‘Hajacan’: an imagined kingdom in 17th and 18th century European depictions of India

‘Hajacan’: an imagined kingdom in 17th and 18th century European depictions of India

22 November 2021
The strange case of Hajacan provides a glimpse into the messy channels of circulation for geographical and political knowledge between India and Europe

Far from coastal trading posts and fortresses, the geography of north-west of the Indian subcontinent and the territories of modern Afghanistan was unfamiliar to Europeans of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. European maps from these centuries project a sometimes bewildering array of geographical configurations as they attempted to place cities, provinces, and natural boundaries accurately, and with the latest information available. Despite partial and ever-evolving knowledge, geographical reports and gazetteers similarly attempted to describe the region in precise terms, leading to warped depictions.

One recurring oddity in European maps and texts prior to around the late-18th century is a region labeled ‘Hajacan,’ ‘Haiacan,’ ‘Hadjykan,’ or variants thereof. Many other regions discussed in early modern European sources are familiar to modern South Asians: Attock, Multan, Kabul, Lahore, etc., but Hajacan is rather mystifying. Though their maps maintain a pretence of accuracy, early modern European cartographers’ efforts add to the confusion. Where exactly Hajacan is on maps varies: perhaps it is between Multan and Qandahar; perhaps on the complete other side between Multan and Lahore; or indeed directly south of Kabul.

Similarly, textual sources – be they Dutch, French, Italian, German, or English – present myriad Hajacans. The earliest mention I found was in the 1616 report of Edward Terry, where it is described as “the Kingdome of the Baloches (a stout warlike people) it hath no renowned Citie.”[1] Over the course of the next two centuries, this image fluctuated. Sometimes it was counted as a kingdom, sometimes as a province. Some texts agree it has no major city, but some outliers list Peshawar, in modern north-west Pakistan, as its capital.[2] On some maps, it contains the city of Uch, today in the south of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Often, it is said to be home to the Baloch people: the “Bulloques” or “Boloch” are often described as “warlike,” and in at least one source quite fancifully as cannibals who worship the sun. On other occasions they go unmentioned.[3] What could be the origin of this elusive land?

hajacan map 1

Map 1: Section of a French map of Timur (d. 1405)’s expedition to India by Jean-Baptiste Nolin (d. 1708), with “Hayacan” and its “Bulloc” inhabitants nestled in mountains west of Multan (late 17th century).

hagacan map 2

Map 2: French map of India by Jacques de His, with “Haiacan” north of Thatta and directly south of Multan (1660-1679)

hajacan map 3

Map 3: Section of a French map of the Mughal Empire, with “Haiacan” and the “Bulloques” again surrounded by mountains directly west of Multan (18th century)

hajacan map 4

Map 4: Section of a French map of India by Nicolas Sanson, based on the work of Samuel Purchas and others (Paris, 1654)

European travellers like Terry would have had to draw from Mughal knowledge and sources, and a key text was the Ā’īn-i Akbarī of Abū’l Fażl (compiled in the late 16th century). There is a district (sarkār) called ‘Ḥājkān’ listed by Abū’l Fażl as part of the wider territory of Thatta, today in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh. It is not an especially rich or prominent district, and beyond its name, constituent townships (maḥals, of which one is also called Ḥājkān) and revenues nothing else is said of it. Abū’l Fażl’s description of the sarkār of Thatta does refer to the Baloch a few times, perhaps accounting for European associations of Hajacan with that people.[4] In the travel writing of Charles Masson (real name James Lewis, d. 1853), a region called “Ashi Khan” is mentioned as part of Balochistan, west of the city of Kalat. In 1871, E. Lethbridge proposed this was a leftover of Hajacan. While this fits with the overall placement south of Qandahar and south-west of Multan, the issue is shrouded in uncertainty.[5]

Whether Hajacan was a middling district of Balochistan or Thatta, early modern European writers and mapmakers ran wild. They turned it into a larger province or kingdom, and found numerous spaces for it on the map. Thatta was a coastal province south, not west of Multan – indeed, cartographers were well aware of Thatta’s southern location, for it is quite far from Hajacan on many maps. The esteemed British cartographer of India Major James Rennell (d. 1830) was aware that the data in the Ā’īn-i Akbarī did not gel with what he felt was the “very clear” status of “Hajykan” as a “large province […] west of the Indus opposite to Moultan.” The latter being a certainty in his eyes, he tries rather awkwardly to “reconcile these two accounts […] by supposing that Hajykan extends southward, along the Indus, until it meets the borders of Sindy [Sindh]; and that a small part of it was subject to Sindy.”[6]

hajacan map 5

Map 5: Section of an Italian map of the Mughal Empire by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, with “Haican” west of Multan and south of Qandahar, and populated by “Ballock, warrior people” (“Popoli Guerrieri”) (Venice, 1696)

hajacan map 6

Map 6: Section of an Italian map of India by Giacomo Cantelli, with “Hachacan” to the east of Multan, and well north of Thatta and Sindh (Rome, 1683)

hajacan map 7

Map 7: Section of a Dutch map of India by Jacob Keyser, with “Haiacan” north of Multan and south of Kabul (Amsterdam, 1730/1744)

hajacan map 8

Map 8: Section of a Dutch map of South and Southeast Asia published by Nicolaes Visscher, with “Haiacan” and the “Bulloques” to the south-west of Multan (Amsterdam, 1650-1700)

How this territory became so frequently referred to, with such variability in its location and definition, needs further study. Until then, the strange case of Hajacan provides an intriguing glimpse into the messy channels of circulation for geographical and political knowledge between India and Europe, and within Europe itself.


Citations

[1] Samuel Purchas, “Chap. VI. A Relation of a Voyage to the Easterne India. Observed by Edward Terry, Master of Arts and Student of Christ-Church in Oxford.” In Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes: Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and Others, vol. 9 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014): 14

[2] E.g. in Jean Hubner, La Géographie Universelle, ou l’on donne une idée abrégée des quatre parties du monde, et des différens lieux qu’elles renferment, vol. 4 (Basel, 1761) : 127

[3] “Bulloques,” in The Gazetteer’s or Newsman’s Interpreter. Being a Geographical Index of all the Empires, Kingdoms, Islands, Provinces, Peninsulas: As also, of the Cities, Patriarchships, Bishopricks, Universities, Ports, Forts, Castles, &c. in Asia, Africa and America, The Second Part, 7th ed. (London: 1738): no page

 [4] H. Blochmann (ed.), The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul-Fazl-i-’Allami, Edited in the Original Persian (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1872): 557-558

H.S. Jarrett (ed.), The Ain I Akbari by Abul Fazl Allami, Translated from the Original Persian, vol. 2 (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1891): 336-340

[5] Charles Masson, Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, the Panjab, & Kalat, during a Residence in those Countries: To which is Added an Account of the Insurrection at Kalat, and a Memoir on Eastern Balochistan, vol. 4 (London: Richard Bentley, 1844): 324-27

E. Lethbridge (trans. and ed.), The Topography of the Mogul Empire as Known to the Dutch in 1631 (Calcutta: Thomas S. Smith, City Press, 1871): 5

[6] James Rennell, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or the Mogul Empire: with an Introduction, Illustrative of the Geography and Present Division of that Country: and a Map of the Countries Situated Between the Heads of the Indian Rivers, and the Caspian Sea (London, 1788): 292

Timur Khan is a research Master's student of Middle Eastern Studies at Leiden University. His work focuses on statecraft and legitimacy in the Durrani period of Peshawar's history (c. 1747-1834). His research interests include early modern and colonial territoriality, the cultural and political history of Afghans within the Turko-Persianate world, and the role of non-Europeans in the making of 19th-century colonial empires. He tweets @TimurKhan97.