The tenth day of April is a red letter day in the history of surveying as it was on this day in 1802 that Colonel William lambton, along with his band of surveyors and assistants, began his Great Arc expedition with the first 7.5 mile baseline measurement between St. Thomas Mount in Madras and another chosen spot to its south.
The Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, was the greatest human endeavour attempted at the time. One of the unsettled scientific questions in the late 18th century was the exact nature of the shape of the earth.
The process of measurement alone took 57 days. After lambton’s death midway through his mission in1823, the Great Arc was carried forward from Nagpur right up to the first range of the Himalayas near Mussoorie by, in the words of John Keay, the
“bewhiskered and cantankerous martinet” lieutenant George Everest, who had joined lambton in the year 1818.
It would be well in place today to pay homage to the pioneer surveyors of the Great Arc Survey who enabled the Himalayas to gain their rightful place in the world as the tallest mountains in the world which till then were considered inferior to the Andes.
It was a result of this survey that the height of Mount Everest was determined and the great peak named after the venerable Surveyor, George Everest.
Memories of the The Great Arc Expedition, or the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, that was led by Col. William lambton two centuries ago, and later accomplished by Sir George Everest, still lie undiscovered in parts of the DoonValley.
One such relic lies preserved in the St. Thomas Church on Rajpur Road, perhaps the oldest garrison church in the region, still awaiting conservation. The memorial plaque in St. Thomas Church immortalized the memory of George Henry Walter Shelverton, a deputy superintendent in the Survey, who died near Madras in 1871 due to a Malarious fever.
John Keay, whose well-researched book called ‘The Great Arc’, that brought this super-human achievement to light, seems to have given this significant relic a miss.
The Survey laid the foundation of scientific geodesy that provided an incomparable framework of precise geodetic control points and enabled topographical and cadastral maps to be based on inch perfect surveys.
George Everest Estate in Mussoorie,which provided the vantage point for Everest from where he used Arcadia Grant as a baseline to measure the Himalayas, still lies in a state of neglect.
As Keay observes, it is indeed curious that neither of the two pioneers figures with any prominence in historical accounts of either science or the empire. “lambton is not even among the fifteen thousand worthies included in Chambers’ Biographical Dictionary. Everest is just a mountain,” rues Keay.
“The Great Arc” is indeed a dramatic tale of how India was mapped and Everest was named, how the dedicated team of surveyors undertook this 40-year long high-risk journey, braving bouts of malarial fevers, dysentery, floods and inhospitable weather, through hills, jungles and swamps. This sprawling 173 acre estate, located amid scenic surroundings ,is also known as the George Everest Estate and provided the vantage point for Everest ,known as the “father of Indian Geodesy”, from where he used Arcadia Grant as a baseline to measure the Himalayas.
In 1865, Mount Everest was named in the honour of the great surveyor despite his objections. It was surveyed by his successor, Andre Waugh. A year after this, Everest passed away.
Built in 1832, the Park Estate was the home and laboratory of, Sir George Everest. For years, this estate has stood as a ravaged legacy. Facing the snow capped Himalayan ranges on one side, the estate offers a breathtaking view of the Doon valley from the other side. Nestled in the picturesque Hathipaon area, this ruined estate now comprises the main building and the observatory.
When Everest, the first Surveyor General of India, closed down his office here in September 1843, he rented it out. later, it was sold it to the well-known Skinner family and then went to John Mackinnon, who died in 1870 and left it to his sons, the famous brewers. It was also once owned by Mussoorie’s Shah family and Dehradun’s Pooran Singh family. For quite a few years it has been with the State Government.