Neither the accumulation of route knowledge nor the compilation of such was ‘colonial’ in origin. Imperial marches and journeys under Mughal rule often employed a class of people who measured the roads. Further, such calculations were followed by building coss minarets at regular intervals. This practice was followed not only when monarchs and kings travelled at a leisurely pace but also, as is evident from the hasty march of Shah Azam, in times of speedy journeys over a wide geographical distance. The prince, who took nineteen days travelling from Patna to Delhi, was constantly accompanied by twelve troopers, four footmen, one chobdar (mace carrier), one jarib-kash (road measurer) and two ghariwalas (time keepers). A famous text of the Mughal period is The Chahar Gulshan, written in 1759–60 by Rai Chaturman Saksena. It was a route table, together with, as Irfan Habib has suggested, ‘cartographic’ elements. Similarly, a map showing the northwest frontier regions together with Kashmir and the north of India, which, R. H. Phillimore suggests, dates between 1650 and 1730, ‘records the stages and distances between these towns [shown on the map], the crossings of the great rivers and the main passes through the border hills’. Registers of marches depicting actual measured distances (of course often without inflections and latitude) were kept, which James Rennell generously admitted as being superior to the vague report or judgement. Certain safarnamas (travel accounts) also gave information on routes and stages, and diaries gave information on itineraries.