PTOLEMY'S INDIA - 150 AD

Ancient maps are complicated to decipher. The Latin place names have partial or no linkage with modern names, especially when it comes to Asian regions. Talking about India, the ancient and medieval Europeans had partial knowledge about the country's coastline and geography, and much lesser knowledge about its history. But one particular European (a Greek, rather) geographer and astronomer meticulously deciphered the geography of India that has become a standard map of Antiquity Age. Claudius Ptolemy (or Klaudios Ptolemaios), in the year 150 AD, published an atlas that has become a treatise from ancient world. Called as Geographia, Ptolemy took references from various sources, including an earlier cartographer Marinus of Tyre (70 AD - 130 AD) and Hipparchus (190 BC - 120 BC).

What Ptolemy did was a breakthrough in cartography. He introduced the practice of writing down coordinates of latitude and longitude for every feature drawn on a world map, so that someone else possessing only the text of Geographica could reproduce his map at any time, in whole or in part, and at any scale. He even had added instructions for making a picture of a globe with a suitable caption, and describes a way of partitioning the known world into 26 regional maps, with a detailed caption for each. 

If we get into Ptolemy's 'world' or as he would refer to as 'oikoumenē', a lot of interesting and fascinating points could be deciphered. It wasn't proven till that time, but Ptolemy had assumed that the earth is spherical in shape. The southernmost point according to him was the island of Taprobanē (today's Sri Lanka). No place is mentioned on the east coast of Africa further south than the Sinus Aualites (Bay of Avalites, near Horn of Africa, Somalia). To the north, Ptolemy states that the parallel 64¼° north of equator passes through Scythia. 

Coming to India, on Ptolemy's map there are mention of two regions - India Intra Gangem (India this side of the Ganges - includes region below the river Ganga that's the Indian subcontinent) and India Extra Gangem (India beyond Ganges - basically, the Indochina peninsula). The Indian coast on this map is shrunk tapering numerous water-bodies such as Sinus Canthi (Gulf of Kutch), Sinus Barigazenus (Gulf of Khambhat / Bharuch), Sinus Colchicus (Bay of Mannar), Sinus Agarscus, Sinus Gangeticus (Bay of Ganges) and finally the largest of all - Mare Indicvm (Sea of India). On the map, the Sea of India was the largest water-body followed by the Mediterranean Sea and Mare Caspiu (Caspian Sea). India Intra Gangem is shown locked between the Indus river (with the same name) in the west and Ganges in the east. The Himalayan mountains in the north is denoted as Imaus mons. On this map, the largest island is Taprobane or Sri Lanka. 

If compared to today's map, the entire Deccan region is shrunk to half with Sri Lanka expanded almost 5 times its size, that too shifted left to the Deccan tip. It's hard to decipher all the names due to lack of resources and lost of cities with time. But here's a list of deciphered towns, rivers and mountains (from multiple sources): 

1. Nagara (Naggar, Himachal Pradesh)
2. Gandaræ (Gandhara or around Kandahar, Afghanistan)
3. Caspirei (Kashmir)
4. Vindius montibus (Vindhya mountains)
5. Sagala (Saketa or Ayodhya)
   
6. Abiria (Saurashtra, possibly)
7. Apocopi montibus (Aravali mountains)
8. Ozene (Ujjain)
9. Simylla (Vasai/Chembur/Chaul - all in Maharashtra)
10. Barygaza (Bharuch)
    
11. Heptanasia (Mumbai - shown as a single island)
12. Byzantium (Vijaydurg. 'Byzantium' shouldn't be confused with the former name of Constantinople, which was also Byzantium)
    
13. Milizegeris (Melundi, Ratnagiri - shown as an island) 
14. Cottiara (Kochi)
15. Colchi (Korkai, Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu)
16. Pseudostomus flumen (Periyar river)
17. Pandiones (possibly the territory of the Pandyas)
    
18. Modura (Madurai)
19. Taprobane (Sri Lanka)
20. Nagadiba (Nainativu, in Sri Lanka)
    
21. Bittigo montibus (Eastern Ghats)
    
22. Chiberus flumen (Kaveri river)
23. Orthura (Uraiyur, Tiruchirapalli district)
24. Malanga (possible site of Chennai)
25. Mæsolus flumen (Godavari river)
26. Pityndra (possible site of Machilipatnam)
27. Palura (Ganjam, in Odisha)
28. Tyndus flumen (Baitarni river)
29. Dosaron flumen (Brahmini or Mahanadi river)
30. Adamas flumen (Subarnarekha river)
31. Ganges flumen (Ganga river)
32. Palibothra (Patna)
33. Sageda (Tewar in Jabalpur or Sohagpur)

All these names are mentioned on a 16th century interpretation of Ptolemy's map by a German cartographer Sebastian Münster (1488 to 1552). He was one of the earliest cartographers to translate Ptolemy's map into Latin from ancient Greek. The names on the map below are mentioned as towns (highlighted in green), rivers (highlighted in blue) and mountains (highlighted in brown).