Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier

A British railway map of India by Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier.

• Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier (English).
• Railway Map of India. Railways Brought up to October 1895.
• Scale: 1 Inch = 48 miles or 1:3,041,280.
• Calcutta: Published under the direction of Colonel H. Thuillier, R.E., Surveyor General of India, October 1890.
• Photozincograph map.
• Partly printed in color, with additional hand-coloring.
• Dissected into 50 sheets and mounted on linen as issued.
• This work is presented framed.

A comprehensive railway map of British India, including the subcontinent and Burma, also displaying the main road networks, navigable canals, steamship routes, and telegraph connections across the peninsular. This publication by the Survey of India Office includes a useful ‘References’ key giving information on the differing gauges in use across the region, and a color code highlighting the lands under direct British administration in pink, ‘Tributary States’ in yellow and ‘Independent and Foreign Possessions’ in Green. A notice records the price for color as ‘Five Rupees’, as against ‘Four Rupees’ without.

Prepared under the direction of Colonel Henry Ravenshaw Thuillier, who as his father before him, served as Surveyor General of India from 1887 to 1895. Here Baluchistan is shown as an enclave of the British Raj. This strategically important territory lies in modern-day Pakistan, and is situated around the natural fort town of Quetta located high in the Chiltan mountains. It came under direct British rule in 1876, securing the vital Bolan Pass though which British troops under the command of General Michael Biddulph passed during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878 to 1880. The railway connecting the remote province to the Raj proper was built through the pass in 1887.

The map also contains an early route highlighted in crayon showing a journey by sea to Bombay, and thence via Daman to the Indian Princely State of Baroda. Other towns underlined in crayon include Kurrachee, Lingsugur, Raichur, and Hyderabad.