The Great Arc Read online

  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

  Phillimore, Reginald 165–6, 173

  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

  temples 61–2

  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

  HarperCollinsPublishers

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  This paperback edition 2001

  First published in Great Britain by

  HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

  Copyright © John Keay 2000

  John Keay asserts the moral right to

  be identified as the author of this work

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  EPub Edition © AUGUST 2012 ISBN 9780007404520

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