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![From Sikdar’s Diary
• 1828 Euclid Bk. I, propos. 29
• 1829 Euclid Bks I to IV and Algebra up to
Quadratic Equations
• 1830 Euclid Bk. IV, Fluxions [i.e.,. calculus],
Maxima and Minima, Tangenta, Rectifications,
Quadrations
• 1831 Whole of Euclid's Elements, Spherical
Trigonometry, Fluxions, Taylor's and Maclaurin's
Theorems, Kepler's problems
• 1832 Windhouse's Analytical Trigonometry,
Jephson's Fluxions, Lagrange's Theorem, Windhouses's
Astronomy](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/radhanathsikdar-120808032620-phpapp01/85/Radhanath-sikdar-9-320.jpg)
![Everest Employs Sikdar
• On being employed as a Computor at the
office of the Great Trigonometrical Survey
of India, I started studying many other
books on Mathematics [i.e., other than the
ones mentioned above]. Now [7 October,
1832] I shall leave Calcutta on 15 October
to work as a Surveyor at Serunge Base
Line. (from Sikdar’s diary)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/radhanathsikdar-120808032620-phpapp01/85/Radhanath-sikdar-12-320.jpg)
Uploaded byNational Council of Science Museums
Radhanath sikdar
Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870) was a pioneering Indian mathematician and geodesist, influential in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, where he identified peak XV as the world's highest mountain, later named Mount Everest. Despite his significant contributions to meteorology and education, including promoting women's education, he remained largely unrecognized by the British colonial administration and was overshadowed in history. Sikdar passed away in isolation at his villa in Chandan Nagar, leaving behind a legacy of scientific achievements that were not adequately acknowledged during his lifetime.
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Radhanath sikdar
- 1. Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870) On Top of the World and Beyond
- 3. Science-Society Overlap • ModernScience and Indian Society circa 1800 • Little inducement for acquiring scientific temper • Sikdar a pioneer in spreading technical education and women’s education
- 4. Historico-philosophical Background • Rammohan Roy (1774-1833) pleads for science- based educational system as against the old Sanskrit-based system • Hindu College established in 1817 • Henry Derozio (1809-1831) joins Hindu College in 1826 as a teacher • Derozio was a rationalist, empiricist and scepticist, but had no grounding in modern science • Students became rebellious under his influence • Derozio forced to resign, 1831
- 5. Colonizer-Colonized Interface • BritishColonialism and Surveying • War with Tipu Sultan • Col. Lambton and Surveying • George Everest in search of “native” talent • Syed Mir Mohsin and Radhanath Sikdar • Everest praises Mohsin and Sikdar • Everest fails to support Sikdar against British Magistrate’s injustice • Effacement of Sikdar’s role by British administration
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- 7. Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870) •Born Jorasanko, Calcutta (Date of Birth not known) • Educated at Hindu College • Deeply influenced by Derozio (1809-31) • He was an inveterate beef-eater, soldier-basher and promoter of free marriage, refusing to marry the girl of his mother’s choice • Newtonian mathematics and physics were taught by Tytler and Ross at the Hindu College • One of the first Indians to master Newtonian mathematics and physics • Joined Great Trigonometrical Survey, 1832
- 8. Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870) •Became the right-hand man of George Everest at Dehra Dun in measuring the Great Arc • Wrote the scientific and technical chapters of the Survey Manual, 1851 • Became Supdt of the Calcutta Observatory, 1851 and introduced many new meteorological methods and processes • Calculated from various readings that Peak XV of the Himalayan Range was actually the highest in the world, 1852 • Retired in 1862 and taught Mathematics at General Assemblies Institution • Was awarded the Corresponding Membership of Bavaria Natural History Society under German Philosophical Society in 1864 • Died in 1870 at his own villa at Chandan Nagar
- 9. From Sikdar’s Diary •1828 Euclid Bk. I, propos. 29 • 1829 Euclid Bks I to IV and Algebra up to Quadratic Equations • 1830 Euclid Bk. IV, Fluxions [i.e.,. calculus], Maxima and Minima, Tangenta, Rectifications, Quadrations • 1831 Whole of Euclid's Elements, Spherical Trigonometry, Fluxions, Taylor's and Maclaurin's Theorems, Kepler's problems • 1832 Windhouse's Analytical Trigonometry, Jephson's Fluxions, Lagrange's Theorem, Windhouses's Astronomy
- 10. The First toMaster Newton and Laplace • 'Dr.Tytler, Professor of Mathematics, thought highly of him, and he and Rajnarain Bysack were the first Hindu who received instruction from him in Newton's Principia.' Indeed, 'he was the first Bengali youth to have learnt the mathematics invented by Newton and Laplace and accomplished great things in science and astronomy.' (Hindoo Patriot, May 23,
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- 12. Everest Employs Sikdar •On being employed as a Computor at the office of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, I started studying many other books on Mathematics [i.e., other than the ones mentioned above]. Now [7 October, 1832] I shall leave Calcutta on 15 October to work as a Surveyor at Serunge Base Line. (from Sikdar’s diary)
- 13. Everest to LordBentinck, 1 July 1831 • … a straight part of the Barrackpore road might be given up for my operations, the old Chitpore road temporarily repaired, and two towers built of masonry for connecting the line with the series of triangles – I accordingly examined the road and had a survey of it, the Result of which was that the part between the 5th and 11th milestones could be used with the addition of two towers
- 14. Survey Tower No.1,Nov. 1831
- 15. Suvey Tower No.1,Nov. 2011
- 16. Survey Tower No.1,Nov. 2011
- 17. Survey Tower No.2,Nov. 2011
- 18. George Everest onSikdar • “There are few in India, whether European or native, that can at all compete with him. Even in Europe these mathematical attainments would rank very high.” • “There are a few of my instruments that he cannot manage; and none of my computations of which he is not thoroughly master. He can not only apply formulae but investigate them."
- 19. Sikdar’s Home, ChandanNagar • On coming back from Dehra Dun to Calcutta in 1851 (1849?), Sikdar shifted from Calcutta to a spacious villa by the side of the Ganga at Chandan Nagar, then a French colony. He used to go to the Survey Office at Calcutta from Chandan Nagar -- by train or by river transport? He retired in 1862 and died in 1870 in this house, now dilapidated and almost unknown to anybody.
- 20. The Manual ofSurveying for India, 1851, 1855 • In part III (On Surveying) and V, the computers have been largely assisted by Babu Radhanath Sikdar, distinguished head of the computing department of the GTSI. The chapters 15, 17 up to 21 inclusive of Part III, and the whole of Part V are entirely his own. Besides he compiled a set of auxiliary tables for the surveying department which were found to be greatly useful. • Part V consisted of 'Practical Astronomy and its applications to surveying.' The book was reissued in 1855, with the preface intact.
- 21.
- 22. 1875: “robbery ofthe dead” • In 1862, Sikdar retired and died in 1870. The third edition of the manual came out in 1875, without the acknowledgements. Scandalized, a section of Englishmen protested against this. In a two-part article in the Friend of India, 17 and 24 June, 1876 titled 'The Survey of India', Col. John Macdonald condemned this as a "cowardly sin" and "robbery of the dead". He further wrote, 'We feel quite certain that we shall command the sympathy of every highly educated native in India for our determination to rescue the name of one of the greatest Mathematicians which has adorned the honourable list of those who measured and computed the great Indian arc from neglect by those who owe so much to his memory.' (24 June 1876). In an editorial on 16 August 1876, Friend of India wrote, 'Had Sikdar been alive, we would have left it to fight his own battle.'
- 23. Sikdar and MountEverest
- 24. Burrard and theNaming Game • Nature in its 10 November 1904 issue carried an article titled 'Mount Everest: The story of a Long Controversy' by S. G. Burrard, the then Surveyor- General. He wrote: • About 1852 the chief computer of the office at Calcutta informed Sir Andrew Waugh that a peak designated XV had been found to be higher than any other hitherto measured in the world. The peak was discovered by the computers to have been observed from six different stations; on no occasion had the observer suspected that he was viewing through the telescope the highest point of the earth.
- 25. Sikdar’s Contribution Sikdar’s contributionto the computation was in working out and applying the allowance to be made for a phenomenon called refraction - the bending of straight lines by the density of the Earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic waves from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of altitude. Atmospheric refraction near the ground produces mirages and can make distant objects appear to shimmer or ripple. It is, however, possible to equip a telescope with control systems to compensate for the shift caused by the refraction.
- 26. Waugh Pleases Everest RadhanathSikdar in 1852 reported to the then Surveyor General, Andrew Waugh, that Himalayan Peak No.XV was actually the tallest in the world. This peak was later named by Waugh as Mount Everest, to please George Everest, who had retired in 1843. Sikdar’s name was mentioned only in passing in the internal correspondence.
- 27.
- 28. Contributions to Meteorology Immediatelyafter assuming charge of the Calcutta observatory,Sikdar prepared a table for reduction of barometric observations to 32°F for which he had to develop his own formula. It was based upon the physical concept that the temperature reduction was to be applied on two counts: the thermal expansion of the brass scale attached to the barometer and the dilatation of the mercury column in the tube. Sikdar’s work was significant because it made it possible to compare pressure observations taken at different times. A note describing Sikdar’s formula was communicated to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal by the Deputy Surveyor General, Col. H. L. Thuillier and it was published by the Journal in 1852 (Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 329- 332).
- 29. Sikdar Formula C =B. (t – 320)m – (t – 620) b 1 + (t – 320)m C = sum of the two corrections B = observed height of the Barometer t = Observed temperature of the mercury, and of the brass scale which are assumed to be equal. m = .000100 Expansion of mercury for 10 of Faht b = .0000106 Expansion of brass for 10 of Faht 320 = Standard temperature of mercury 620 = Ditto ditto of brass
- 30. Contributions to Meteorology startedin 1853 a time- signalling service for ships, based upon observations of the transit of stars across Calcutta.
- 31. Recognition Radhanath became amember of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1853 and was inducted as a member of its Meteorology and Physical Science Committee in 1858.
- 32. German Philosophical SocietyAward 1864 Radhanath's mathematical expertise won him in 1864 a Corresponding Membership of the Society of Natural History, Bavaria - a rare honour in those days to be awarded to a foreigner by the highly conservative German Philosophical Society.
- 33.
- 34. Chandan Nagar RoadNamed after Sikdar
- 35. Science-Society Overlap • Sikdara pioneer in spreading technical education and women’s education • But wrote little about science in vernacular • Was he against popularization of science? • He became a recluse in his later years and died at Chandan-nagar (then a French colony) in isolation from Calcutta society. • Overall, he had very little impact on society at large. • Was it an instance of the scientist being identified with an alien culture ?
- 36.