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Radhanath Sikdar NDIA I OF CIENTISTS S 1813-1870 KOUSHIK ROY IR Radhanath Sikdar will always be remembered as the Indian Smathema cian who measured the height of Peak XV – later to be named Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. And he achieved the feat without any modern equipment way back in the 1850s. The year 2013 is being celebrated as the bi-centenary of his birth, albeit rather inconspicuously. Radhanath Sikdar was born at Jorasanka, near the contemporary North Kolkata’s din and bustle of Barra Bazaar in 1813. During Radhanath’s infancy, Bengal was yet to emerge out of the cocoon of blind scruples, dogma sm, myopic social a tude and aversion towards the scien fi c metamorphosis that was then sweeping all over the world. Ever since his childhood Radhanath had to struggle hard with the deple ng fi nancial state of his lower-middle class parents, although their ancestors belonged to an infl uen al and fi nancially opulent gentry. However, Radhanath’s so -spoken and generous father, Tituram wanted the best of educa on for his son. So, Radhanath was admi ed to the Chris anized social worker Kamal Bose’s school at Jorasanko. At the age of 11, Radhanath sought admission in the Sir Radhanath got down to accomplishing that Hindu College (now the pres gious Presidency College). Here, hitherto improbable feat with confi dence. He Radhanath’s urge to delve deeper into the challenging realm of measured the loftiest Himalayan peak with his science and ra onalism was further honed by his proximity to the survey-based and trigonometrical readings from six young, Portuguese-Indian teacher, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, diversifi ed locations. He was successful in 1852. although Derozio was only four years senior to Radhanath. Radhanath felt deeply hurt a er being isolated from Derozio During gradua on, Radhanath delved deeper into the nuances who succumbed to cholera a er being driven out of the Hindu of “Hard Science”, with his penchant for prac sing Spherical College by some orthodox people at the raw age of 23. Trigonometry, following the footsteps of Hellenic mathema cians Following the unorthodox, unconven onal approach to bust Thales, Archimedes and Eratosthenes. He was taught about Sir all religious conven ons and supers ons, Radhanath took to Isaac Newton’s magnum opus on physics and maths, Principia ea ng beef regularly which helped to build his swarthy physique. Mathema ca, by Hindu College’s cerebral Professor John Tytler. Radhanath’s principal hobby, apart from studying voraciously Radhanath also showed an interest in Astronomical observa ons. the scien fi c classics penned by Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Radhanath’s exper se in Trigonometry earned him a Keppler, Shridhar Acharya and Bhaskaracharya, was to manhandle reputa on within the “Great Trigonometrical Survey of India” in English ruffi ans (Gora) who used to tease vulnerable Bengalese with 1830, when he was appointed there at the raw age of 18. The deplorable invec ves like “na ves”, “kaala aadmi” or “heathens”. organiza on’s English director was the Surveyor General Sir George 55 SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2013 SCIENTISTS OF INDIA Sikdar, an Indian mathematician, measured the height of Peak XV – later to be named Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. Everest. He was in quest of a prodigious boy in both Mathema cs for ability Babu Radhanath Sikdar, a na ve of Brahminical and Physics. John Tytler approached Sir Everest and extolled the extrac on whose mathema cal acquirements are of high order.” scien fi c talent of Radhanath. Radhanath was the fi rst Indian to Radhanath Sikdar served as one of the land surveyors in join as a “Computer” at the monthly salary of Rs 30/-, while s ll the Dehra Dun circle for 20 years. He was an exponent in the being a college student. Radhanath also needed that salary to bail geological stratas of the Earth during the Pleistocene, Pre- his fi nancially exhausted family out of distress. Cambrian, Miocene and Triassic epochs which helped him a lot Radhanath began by measuring the base line between to know about the topographical texture of India. Sir Radhanath two towers at the two ends of the Barrackpore Trunk Road in also went through the geographical trea ses composed by 1831. Radhanath carried out a lot of surveying and measuring Eratosthenes and Pythagoras. assignments on B.T. Road, with the assistance of Andrew Waugh He joined in Kolkata’s Wood Street offi ce (near St. Xavier’s and Renny Taylor – the two dedicated and amiable English College) of Survey of India in 1851 as the “Chief Computer”. Survey personnel. Radhanath also executed his land survey jobs Since 1852, Sir Radhanath was also employed as the Supervisor in Agra, Chunar, Amarkantak, Gwalior and Mussoorie with the of the Alipore Meteorological offi ce. His composite salary for help of instruments like Theodolite perambulator (also known as these two apex designa ons was Rs 600/-, which was quite banal surveyor’s wheel). compared to the lo y salary package received by Sir Radhanath’s Radhanath’s passion and curiosity for the lo y Himalayas English counterparts. and geographical expedi ons dragged him to that enigma c body Andrew Waugh proposed Radhanath’s name to conduct of snow and obdurate al tude. Sir George Everest immediately an elaborate survey of the Himalayan summits in Eastern India. took the hard-working youth under his patronage. Radhanath However, while carrying out that assignment, Radhanath had to was gradually bap zed into the basics of the “Geoda c Survey” face a territorial problem while collec ng data about “Peak 15” procedure in which Sir Everest was an expert. (later known as Mount Everest), lying between Mount Lhotse Sir Everest thought Radhanath’s mathema cal genius and Mount Nuptse, at the borderline of Tibet and Nepal. Earlier, much superior to his overseas peers. So, Radhanath was amply the English Government had also not been able to measure that rewarded with “Knighthood” in 1861. He was also conferred upon peak’s actual height due to territorial problems. the awards of the Pres gious Fellow of the Royal Society and Vice- Sir Radhanath got down to accomplishing that hitherto Presidentship of the Royal Geographic Society in 1863. improbable feat with confi dence. He measured the lo iest According to famous English historiographer John Keay, Sir Himalayan peak with his survey-based and trigonometrical Everest was so much reliant upon Sir Radhanath that he did not readings from six diversifi ed loca ons. He was successful in 1852. even want that he should go to visit his father, Tituram from the By comparing and averaging those six readings, Sir Radhanath Dehra Dun Circle. Rather, Tituram was cordially invited to visit his found out that the exact height of Peak 15 to be 29,000 feet, prodigious ward. which is the closest to Mount Everest’s height of 29,017 feet. A er Sir Everest’s re rement, Andrew Waugh extolled about The English surveyors had also an cipated that Peak 15 the virtues of Radhanath before the Bri sh Parliament’s House of towered above all other summits on this planet. However, they Commons: “Among them may be men oned, as most conspicuous failed to prove it due to the sunbeam’s refrac on owing to SCIENCE REPORTER, DECEMBER 2013 56 SCIENTISTS OF INDIA Radhanath’s expertise in Trigonometry earned him a reputation within the “Great Trigonometrical Survey of India” in 1830, when he was appointed there at the raw age of 18. several levels of density in the atmospheric layers, at diff erent heights. Solar beams and electromagne c waves are subjected to frequent diversions while being refracted by those aerial stratas. So, the readings about the height of Peak 15, taken with the help of telescope and Theodolite might not be accurate. When Andrew Waugh became assured of the lo iest nature of Peak 15 in 1856, he no fi ed the Bri sh Royal Geographical Society that Peak 15 was undoubtedly “at the top of the world”. The Society showered Andrew Waugh with praise, but the mathema cal explora on’s genuine originator, Sir Radhanath, remained beyond the limelight, except for some customary cita ons, for being a “na ve”. Despite being the only person to measure Mount Everest’s actual al tude, Sir Radhanath was o en awarded stepmotherly treatment by his English superiors. In 1928, the then in-charge of the Survey of India, Kenneth Mason, only men oned Sir Radhanath as “a babu” in his deliverance. That colonial bias was highly cri cized in numerous vernacular newspapers like Prabasi, Sandhya and Bharatbarsho. In 1932, the essayist, Yogesh Chandra Bagal composed a long, analy cal essay on Sir Radhanath Sikdar in Prabasi to hail him. S ll, in 1947, the last English Surveyor General, G.F. Heaney dared to discard Sir Sikdar’s contribu on thus: “Radhanath Sikdar was not responsible for compu ng the height of the Everest.” In his book, Historical Records of the Survey of India, R.H. Fillimore also denied that Sir Radhanath had measured that lo iest peak. However, in 1984, Lippon–Angus, the then President of the Interna onal Associa on of Geodesy confi rmed: “Radhanath Sikdar’s calcula on showed that the unknown Peak XV was the highest mountain the world.” Sikdar re red from government service in 1862, a er which devoted his life to social work and populariza on of science. Sir Sikdar died on 17 May 1870. Mr Koushik Roy is a teacher at the Abeshkuri High Madrasah (H.S.), vill. Sabarandighi, P.O.
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