Context

How do you visualize a millennium-old administrative system—when all you have are copperplate inscriptions and temple carvings?

As a Research Associate at the Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems in Town Planning, I studied ancient texts from before 1400 CE, written in multiple Indian languages and originating from across the subcontinent. India does not have a visual tradition of cartography during ancient times, cartographical knowledge is embedded purely in epigraphy. This project grew out of my curiosity to visualize the lost urban patterns of these ancient cities—once thriving centres of power, religion, and trade, now either absorbed by modern settlements or forgotten entirely. I wanted to understand how rulers made spatial decisions based on terrain, water systems, and ancient trade and pilgrimage networks, ie the rules of empire building.

This talk presents a data visualization project that reconstructs the geopolitical machinery of the Paramara dynasty (10th–14th c. CE), an early medieval Indian kingdom. Drawing from over 300 inscriptions and ancient texts, the project delves into the process of classifying and geo-locating over 200 settlements using a combination of archival maps, satellite data, and crowdsourced geolocation tools. The result is a layered administrative map that reveals the spatial logic of military expansion, religious patronage, and agrarian revenue systems. It reframes epigraphic data as a living dataset—and explores a methodology for visualizing it through cartography.

Key takeaways from this session

Reframing Epigraphy as Data

Learn how centuries-old inscriptions can be transformed into a rich, spatial dataset using geolocation, mapping, and design tools.

Visualizing Ancient Urban Systems

Discover how early medieval empires like the Paramaras made strategic decisions around city-building, trade routes, and religious networks—offering new methods to interpret history through a spatial lens.

Audience

Cartographers/ Historians/ Digital Humanities Scholars/ People who love Age of Empires

This talk will be of interest to people who are curious about what a map of Ancient India might look like! Also, for scholars and people interested in the role of technology in historical research, especially in ways of building and visualizing spatial data.

Hello!

Somrita is a creative strategist at City Collab where she works to communicate urban research through a range of media, from films to board games. She has formerly worked at the School of Planning and Architecture Bhopal and the MIT Media Lab.

She is an alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture Delhi and the University of Virginia, School of Architecture.

Her passion projects revolve around using technology to reconstruct historical narratives and devising fun ways to make research accessible to everyone!