Radhanath Sikdar

Radhanath Sikdar (1813–1870) was an Indian mathematician and surveyor with the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. In 1856, survey calculations identified Peak XV, later named Mount Everest, as the world’s highest mountain.

Great Trigonometrical Survey: A nineteenth-century survey of the Indian subcontinent that used triangulation to map its geography. Sikdar’s calculations formed part of this vast surveying project.
Hindu College, Calcutta: A nineteenth-century educational institution in Calcutta, now Kolkata, founded in 1817. Sikdar studied mathematics at this institution before joining the Survey.
Nain Singh Rawat: An Indian surveyor who mapped parts of Tibet and Central Asia for the Great Trigonometrical Survey. Rawat, like Sikdar, was an Indian surveyor whose expertise served the Survey.
Peak XV: The survey designation for the Himalayan summit later named Mount Everest. This was the peak whose calculated height brought Sikdar’s work to public notice.
Triangulation: A surveying method that determines distant positions by measuring angles from known points. The Survey used triangulation to calculate Peak XV’s elevation from afar.
George Everest: A Welsh surveyor who led the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India from 1823 to 1843. Everest recruited Sikdar into the Survey’s mathematical work.
James Nicolson: A British surveyor who observed Himalayan peaks during the Great Trigonometrical Survey. Nicolson’s observations of Peak XV contributed data to its height calculation.
Naming of Mount Everest: The 1865 decision by the Royal Geographical Society to name Peak XV after George Everest. The naming debate made the difference between calculating a summit and receiving its namesake honor visible.
Theodolite: An instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles in surveying. Theodolite observations supplied the angles used in the Survey’s calculations.
Andrew Scott Waugh: A British surveyor general of India who directed the Great Trigonometrical Survey after George Everest. Waugh’s administration announced Peak XV’s calculated height and proposed its name.

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