
varies, as many as twelve on th•
Bengal, and six on the page for A
text pages have been filled wit
usually birds or plants, similar in
adorn the map pages. Alongside
bad is a plan of the fort of Alla
probably been supplied by Josep
it appears also in his Beschreibun
1785. All the names translated b'
copied as he wrote them, and pi
this volume. The maps have bee
in size in this reproduction. ThE
the total painted area and the dim
portion have been given below
folio.
The coastline of Gentil's maF
that of d' Anville's map of India oJ
noticeable in the map of Hydera
the whole of south India. In ne
mountain ranges correctly place
better knowledge of the river syst
rally, since he had no facilities fc
are far from correctly drawn. D' A
larly short of information for cen
most of it completely blank. Intl
d' Anville's map did not extend to
as it was then, even though the
would have permitted this. In th
was reticent about his own m
India, except during the military
south, so we have little knowledg•
he travelled, or even by which ro
after the French defeat in south:
record that he visited the Mughc
jahanabad, though he must surei
ous to see it. When he was forced
he was, according to the Memoir•
post with the emperor, which he c
the weak positon of the empire b)
was no doubt sad to leave Faizaba
that his twenty-five years in Indic
period, and time well-spent.
Company painting in Oudh
'As there was no potentate in·
in such splendid style as he, and a
had been sent as ambassador
the court of Jahangir. Dutch
g the 17th century gradually
idividual travellers returned
heir journals, the cartograed to fit the towns, rivers and
:ing outlines. Measurements
meant the same distance in
The names, too, were hard
ibe into their own language,
impounded when they were
nguages of Europe. It somee same place occurred twice
ent spelling, thus appearing
'5.
1e 18th century war between
:nch in south India empha~ maps, and army engineers
urveying the route through
arched, or where the battle
;ht. This development came
Nas not until the British had
?rritory that actual surveys
nell was appointed the first
lgal in 1767, but his map of
lot published until after his
'82. The first map based on
d and Bihar in 1776, with an
ti the following year. Soon
was apparent to the revenue
ritish acquired territory, so
detailed and covered wider
surveys were begun in 1802
·middle of the century had
;uh-continent.
of India with him when he
·obably have been the large
J.B.B.d'Anville in 1752. This
?nch leagues of 2500 yards
1ch, and there were many
Jlank, for which d' Anville
tion. To the north it went
nd Delhi and except for two
an there was nothing north
Somnath. For information
:I the northern part of India
o the same author's map of
scale.
India showed six different
wo were French, the French
the marine league of 20 to a
were all Indian, different
? was the cos of the minars
i, equal to 1335 yards, the
a.a....---_... ...... __ ,.-.C' " ' ~7 tn ~
from the coasts of Maia bar and Coromandel, which
was four times the length of the northern cos. In his
text Gentil wrote that a cos equalled three-quarters
of a league of 25 to a degree. However he was aware
of the difficulties he faced in making his maps, without any accurate surveys on which to base them, or
even detailed route journals. In the atlas of 1785 he
added a Note:
In the maps shown here, the author has
included only the most important towns,
market-towns and villages or aldees in the
circars or parganas. Their position cannot be
correct, as he has located them in accordance
with the Indian geographies which are texts
only, and have no maps. This means they
also have no scale. The size of each province
follows the Ayin-i Akbari, as do their boundaries and their produce. The intention in
making the maps was to give the best possible
idea of the country to the Ministers, and to
show them how important it is that France
does not permit the further strengthening of
English power there. (page 238)
Since many of the words he used were new to
him, Gentil was careful to define their meanings. A
soubah was a large area with a governor-general,
called a soubahdar. A drear was an area containing
between three and 50 parganas. A pargana was smaller
and contained between three and 50 aldees. An a/dee
was a village whose size depended upon the
number of bigahs it held. A bigah was a field of 80
square yards. A yard was estimated at 3 feet 2
inches.
Colonel Gentil's Atlas
As can be seen from the title page, Gentil made
this atlas while he was at Faizabad, in 1770. It is thus
one of his earliest works. He had already been at
Faizabad for about five years by the time the date
was written, but there is no reference as to how long
he had been working on it, or who else had been
employed on it with him. Translation of part of the
Ain-i Akbari had been included in the Essai sur
l'Indoustan' of 1769, and it is presumed that the
atlas was made to accompany and illustrate this text.
The original Persian manuscript that he used is possibly one of those he deposited with the royal library
after his return to France. In addition, he used other
untraced manuscripts for the southern part of India
of which the sarkars and parganas had not been
listed by Abu-I Faz).
The atlas is oblong in shape, 55 cm by 38 cm.
The sheets were loose when they were painted or
inscribed, but were then bound by pastin~ a band
paper, and then this silk strip was stitched with six
stitches to hold the sheets together. They were then
bound within two quite thick boards which were
covered with patterned blue silk cloth. The paper is
European with a fleur de lys and crown watermark.
There is no identifying maker's name or mark, but
similar watermarks are found in French and English
books of the 1760s, especially on paper used for
maps (Heawood Watermarks, 1950, no. 1743 is the
nearest). A note on the back cover reads '42 feuille',
and the page number at the top centre of the last
map, that of Lahore, is '83 et demier'. That means
that there were 42 folios, and page 83 was the last,
with its verso blank. Another set of numbers is in
lighter ink at the upper comers of the pages; they
run from 12 through to98, omitting 14-15and 20-21,
so perhaps Gentil planned an introduction or text
which he later omitted. The title page is not included
in either set of numbering, and was probably added
after the other pages were complete. It is inscribed
with heavy black ink, 'Empire Mogol divise en 21
soubas ou Gouvemements tire de differens ecrivains
du pa1s a Faisabad MDCCLXX'. Below is Gentil's
Persian seal, but next to it his name has been crudely
erased, and 'Colonel' put in its place (he was
awarded this rank after his return to France, in
1778). The seal appears three times, here where it is
upside down, and correctly inside the front and
back covers. Next to it on the front cover is the
inscription 'Cet atlas appartient aMr Gentil l'indien'
(This atlas belongs to Monsieur Gentil the Indian)
and just below it is his signature and 'l'indien'
repeated, this time in brackets.
On the verso of the title page is a list of the maps
with their page numbers written in ink; to the left of
these numbers is another column in pencil referring
to the pages which have text only. This table of contents is on blue paper and has been pasted on the
outer half of the page. The inner half contains coins
of the various Indian dynasties, as do folios 2, 2
verso, and 4 verso. These coins are beautifully
drawn, both sides shown, each with a gold rim, and
the name of the king in French below. The numbering is from right to left, suggesting that they were
designed and drawn by a Persian-speaking person,
not Gentil himself. The dates of each are given
according to A.H., not A.O. All the pages are
inscribed on one side only, except the verso of the
title page, two pages with coins as noted above, and
folio 14 verso where the long list of subas in Bengal
requires two pages. Each map folio is preceded by a
folio listing the sarkars and parganas which are to be
found in the map and which have been translated
from the Indian texts. The handwriting is fairly dear
thou eh some letters are difficult to distinITTJish. and
example, frequently the crossbar of 't' has been
omitted, so that it is read as an 'I'. Folio 38 has been
tom in half vertically, apparently for some other
use, since there were insufficient names in suba
Kabul to fill a whole page-possibly good paper of
this size was difficult to obtain. Folio 28 has been
inadvertently tom horizontally, so that about one
third is missing, and along with it some of the text.
Blank blue paper has been pasted to replace the missing portion. The number of columns to each page
varies, as many as twelve on the crowded page of
Bengal, and six on the page for Ajmir. Spaces in the
text pages have been filled with small drawings,
usually birds or plants, similar in style to those that
adorn the map pages. Alongside the suba of Allahabad is a plan of the fort of Allahabad, which had
probably been supplied by Joseph Tieffenthaler, as
it appears also in his Besclireibung von Hindustan of
1785. All the names translated by Gentil have been
copied as he wrote them, and placed at the end of
this volume. The maps have been slightly reduced
in size in this reproduction. The original width of
the total painted area and the dimensions of the map
portion have been given below the notes to each
folio.
The coastline of Gcntil's maps mainly followed
that of d' Anville's map of India of 1752. This is most
noticeable in the map of Hyderabad which covers
the whole of south India. In neither map are the
mountain ranges correctly placed, but Gentil had
better knowledge of the river systems, though naturally, since he had no facilities for surveying, they
are far from correctly drawn. D' Anville was particularly short of information for central India, and left
most of it completely blank. In the north-west too,
d' Anville's map did not extend to the limits of India
as it was then, even though the size of his paper
would have permitted this.· In the Memoires Gentil
was reticent about his own movements within
India, except during the military campaigns in the
south, so we have little knowledge about how much
he travelled, or even by which route he went north
after the French defeat in south India. There is no
record that he visited the Mughal capital of Shahjahanabad, though he must surely have been curious to see it. When he was forced to leave Faizabad,
he was, according to the Memoires, offered a good
post with the emperor, which he declined, knowing
the weak positon of the empire by then. Though he
was no doubt sad to leave Faizabad, he probably felt
that his twenty-five years in India had been a good
period, and time well-spent.
Company painting in Oudh
'As thPrP was no notPntatP in anv countrv livinP
I
wealth, rank, and Javish diffusion of money in every
street and market, artisans and scholars flocked hither
from Dhaka, Bengal, Gujrat, Malwah, Haidera-bad,
Shahjahanabad,
Lahaur,
Peshawar,
Kabul,
Kashmir and Mullan.' This is how Muhammad Faiz
Bakhsh d~scribed the court of Shuja-ud-daula at
Faizabad. The splendour of the Mughal court at
Agra and Delhi was gone by the middle of the 18th
century, and Delhi itself was in ruins after the devastating raids of the Rohillas. So Shuja-ud-daula
became the leading patron of the arts in north India.
As Gentil narrated it, Shuja-ud-daula was the
maternal grandson of Sa' adat Khan, Governor of
Agra and Viceroy of Oudh under the Emperor Farrukhsiyar. Shuja's father Safdarjang was Sa'adat
Khan's nephew and son-in-law, and succeeded to
his titles. He was made vazir in 1747 when Ahmed
Shah came to the throne, but the jealousy of Ghaziud-din Khan drove him to retire to his estates where
he died in 1754. Shuja succeeded to the title of Mir
Atish, and to the suba of Arig, Oudh and Allahabad.
Other historians may differ, but this is how Gentil
heard it at Faizabad.
In 1765, after the treaty with the British at
Allahabad, Shuja moved his capital from Lucknow
to Faizabad, and set about building a city worthy of
his name. On his death, however, his son returned
to Lucknow, and Faizabad was left to decay after its
brief period of splendour. There is no record of painting at Lucknow in the first half of the century, and
the work of any artists there were was probably
indistinguishable from the imperial style at Delhi.
There is an album of 115 paintings in the Victoria
and Albert Museum (1.5. 48-1956) that was presented
to Lord Clive by Shuja-ud-daula in about 1765-67,
the time that Gentil began his employment there.
No European influence is apparent in the paintings
which are mainly portraits and flowers, and no
record of who painted them. Yet within five years
Gentil was able to acquire series of albums full of
paintings in the style he wanted. Mildred Archer, in
her notice about the Gentil atlas in the IOL Report
for 1978, has described the artistic milieu at
Faizabad:
At the time when Gentil was living in
Faizabad, Oudh was culturally in a flourishing
state. After the troubles in Delhi during 1759
to 1761, many Delhi families including writers
and artists had moved there. This was a great
period of Urdu poetry when Mirza Muhammad Rafi Sauda, Mian Hazrat and Ashraf
Ali Khan were writing. Painting also was
flourishing. The Nawab and nobility were
patronising artists and many portraits and
genre scenes were being produced in a dis-
tinctive style. Elongated figures in white
jamns were shown sitting on terraces or walking
in gardens with ladies as gay as the parterres
of flowers through which they strolled.
Faizabad was an ideal centre for Gentil who
took a Jively interest in Indian life and culture.
Dr Archer goes on to describe the paintings that
surround the maps in GentiJ's atlas:
Sty1istically they are very close to other
drawings in the Library's collection-those
commissioned in neighbouring Lucknow by
Richard Johnson, Head Assistant to the
British Resident, during 1780 to 1782. Some
closely resemble the works of Sita) Das who
made a set of paintings for Johnson depicting
Vedic sacrifices (Album 5)-subjects which
incidentally appear on the map of I<handesh
in Gentil's atlas. Others have much in common
with the work of Gobind Singh and Ghulam
Reza who produced a ragmala (Album 42) for
Johnson and also illustrated for him the
fables of the Ivar-i-Danish (Album 54). All these
sets are illustrated in watercolour in the same
delicate colours-grey, pink, mauve, pale
yellow and green-as those used by Gentil's
artists. It is dear that adjustments to European
tastes and interests had in fact begun at
Faizabad at least ten years before Johnson
went to Lucknow. It is also significant that in
Gentil's atlas, subjects which were later to
become the stock-in-trade of 'Company'
painters were already present in miniature
form. Hitherto the early date of this phenomenon in northern India has not been fully
recognised, but as proof of it there is no more
vivid testimony than Gentil's private copy of
the illustrated atlas in the Library's collection.
Tilly Kettle was also working in Faizabad in
1772, and his work greatly influenced the Indian
artists painting for Europeans. Gentil acquired the
original of a portrait of Shuja painted by Tilly when
the copy he had had made was appropriated by the
Nawab, and presented it to the king when he got
back to France. It is now in the Versailles Museum.
Another painting of the Nawab and his ten sons,
also presented by Gentil, is in the Musee Guimet.
This was a copy by Nevasi Lal, one of the artists
employed by Gentil, of a painting by Kettle. ·Other
Europeans who are known to have been in Faizabad
at the time include the Frenchman Claude Martin
and the Swiss Antoine Potier, both of whom took a
keen interest in Indian painting and literature. According to a note by his son, Gentil employed three
Indian artists for a period of ten years to supply him
with the illustrations needed for the albums, and to
make copies of Indian miniatures for Gentil to carry
back to France. Two of these artists are known from
the title of the 'Recueil', Nevasi Lal and Mohan Singh;
the third remains anonymous as so many Indian
artists were.
Gentil's influence on later work
We have already seen that Gentil's role in the
development of a new style of painting at Faizabad
went unrecognised by scholars in Britain until the
atlas and the 'Recueil' were acquired by the India
Office Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum
respectively a few years ago. In the geographical
field also, his pioneering work remained hidden in
the King's library, and in his own home. In the first
edition of his Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan, or the
Mogul's Empire in 1783, James Rennell, by this time
back in England and g~tting his maps engraved,
mentioned Gentil only once, quoting a longitude
reading he had made at Pondicherry in 1769. It is
probable that Rennell did not know of Gen til' s atlas,
or his translation of the geographical part of the
A'in-i Akbari, and anyway he claimed not to have
placed much reliance on the latter himself: 'From
such kind of materials, nothing very accurate can be
expected; and therefore I have n~ver had recourse to
them but in a very few cases, where every other
species of information has failed.' (p. 47) Yet he
retained the political division of India according to
the Mughal subas for his description of the country,
and relied on d 'Anville for many areas where he had
been unable to obtain more recent information. The
hostility between England and France was also an
inhibiting factor in the free exchange of knowledge.
The war between the two countries did not,
however, prevent those with liberal minds from
exchanging views. Robert Orme was in correspondence with the Indian scholar in Paris, Anquetil du
Perron. In a letter dated 11 May 1784 he wrote:
What has passed between us concerning that
respectable & lamented man M. D' Anville
is applicable to the Indian Geographers of
England. Rennel [sic] says I ought to confine
myself to the higher sphere of history. I see him
peevish about me in his last publication, concerning his map of Indostan, which is·very
neat, too small, and would have admitted of
another order of [ . ? . ] later than the time of
Arbas - he appears 'to have been amazed
at the Map of the Deccan I made for the fragments, he nor my friend Dalrymple had
never read your Joumies in India, nor knew
of the journey from Golcondah to Theleabass,
or Allahabad, which is a curious manuscript
given by my friend
therefore unique. F
not given your map
and shall let them ·
published, as I appr
be prepared before
and it is right that th1
time it costs to exam
as it may easily jud~
compose it. (Bib. N<
p.176)
A few months later, on lE
writing in similar vein:
At the time he [Re
general map of India
and had spent £100
The map I give with tl
of my general inten(
your route the most '
them traced on large
reputation is very I
apply themselves to t
affairs as they stand n•
patrons. (ibid., p.187
Rennell lived until 1830
powerful influence on all m•
veying and geography of h
the trigonometrical survey:
stating that route surveys
were quite adequate and the
tion for the expense of more
techniques. After the pub!
Perron's Description geograph
by Johann Bernoulli in 17~
learnt of Gentil's work, sin
quoted him repeatedly. He
essays contributed by Gent
Sikhs and the jats, in which h
the place-names supplied b
Rennell's map.
Since Gentil's maps anc
in manuscript form, they nev
they warranted. In the Pre
Mughal Empire, lrfan Habib
Elliot and Beames in the mic
to prepare maps of north Im
ministrative divisions of Akl
in the A'in-i Akbari, since, as l
reads his [Abu-I Fazl's] "Acei
vinces" must surely be tempt
on maps.' He did not know
had been answered in Faiz•
duced such splendid, even if
j lavish diffusion of money in every
:, artisans and scholars flocked hither
lgal, Gujrat, Malwah, Haidera-bad,
Lahaur, Peshawar, Kabul,
ltan.' This is how Muhammad Faiz
d the court of Shuja-ud-daula at
plendour of the Mughal court at
vas gone by the middle of the 18th
ti itself was in ruins after the devasthe Rohillas. So Shuja-ud-daula
1g patron of the arts in north India.
irrated it, Shuja-ud-daula was the
::m of Sa'adat Khan, Governor of
' of Oudh under the Emperor Far' s father Safdarjang was Sa'adat
md son-in-law, and succeeded to
made vazir in 1747 when Ahmed
throne, but the jealousy of Ghazi1e him to retire to his estates where
;huja succeeded to the title of Mir
uba of Arig, Oudh and Allahabad.
may differ, but this is how Gentil
td.
·r the treaty with the British at
moved his capital from Lucknow
;et about building a city worthy of
death, however, his son returned
~aizabad was left to decay after its
ndour. There is no record of paint1 the first half of the century, and
artists there were was probably
from the imperial style at Delhi.
' of 115 paintings in the Victoria
n (1.5. 48-1956) that was presented
;huja-ud-daula in about 1765-67,
til began his employment there.
1ence is apparent in the paintings
portraits and flowers, and no
nted them. Yet within five years
• acquire series of albums full of
•le he wanted. Mildred Archer, in
le Gentil atlas in the IOL Report
~scribed the artistic milieu at
e when Centil was Jiving in
Jdh was culturally in a flourishing
the troubles in Delhi during 1759
.y Delhi families including writers
ad moved there. This was a great
·du poetry when Mirza Muhammda, Mian Hazrat and Ashraf
ere writing. Painting also was
The Nawab and nobility were
artists and many portraits and
; were being produced in a dis-
tinctive style. Elongated figures in white
jamas were shown sitting on terraces or walking
in gardens with ladies as gay as the parterres
of flowers through which they stroJled.
Faizabad was an ideal centre for Gentil who
took a lively interest in Indian life and culture.
Dr Archer goes on to describe the paintings that
surround the maps in Gentil's atlas:
Stylistically they are very close to other
drawings in the Library's collection-those
commissioned in neighbouring Lucknow by
Richard Johnson, Head Assistant to the
British Resident, during 1780 to 1782. Some
closely resemble the works of Sita] Das who
made a set of paintings for Johnson depicting
Vedic sacrifices (Album 5)-subjects which
incidentally appear on the map of Khandesh
in Gentil' s atlas. Others have much in common
with the work of Gobind Singh and Ghulam
Reza who produced a ragma/a (Album 42) for
Johnson and also ilJustrated for him the
fables of the Iyar-i-Danish (Album 54). All these
sets are illustrated in watercolour in the same
delicate colours-grey, pink, mauve, pale
yellow and green-as those used by Gentil's
artists. It is clear that adjustments to European
tastes and interests had in fact begun at
Faizabad at least ten years before Johnson
went to Lucknow. It is also significant that in
GentiJ's atlas, subjects which were later to
become the stock-in-trade of 'Company'
painters were already present in miniature
form. Hitherto the early date of this phenomenon in northern India has not been fulJy
recognised, but as proof of it there is no more
vivid testimony than Gentil's private copy of
the illustrated atlas in the Library's collection.
Tilly Kettle was also working in Faizabad in
1772, and his work greatly influenced the Indian
artists painting for Europeans. Gentil acquired the
original of a portrait of Shuja painted by Tilly when
the copy he had had made was appropriated by the
Nawab, and presented it to the king when he got
back to France. It is now in the Versailles Museum.
Another painting of the Nawab and his ten sons,
also presented by Gentil, is in the'Musee Guimet.
This was a copy by Nevasi Lal, one of the artists
employed by Gentil, of a painting by Kettle. ·Other
Europeans who are known to have been in Faizabad
at the time include the Frenchman Claude Martin
and the Swiss Antoine Potier, both of whom took a
keen interest in Indian painting and literature. According to a note by his son, Gentil employed three
Indian artists for a period of ten years to supply him
with the illustrations needed for the albums, and to
make copies of Indian miniatures for Gentil to carry
back to France. Two of these artists are known from
the title of the 'Rerueil', Nevasi Lal and Mohan Singh;
the third remains anonymous as so many Indian
artists were.
Gentil's influence on later work
We have already seen that Gentil's role in the
development of a new style of painting at Faizabad
went unrecognised by scholars in Britain until the
atlas and the 'Recueil' were acquired by the India
Office Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum
respectively a few years ago. In the geographical
field also, his pioneering work remained hidden in
the King's library, and in his own home. In the first
edition of his Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan, or the
Mogul's Empire in 1783, James Rennell, by this time
back in England and g~tting his maps engraved,
mentioned Gentil only once, quoting a longitude
reading he had made at Pondicherry in 1769. It is
probable that Rennell did not know of Gentil's atlas,
or his translation of the geographical part of the
A'in-i Akbari, and anyway he claimed not to have
placed much' reliance on the latter himself: 'From
such kind of materials, nothing very accurate can be
expected; and therefore I have n~ver had recourse to
them but in a very few cases, where every other
species of information has failed.' (p. 47) Yet he
retained the political division of India according to
the Mughal subas for his description of the country,
and reJied on d' Anville for many areas where he had
been unable to obtain more recent information. The
hostility between England and France was also an
inhibiting factor in the free exchange of knowledge.
The war between the two countries did not,
however, prevent those with liberal minds from
exchanging views. Robert Orme was in correspondence with the Indian scholar in Paris, Anquetil du
Perron. In a letter dated 11 May 1784 he wrote:
What has passed between us concerning that
respectable & lamented man M. D' Anville
is applicable to the Indian Geographers of
England. Rennet [sic] says I ought to confine
myself to the higher sphere of history. I sec him
peevish about me in his last publication, concerning his map of lndostan, which is ·very
neat, too small, and would have admitted of
another order of [ . ? . ] later than the time of
Arbas - he appears 10 have been amazed
at the Map of the Deccan I made for the fragments, he nor my friend Dalrymple had
never read your journies in India, nor knew
of the journey from Golcondah to Theleabass,
or Allahabad, which is a curious manuscript
given by my friend General Richard Smith,
therefore unique. For these reasons I have
not given your map of the Ganges to either,
and shall let them wait until it is regularly
published, as I apprehend, criticisms would
be prepared before the work is published,
and it is right that the world should know the
time it costs to examine such a work, as well
as it may easily judge of the time it costs to
compose it. (Bib. Nat. FR Nouv. Acq. 8872,
p.176)
A few months later, on 16 September, Orme was
writing in similar vein:
At the time he [Rennell] was making his
general map of India I was making one too,
and had spent £100 on it, before he began.
The map I give with the fragments is a portion
of my general intended one, and, I esteem
your route the most curious part of it. I have
them traced on large scales .... His [Rennell's]
reputation is very high amongst aJI who
apply themselves to the knowledge of Indian
affairs as they stand now, and he has powerful
patrons. (ibid., p.187)
Rennell lived until 1830 and continued to wield
powerful influence on all matters regarding the surveying and geography of India. He even opposed
the trigonometrical surveys of William Lambton,
stating that route surveys with the perambulator
were quite adequate and that there was no justification for the expense of more sophisticated surveying
techniques. After the publication of Anquetil du
Perron's Description geographiquc et historique de J'Inde
by Johann Bernoulli in 1787, Rennell must have
learnt of Gentil' s work, since Anquetil du Perron
quoted him repeatedly. He also reproduced three
essays contributed by Gentil on the Marathas, the.
Sikhs and the Jats, in which he everywhere compared
the place-names supplied by Gentil with those on
RennelJ's map.
Since Gentil's maps and translations remained
in manuscript form, they never received the attention
they warranted. In the Preface to his Atlas of the
Mughal Empire, lrfan Habib noted the attempts by
Elliot and Beames in the middle of the 19th century
to prepare maps of north India according to the administrative divisions of Akbar's time, as laid down
in the A'in-i Akbari, since, as he wrote: 'Anyone who
reads his [Abu-I Fazl's) "Account of the Twelve Provinces" must surely be tempted to see it represented
on maps.' He did not know that such a temptation
had been answered in Faizabad in 1770, and produced such splendid, even if inaccurate, results.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anquetil du Perron, J.H., Description historique et giograhique de
J'lnde, ]. Bernoulli, Berlin, 1787-88.
Archer, M., Company Drawirlgs in the India Office Library,
HMSO, London, 1972.
- - , 'Tilly Kettle and the Court of Oude (lm-78)', in
Apollo, Feb. 1972, pp. 96-106.
- - , 'Colonel Gentil's Alias: an early series of Company
drawings', in India .Office Library fr Records Report 1978,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, 1979, pp.
41-45.
Beames, J. (rev. and ed.), Memoirs of the History, Folk-lore, and
Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of
India; being an amplified edition of the original Supplemental
Glossary of Indian terms, by the late Sir Henry M. Elliot,
Trubner &: Co., London, 1869.
Cotton. E., Tire Memoires of Ge11til. A paper read at the tenth
public meeting of the Indian Historical Records Commission, held at Rangoon, in December, 1927. Government of
India Press. Calcutta, 1928.
Gentil, J.-8.-J., Memoires sur l'lndoustan, ou Empire Mogol,
Petit, Paris, 1822.
Habib, I., An Atlas of"tlre Mughal Empire, Oxford University
Press, Delhi, 1982.
Hoey, W .• Memoirs of Delhi and FaiUJbad, being a translation of the
7arikh Farahbakhsh' of Muhammad.Faiz Baklrsl1, Allahabad,
1889.
Jarrett, H.S.(tr.), Tire A'in-i Akbari by Abu'l-fazl Allami, 2nd edn
corrected and further annotated by Jadunnath Sarkar,
Vol. II, Oriental Books Reprint Corp., New Delhi, 1978.
Langles, L. (tr. ), Voyage du Bengale d Petersbourg par Georges Forster, Paris, 1802.
Macpherson, W.C. (ed.), Soldil'Ting in India 1764-1787, Extracts
from Journals and letters left by Lt. Col. Allan Macpherson
and Lt. Col. John Macpherson of the East India Company's
Servke. William Blackwood &: Sons, Edinburgh London,
1928.
Rennell,]., Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan, London, 1783.
Sen, S.P., Tire Frencll in India 1763-1816, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta, 1958.
Sinha, N.K. (ed.), Fort William - India House Correspo11de11ce,
(Public Series), Indian Records Series, Vols V and VI,
National Archives of India, Delhi, 1949.
Topsfield, A., 'Two early Company albums', in Victoria and
Albert M11seu111 A/'1um, No. 2, London, 1986.
I am \'ery grateful to the British Library for their cooperation
and permission to reproduce these maps. In the India Office
Library, where the atlas is housed, Mr]. P. Losty and Mrs P.
Kattenhorn have been most patient and helpful and I record
my gratitude to them. I am also grateful to Dr M. Archer for
permission to draw on her knowledge of Indian painting. I
particularly thank my publisher Mr Ramesh Jain for his support and encouragement.
THE MUGH.t
17C
Bouftdorr of the E11
Subo llovndarr
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211
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n historique et g~ogmhique de
-88.
1 the J11dia Office Library,
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE
·t of Oude (lm-78)', in
1707
1
early series of Company
1ry & Records Report 1978,
Boundorr or the Empire
:Jffice, London, 1979, pp.
SuClo Boundorr
of the History, Folk-lore, and
North Western Provinces of
of the original Supplemental
e late Sir Henry M. Elliot,
WMIO
0
IO
100 tlO 100KM
\.
A paper read at the tenth
listorical Records Commisnber, 1927. Government of
doustan, ou Empire Mogol,
Empire, Oxford University
ibad, being a translation of the
1ad .Faiz Bak/1sh, Allahabad,
y Abu'l-Fazl Allami, 2nd edn
1ted by Jadunnath Sarkar,
·Corp., New Delhi, 1978.
Petersbourg par Georges Fors-
·in India 1764-1787, Extracts
( Lt. Col. Allan Macpherson
of the East India Company's
r Sons, Edinburgh London,
20
oostan, London, 1783.
-1816, Firma K. L. Mukho8
India House Correspondence,
'ds Series, Vols V and VI,
?lhi, 1949.
ny albums', in Victoria and
.ondon, 1986.
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.ibrary for their cooperation
(}
;c maps. In the India Office
j, Mr J.P. Losty and Mrs P.
•nt and helpful and I record
;ratcful to D~ M. A~c~~r fo~
<I
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7. SUBA BENGAL
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,:..,.,..,.,./'4 ...,;11 ... rnrl'9tl,,/'l",fp 1i:;?
The A'in-i Akbari contains so many sarkat
Bengal that it was quite impossible for Ger
all on his map. He inserted numbers in plac
not certain to what the numbers referred. ·1
parganas on the list is 730, but Abu-I Fazl' s
to show the re\'enues that accrued to the c
political or geographical situation. Genti
understand Persian as well as he claiml'd 1
he showed on his map in Tc;hatgaom (Chi
port town of Saerarnemaksar. In fact Abt
here the 'Sair dues from salt-pits', and not I
and so it should not have appeared on the
this mistake wherever such Persian tcnns o
line follows that of d' Anvillc, but Gentil a
the second Ganga river shown on many
flow right across the peninsula. He correctly
with its mouth further south. Most of the w
ditfercnt from the other maps, and may pos
fenthaler. In each sarkar the name of the chie
Gentil's, so it is possible that he laid out
requested someone else (with neater writir
map.
There is less exterior decoration on
temple of Jagannath at Puri at the bottorr
incarnation of Vishnu at the right. On t
devotees arP al'ln c;hnwn
I
·-·····-·--············
,., 0 S PE
!.L; ·. ·
7. SUBA BENGAL
1)
1J
J.'tk.fJ
'mle, 1752
The A'in-i Akbari contains so many sarkars and parganas in
Bengal that it was quite impossible for Gentil to include them
all on his map. He inserted numbers in place of names, but it is
not certain to what the numbers referred. The total number of
parganas on the list is 730, but Abu-I Fazl's list had been made
to show the revenues that accrued to the centre, not only the
political or geographical situation. Gentil perhaps did not
understand Persian as well as he claimed (in his Memoire), as
he showed on his map in Tchatgaom (Chittagong) sarkar the
port town of Saerarnemaksar. In fact Abu-I Fazl was noting
here the 'Sair dues from salt-pits', and not the name of a to\vn,
and so it should not have appeared on the map. Gentil made
this mistake wherever such Persian terms occurred. The coastline follows that of d' Anville, but Gentil avoided the error of
the second Ganga river shown on many European maps to
flow right across the peninsula. He correctly drew the Mahanadi
with its mouth further south. Most of the writing on the map is
different from the other maps, and may possibly be that ofTicffenthaler. In each sarkar the name of the chief town appears to be
Gentil's, so it is possible that he laid out the plan and then
requested someone else (with neater writing) to complete the
map.
There is less exterior decoration on this map, only the
temple of Jagannath at Puri at the bottom left, and the Boar
incarnation of Vishnu at the right. On the left two female
devotees are also shown.
Original size:470 mm; map38 x 27cm
;~
r_~~ ::~-:>
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...
...
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-
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~•••#~-.~~-.~~A' ~t·.::.~~~2~··
from d' Anville, Carte de l'lnde, 1752
8. SUBA BIHAR
r
North is at the top in Gentil's map. The elaborate river system
he has shown has no comparison with that of d' Anville, so he
must have learnt about it while in India. The Himalayas to the
north are shown as several short lines of hills running northwards behind a single long chain. In the southern half of the
map is a large town called Bear (Bihar) though long before
Gentil's time it had Jost all its importance to Patna.
Ram and Sita are shown on the left side of the picture, and
below them the two local places of devotion for 'gentiles' are
named, Gaya and Baijnath. Down the right side games are in
progresS--<hequers, chess, cards, and an unnamed game. At
the bottom is a performing monkey.
Original size: 456 mm; map 31 x 27 cm
9.SUBAAWADH
from d' Anvi/le, Carte de l'lnde, 1752
As might be expected, the map of Oudh is the one that contains
the largest number of unlisted names. Here Gentil was calling
upon his personal knowledge to add no fewer than fifteen
places to the sarkar of Oudh itself, and names to other sarkars
too. Again no orientation has been marked, but north is at the
top. In order to fit in the extra names, Gentil drew this map on
a slightly larger scale than the following one of suba
Allahabad.
Faizabad had been a small place in the old province of
Ayodhya. After the state of Oudh had Jost some of its territory
to the British Shuja-ud-daula moved his capital to Fai?.abad in
order to be nearer the centre of the state. Allan Macpherson
desoibed the town in his Journal in 1773, 'We marched through
the town, which has a mud wall around it but not fortified. The
Street through which we went is broad, but the Houses very
indifferent. The Palace is upon the bank of the Dewa, or
Guggerah, which overflows so much in the rains that it will
probably carry away the palace in a few years. The Nabob is
building a strong mud Fort, the walls of which arc 60 feet
thick.' These walls were so well beaten that elephants used in
their construction left no impression on them with their feet.
ln The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1885) William Hunter
related the story of how, in 1030 A.O., Sayyid Salar Masaud
passed through Faizabad. Though there is no record of a battle
being fought nearby, there was still a part of the high road
along which the country folk would not pass after dark. They
said that at night the road was thronged with headless horsemen of Sayyid Salar's army.
Next to the· title Gentil added the words 'qu'on nomme
aussi Oude', so that those who did not recognise the name
Avad might know it under Oude. The only other inscription
for the pictures has been squeezed between the lines of the
lower margin at the left: 'chasse du tigre', tiger hunt. Above
this and along the top are various religious scenes including
Shiva, Vishnu, Ravana being defeated by Ram and Lakshman,
ascetics in various poses, the temple car of Jagannath, and
hook.c;winging. On the map itself is an interesting coUection of
animals, including gharials (crocodiles) of the Ganges, a
rhinoceros at the top, and some very frivolous deer at the bottom
right.
,-.-,.
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.
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.
.
.
.
.
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