HISTORICAL ATLAS OF SOUTH INDIA
N.Nandhivarman
A
partnership in research yields good results. At present “ The Department of
Epigraphy and Archaeology of the Tamil University Thanjavur and The Laboratory
of Geomatics and Applied Informatics of the French Institute Pondicherry have
joined together to develop and deploy a digital Atlas of South India on the
internet accessible to everyone, presenting the political, social and cultural
and all inclusive history of South India through a combination of maps, illustrations,
texts and geographical information” said Dr.Y.Subburayalu, Coordinator of the
unique project on South India.
Tamil University Thanjavur for past decade had been collecting each and every
bit of information, which forms the basic data. It joined hands with the Institut
Franciase de Pondicherry under the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for
incorporating all these data into the Atlas from 2000 and in four years covered
lot of ground. In the meanwhile Mahatma Gandhi University of Kottayam, Mangalore
University and Hyderabad University have joined as new partners. Because
already for decades lot of basic data had been collected and readily available
in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the first phase of the project covers the entire two
states. But since Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka entered late into the fray they
are currently working on two pilot projects only to gain momentum soon.
Using
the maps by Survey of India as base maps and improving upon them with maps
provided by satellite pictures the Historical Atlas of South India is being
prepared. The satellite imagery will be in the background and these maps will
have 30 layers of information packed to suit the needs of every scholar’s
choice.
The Geomatics and Applied Informatics
Laboratory of the French Institute Pondicherry that plays a pivotal role is a
laboratory that specializes in the acquisition, management, modeling and
analysis of spatial information on the Indian sub-continent with the aim to
address scientific queries. “The contribution of the laboratory to the research
projects is based on expertise in the development of Geographic Information
Systems and analysis of satellite remote sensing data and favours a
multi-disciplinary and integrative approach. Recently, the laboratory was responsible
for launching a new area of activity pertaining to the development of
web-browser based applications for the dissemination of scientific results
through CD-ROMs and the web” according to informed sources.
Looking
at the other side of the world we find that United Nations realized the need
for a marriage of technology and history when it accepted in 1974 a new map
prepared for the world by Arno Peters, a German scholar. Peter’s map shows
countries in their respective sizes and is based on Peter’s decimal grid, which
divided the surface of the earth into hundred longitudinal fields of equal
width and hundred latitudinal fields of equal height.
Because
much before this map was accepted the Atlases based on Mercator maps showed
Greenland and Scandinavia to be bigger than India. Russia appeared bigger than
entire continent of Africa. It seemed that Europe occupied more areas than
South America. “These are not due to limitations of mathematics, but a
deliberate attempt to show Colonial Europe as bigger than non-European world”
opines Vishal Sharma. Hence to rectify this anomaly Peter’s projections came to
be accepted by United Nations. The Historical Atlas of South India too is an
attempt to update knowledge keeping room to add fresh every new information as and
when found. Thus it is an attempt to keep perfection and precision.
Dating
back to 5 lakh years and covering the Stone Age up to 10,000 years ago the
Atlas travels down and the New Stone Age between 3000 to 4000 years ago. It
covers the metal age and pre-historical period of 1600 A.D and thus Atlas
provides every information in a nutshell. Tamil University Thanjavur, which
studied extensively, and intensively Pudukottai area have established the
contributions of Jains to the iconography of Tamils. The well built tank
irrigation system of Pudukottai region with inscriptions found in the sluices
of the tanks yielded lot of information on irrigation and land administration.
This information is fed into the Atlas.
The
Atlas is arranged in a time line of eight broad periods. It covers four major
themes such as Political, Social, Economical and Cultural. Textual information
is provided in link files. One can access these at http://www.ifpindia.org
Apart
from the Atlas prepared by one of its divisions, The French Institute [IFP} has
an extremely rare collection of photographs dating back to 1956. This assorted
collection consists of about 1,23,000 black and white photographs and 5500
color films and slides focusing on South Indian religious art and iconography
including temple views, stone and bronze statues, paintings, architectural
motifs, pre-historic cave rock paintings, palaces, jewelry etc.
The
Department of Indology at the IFP has the unique distinction of being a meeting
place for the exchange of scientific thoughts and ideas between Western
Indologists on the one hand and traditional Indian scholars on the other.
The
Department houses an impressive collection of 10000 bundles of manuscripts and
photographs of manuscripts on Saivasiddhanta along with 1,30,000 photographs of
temples and sculptures on religious art in South India “In its vast centralized
air-conditioned library from where one can see the Bay of Bengal it is
surprising that local Tamil magazines and English news papers etc are not be
found” commented a social activist. Researching the past must reach the present
society and today’s news is tomorrow’s history.
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