If you had been a map maker back in the 13th century, you’d be the equivalent of a techie in today’s job market. If you were really good at it, there’d have been a bidding war over your services between two rich kings or businessmen of the time. Today, map making is an art form that’s all but disappeared, and along with it, so has our perspective on how our country has grown and shrunk through the rigours of time.

Perhaps this is what drove the trio behind a new, first-of-its-kind book — India Through Iconic Maps published by Roli Books— to travel across the country for two-and-a-half years in search of obscure map rooms. From Jodhpur to Odisha, their search unearthed a collection of 254 maps that shows us how this country evolved in the centuries before it became the India we know.