Liked the analysis. And the disclaimers even more :) .. Nice way to compare across in the dimensions of time and area. And good metrics chosen for relative comparison..
Beautiful visualisation. Will be if excellent use to anyone exploring history of India. The frame of reference can be used to understand world history as well.
One clarification : Is this map to scale? Could you advise tools used to construct such map so others, like me, can explore creating similar visualisations?
One minor suggestion: The word “impact” for your calculations may not be appropriate. Simply looking at the tenure and geographical area occupied doesn’t really suggest any entity’s impact. For eg., if we applied this logic to last 50 years of world countries, Russia or may be Canada would come at the top of the chart. We know that to be far from truth.
An alternative name for the score could be something along the lines of “Persistence”score. Essentially how long and far has this empire lasted.
First of all, thank you for your kind words! Glad you found this useful/interesting.
1. This map is to scale but with a least count of 2.5 lakh sq km. So some blocks would be rounded up/down.
2. I used good old Excel, area estimation techniques (counting land-areas in multiples of Uttar Pradesh's) and/or actual area estimates if available in the public domain.
3. Your counter-point using Russia/Canada as example is somewhat valid, but only if applied to large unpopulated tracts of land. The Indian landmass was civilized >2000 years ago and people spread across the subcontinent. So it wouldn't have been possible for empires to expand without facing resistance or subjugating others at most times. Still, your point carries some weight, and I will consider changing the terminology I've used here to something more meaningful.
Thanks, once again, for leaving such detailed comments.
This seems incorrect as Chola empire at its peak would have under its control areas till present day Phillipines - so definitely more area than represented in graphic above.
Fair point, but the area considered for mapping here is only the Indian subcontinent (extending from Afghanistan in the west to Manipur in the east, Kashmir in the north to Sri Lanka in the south). I have not considered the extent of any empires outside this region.
For example, the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucids and Kushans were massive, and much larger than the region shown under their control in this graph. That's because their penetration into the subcontinent was limited to the region shown in the graph.
You should bifurcate Delhi Sultanate into Ghulam, Khalji, Tuglak, Lodhi, Saiyad then calculate the map. Delhi Sultanate was coined by leftist historians.
I think the Rashtrakutas have been a bit more influential than this data shows. They certainly seem to have commanded a bigger area than Gurjara Pratiharas for an extended period of time. I would like to see the source of this data.
I think the premise that empires that lasted a couple of hundred years impacted India in any significant or lasting way maybe exaggerated when applied to a civilization as old as ours.
Regarding impact , one can argue Mauryan impact on India is greater than Mughals because the mores and traditions they expounded were part of a civilizational continuum that reverberates till today. In contrast, Mughals or Delhi Sultanates brought foreign influences to the land that were in conflict with age old thoughts, traditions & culture of the land.
Understand why you start from 325BC, but not accounting for the civilizational continuity of that goes back to at least 2500 BC skews the graph. 200 yrs empires like Mughals or British are a blip in India’s civilizational history. Like names written in sand.
Cholas, Chalukyas, Vijayanagara’s influence on south India is far far greater than any Mughal influence… Perhaps a more granular study would bring that out.
Would be interesting to see a religious time and space graph of India going back to 2500BC. It would bring out how Hindu-Buddhist-Jain thoughts shaped Indian civilization and history and why it will continue to be the unifying guiding force for India.
Beautiful indeed. Another suggestion. Please improve
and attach links to the different Kingdoms and give
details of the kingdom and it's history. This will be an
excellent way to learn and understand our history
Thank you. I will try to add links and showcase this in an accessible way. Will require more thinking, and some web development, maybe :)
I will also write follow-up posts on this, diving deeper into other aspects of these empires incl their populations, culture and economy, etc.
Wow, definetly one of the best insights I've read so far on the internet on the Indian Empire, probably the first one with this much insights.
This was pretty cool! I like the mathematical justifications given. I had to do that for my world history chart too.
Liked the analysis. And the disclaimers even more :) .. Nice way to compare across in the dimensions of time and area. And good metrics chosen for relative comparison..
:) I'm glad you found it interesting/useful.
Beautiful visualisation. Will be if excellent use to anyone exploring history of India. The frame of reference can be used to understand world history as well.
One clarification : Is this map to scale? Could you advise tools used to construct such map so others, like me, can explore creating similar visualisations?
One minor suggestion: The word “impact” for your calculations may not be appropriate. Simply looking at the tenure and geographical area occupied doesn’t really suggest any entity’s impact. For eg., if we applied this logic to last 50 years of world countries, Russia or may be Canada would come at the top of the chart. We know that to be far from truth.
An alternative name for the score could be something along the lines of “Persistence”score. Essentially how long and far has this empire lasted.
First of all, thank you for your kind words! Glad you found this useful/interesting.
1. This map is to scale but with a least count of 2.5 lakh sq km. So some blocks would be rounded up/down.
2. I used good old Excel, area estimation techniques (counting land-areas in multiples of Uttar Pradesh's) and/or actual area estimates if available in the public domain.
3. Your counter-point using Russia/Canada as example is somewhat valid, but only if applied to large unpopulated tracts of land. The Indian landmass was civilized >2000 years ago and people spread across the subcontinent. So it wouldn't have been possible for empires to expand without facing resistance or subjugating others at most times. Still, your point carries some weight, and I will consider changing the terminology I've used here to something more meaningful.
Thanks, once again, for leaving such detailed comments.
This seems incorrect as Chola empire at its peak would have under its control areas till present day Phillipines - so definitely more area than represented in graphic above.
Fair point, but the area considered for mapping here is only the Indian subcontinent (extending from Afghanistan in the west to Manipur in the east, Kashmir in the north to Sri Lanka in the south). I have not considered the extent of any empires outside this region.
For example, the Achaemenid Empire, Seleucids and Kushans were massive, and much larger than the region shown under their control in this graph. That's because their penetration into the subcontinent was limited to the region shown in the graph.
Impact can further be categorized into dharmik and non dharmik
You should bifurcate Delhi Sultanate into Ghulam, Khalji, Tuglak, Lodhi, Saiyad then calculate the map. Delhi Sultanate was coined by leftist historians.
Brilliant. Thanks. Wonder what scores Cheras and Pandyas had on the impact score.
Wonderful effort! Kudos.
I think the Rashtrakutas have been a bit more influential than this data shows. They certainly seem to have commanded a bigger area than Gurjara Pratiharas for an extended period of time. I would like to see the source of this data.
Very interesting and great effort. Thanks!
I think the premise that empires that lasted a couple of hundred years impacted India in any significant or lasting way maybe exaggerated when applied to a civilization as old as ours.
Regarding impact , one can argue Mauryan impact on India is greater than Mughals because the mores and traditions they expounded were part of a civilizational continuum that reverberates till today. In contrast, Mughals or Delhi Sultanates brought foreign influences to the land that were in conflict with age old thoughts, traditions & culture of the land.
Understand why you start from 325BC, but not accounting for the civilizational continuity of that goes back to at least 2500 BC skews the graph. 200 yrs empires like Mughals or British are a blip in India’s civilizational history. Like names written in sand.
Cholas, Chalukyas, Vijayanagara’s influence on south India is far far greater than any Mughal influence… Perhaps a more granular study would bring that out.
Would be interesting to see a religious time and space graph of India going back to 2500BC. It would bring out how Hindu-Buddhist-Jain thoughts shaped Indian civilization and history and why it will continue to be the unifying guiding force for India.