Livingstone, David 171
Logan (Survey member) 144
longitude 9, 71, 155
longitudinal triangulations 58–9, 82, 84, 159–60
Louis XVI, King 22
Lucknow 45
Macartney mission to China 37
Mackenzie, Col. Colin 23–5, 27, 28, 43, 55–6, 170
Madras 20–1, 23, 32, 42, 52, 53, 67, 74, 117
base-line 28, 30, 33–5
Observatory 68, 70–1
Makalu 165
Malabar coast 23, 58, 59
malaria 6, 13–14, 45, 57–8, 80, 95, 105, 146, 159
Mangalore 58
map-making 14, 23, 28, 82–3, 142
map corrections 59, 70
Marathas 42, 83, 84
Marina Beach 33
Markham, Sir Clements 156, 159, 173
Masherbrum 168
Maskelyne, Sir Nevil 65
masts 132–3
Mathura (Muttra) 128, 129
Mauritius 31
measuring chains 29–31, 71–2, 103, 151, 153
measuring rods 30, 122–3
see also compensation bars
meridians 9, 14, 15, 28, 117
Metcalfe, Sir Charles 89
monsoon 4, 70, 88–9, 97
Mont Blanc 39, 49
Montgomerie, Capt. T.G. 168–9
Moon, Sir Penderel 66
Morton, Dr 90
Mulheran, Owen 153
Mullapunnaletta 55
Musi river 4
Mussoorie 109, 111–12, 116, 127
Muzaffarapur 164
Mysore 42, 74
Mysore Survey 5, 23–4, 27, 28, 43, 55–6, 129
Mysore Wars 19, 20, 22–3, 27, 42–3
Nagpur 17, 74, 90, 92–3, 94, 95–6
Nanda Devi 125–6, 162, 163, 164
Napoleonic wars 10, 67, 76
Narmada river 97, 98
Narnicul 52
Nepal 35, 41–2, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 116, 125, 159, 169
New Brunswick 18–19, 23, 24
Newton, Sir Isaac 71
Nicholson, James 165
night surveying 87–9, 97, 105
North-East Longitudinal series 160–2, 165
‘Observations on the Theory of Walls’ (Lambton) 20
Olliver, Joseph: career with Survey 69, 136–7
commands Calcutta series 104–6, 109, 136, 159, 160
fieldwork 11–12, 14, 99, 127–8, 144
relations with Everest 69, 99–100, 104, 137, 150, 156
relations with Lambton 68–9, 85
‘On the Height of India’s Mountains’ (Humboldt) 124, 173
‘On the Height of the Himalaya Mountains’ (Colebrooke) 46–7, 173
Ordnance Survey 24, 30, 102, 103
Pakistan 156, 168
Panch Pandol 4, 10–11, 12
Peyton, John 144, 165
Pilibhit 45, 47
Pindari wars 83
Pir Ghalib, shrine of 135
Playfair, John 57, 75, 174
plumb lines 28, 72–3, 88, 121, 138
Polo, Marco 38
Pondicherry 21, 65, 67–8
Poona (Pune) 84
Prinsep, James 107–8, 174
Ptolemy 38
Purnia 41, 48
Quarterly Review 47–9, 114–15, 124, 173
Rajarajeshwara temple 61–2
Ramnagar 147, 148
Ranipur 98
Rapti river 44
ray-tracing 129–30
refraction 33–4, 37, 46, 48, 59, 86–7, 88, 118, 147
Rennel, Major James 38–9, 40
Renny-Tailyour, Thomas 135, 144
Ridge, The Delhi 135–6
Ross, Dr Ronald 6
Rossenrode, William: career with Survey 69, 99
fieldwork 104, 105, 109, 127–8, 144, 147–8
relations with Everest 69, 93, 100–1, 128, 135–6, 150, 156
relations with Lambton 69, 85
Rossenrode, William junior 164
route surveys 43
Roy, William 24, 26, 30, 61, 75, 122
Royal Astronomical Society 102
Royal Geographical Society 47, 156, 167
Royal Institution 172
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 9
Royal Military Calendar 19
Royal Society 76, 102
Russia 154, 157
Saharanpur 117, 120–1, 123, 127
St Thomas’s Mount 30, 33
Sanchi (Vidisha) 98
Sarangapalle 5, 6, 10
Savendroog 55
scorpions 98–9
Sebastian, K.J. 16–17
Shah Jehan 131
Sholapur 86
Sickdhar, Radhanath 144, 165–6
Sikander Jah, Nizam of Hyderabad 2
Sikkim 159
Sironj 97, 104, 127, 130, 147, 153, 159
base-line 98, 99, 101, 123, 144, 150–2
observatory 154–5
Siwalik hills 116, 127, 128, 137–8, 140, 143, 147
Sleeman, Col. William 148–9
Sonakhoda 162
spherical excess 25, 27, 56, 76
Sravana Belgola 55, 56
Srirangapatnam 22, 53
Surkananda 120, 123
Survey of India xvii–xix, 14, 102, 141–2, 174
see also Great Trigonometrical Survey
Tagore, Rabindranath 131
Taj Mahal 81, 131
Tamil Nadu 31, 51, 60, 61
Tanjore (Thanjavur) 60, 61, 66
Tapti river 97
Tenerife peak 39
terai 45, 159–60
theodolites 29–30, 58, 118, 133
see also Great Theodolite
thermometers 31, 119–20
Thuillier, Captain H.E.L. 166–7, 168
Tibet 38, 40, 46, 115, 116, 154
tigers 11, 44, 93, 98, 105, 137
Tipu Sultan 22, 42
Tirunelveli 60, 70
topographical surveys 23, 55, 83, 158
towers 106–7, 138–9, 144, 147, 156, 159
Travancore, Raja of 66
triangulation 7–9, 10, 86
and curvature of earth 25–6
height calculations 24–5, 33
secondary 8–9
Trichy (Tiruchirapalli) 51, 63
Uttar Pradesh 43
Vigne, Godfrey Thomas 114, 173
Vijayawada 4
Voysey, Dr Henry: death 14, 93
fever 12–14, 93
fieldwork 5, 11–12, 89, 98
joins Survey 73–4, 75
resignation 93, 97
Warren, John 20, 55, 67, 68, 69, 70, 76
Waugh, Andrew Scott: on Garhwal/Kumaon surveys 124
and Himalayan peaks 162–7
as assistant to Everest 135, 144, 146, 151, 152, 154
Mount Everest named by 166–8, 169, 172
personality 163
as Surveyor-General 124, 160
Webb, William 128, 166
assistant to Colebrook 45, 46
and Himalayan peaks 46–7, 48, 49, 115, 117–18, 119–20, 124–5, 163
Garhwal-Kumaon survey 116, 123, 124, 173
Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Wellington 19–20, 22–4, 28, 42, 76, 102
Wellesley, Richard, Earl/Marquess of Mornington 19, 28, 42, 67, 102
Western Ghats 57, 58
Wing, Emma 171
Yellapuram 12, 13, 14, 78
About the Author
THE GREAT ARC
JOHN KEAY is the author of four acclaimed histories: The Honourable Company, about the East India Company; Last Post, about imperial disengagement in the Far East; the two-volume Explorers of the Western Himalayas; and India: A History. His other books on India include India Discovered and Into India. John Keay is married with four children, lives in Scotland and is co-editor with Julia Keay of the Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland.
Praise
&nb
sp; From the reviews of The Great Arc:
‘[A] jewel of a book. The tale is brilliantly told, often very funny and at times very moving … a wonderful book by one of our best writers about India past and present’
ROBERT FOX, The Oldie
‘Wonderfully rich … With boisterous erudition and a dry, sophisticated wit, John Keay confirms his pre-eminence as an analyst of the sub-continent in a delightfully detailed work’
ANDREW MACKENZIE, Scotland on Sunday
‘Enthralling’
Sunday Times
‘If the science of the survey is made accessible and comprehensible (never have logarithms been so fascinating), the human element of the story is enough to make anyone’s jaw drop … This wonderful book – surely Keay’s most compelling, and one of the most remarkable works of non-fiction to be published this year – is a fitting monument not just to [George] Everest, but also to the Great Arc itself.
WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, Sunday Times
‘Keay has trod the same ground as Everest and his colleagues, and it shows: the book is peopled with swaggering, explosive characters, set against a background of telling detail, but it is his own observations that have the breath of life. Call it a mathematics handbook, a study in geography, or a travel book: it is a triumph’
ANDREW TAYLOR, Literary Review
‘More extraordinary than any fiction … an achievement worthy of the enormous undertaking it so lucidly describes’
CHARLOTTE CORY, Mail on Sunday
‘A wonderful and fascinating book whose author is a master not only of storytelling but of the arcane technicalities of trigonometry and practical map-making’
LAWRENCE JAMES, The Times
‘An enthralling narrative’
MICHAEL EMERY, Birmingham Post
‘The Great Arc displays all of Keay’s many qualities as a researcher, traveller and writer – particularly his pleasure in depicting eccentricity’
ANDREW ROBINSON, Times Higher Educational Supplement
‘A well-researched and beautifully written book which compels the reader to race through its pages … should be compulsory reading on every Geomatics course’
DAVID J. POWELL, Surveying World
By the Same Author
Into India
When Men and Mountains Meet
The Gilgit Game
Eccentric Travellers
Explorers Extraordinary
Highland Drove
The Royal Geographical Society’s
History of World Exploration (general editor)
India Discovered
The Honourable Company:
A History of the English East India Company
The Encyclopaedia of Scotland
(with Julia Keay)
Indonesia: From Sabang to Merauke
Last Post: The End of Empire in the Far East
India: A History
Copyright
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First published in Great Britain by
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Copyright © John Keay 2000
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