Kasturbhai Lalbhai Memorial Lecture

Mapping the Land, Mapping the Skies

Jain Knowledge, Cartography, and the Making of Early Modern Spaces

Lecture by

Dr. Samira Sheikh

(Historian & Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA)

 

About the Lecture

This lecture reconsiders early modern mapping in western India by placing Jain contributions to terrestrial and celestial knowledge within the context of scientific cosmopolitanism in early modern Gujarat. Moving between painted maps, pilgrimage scrolls, and cosmographic diagrams, it shows how Jain merchants, monks, and specialists in astronomy (jyotiḥśāstra) helped align land measurement, calendrical calculation, and navigation. Mapping was the fruit of collective labour, shaped by exchanges among astrologers, surveyors, sailors, cultivators, and scribes. Seen from Gujarat, these practices linking skies and soil reveal a shared pragmatic and ethical commitment to order and plurality.

 

 

About the Speaker

Samira Sheikh is associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University. She is author of Forging a Region: Sultans, Traders, and Pilgrims in Gujarat, 1200-1500 (2010), and co-editor of After Timur Left (2014). Having recently completed a book on late Mughal Bharuch, she is now working on a book and exhibition on early modern mapping practices in India. She is currently the fifth Obaid Siddiqi Chair at the Archives at NCBS, Bangalore (2025-26).

 

 

Date: 25 February, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

 

For ages: 18 and above

Venue: Lecture Hall, L D Museum

 

For registration, please contact:

Call: +91-9408536883 | WhatsApp: +91-7863040584

 

Image: Map of Gujarat, circa 1750 (detail). Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery

 

 

« Back to All Updates