TAMILS IDENTIFIED MOUNT EVEREST AS HIGHEST PEAK

TAMILS IDENTIFIED MOUNT EVEREST AS HIGHEST PEAK

N.Nandhivarman

Nepalese call Mount Everest as Sagarmatha. It is needless to say that sagar means Sea. Once upon a time Mount Everest and Himalayan region were seas .This is proven by the Nepalese name for Mount Everest. Tibetans named it as Chomolangma which meant Mother of the Universe. This word denotes their knowledge about their surroundings.

It was found to be the highest peak in 1852 and till 1865 India had not named the peak. It was just called it as Peak XV. British Surveyor General of India Sir Andrew Waugh chose to name it as Mount Everest, his predecessor, at a later date. That is past. But now in 2005 we hear claims and counter claims about who found Mount Everest to be the  highest peak.

• The Chinese newspaper Peoples Daily published an article in 2002 attacking the continued use of English name and referred it by its Tibetan name only.

• The Times of India report in 2005 states that Radhanath Sikdar an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal was the first to identify Everest as the worlds highest peak in 1852 using trigonometric  calculations based on measurements made with telescopic measurements from 240 kms away from India.[ October 18-2005 Times of India, Mumbai edition]

• In an article in Thelitamizh, a literary magazine by Tamil Valarcchi Nadavaddikai Kuzhu, N.Nandhivarman General Secretary Dravida Peravai wrote “ Imayam kadanthom, Imayam alanthom, Cheenam pol unmaigailai oongi olithoma ?” In this article it is claimed that Mount Everest never saw the peak and an Engineer from Arcot Syed Hussain Mohisin alone had designed the scale and measured Mount Everest.

In view of the debate stirred by  The Times of India it is necessary for me to place wherefrom I got the news and how I came to the conclusion that a Tamil engineer Syed Hussain Mohisin alone deserves credit.

Frontline September 26-2003 carried an article on Maps of History. In that article an interview with John Keay titled as Mapping is a sensitive subject appeared.

Let me quote the introductory part “ John Kaey 62, the finest writer of non fictional history of India of the colonial times has authored several history and travel works. His recent work The Great Arc describes the stupendous scientific expedition undertaken across the Indian subcontinent in the 19 th century under the British Raj. Although it took about 50 years to complete, Great Arc led to the discovery of the world highest peak, a new calculation of the curvature of the earth’s surface, the mapping of the subcontinent and the development of its roads, railways and telegraphic lines. John Kaey who was in Chennai to take part in the William Lambton Commemoration, spoke on the Great Trignometrical survey and its  heroes, as a part of the 200 th anniversary celebrations of the beginning of the Great Arc.

After such an introduction Frontline journalist asks:

Q: Do you think people in India do not have a sense of history ?

A: I think they have a sense of history. I think if your country has been occupied,

 colonized and if what happened during the period of colonialism is invariably awarded to the colonizing power…. You are not going to be enthusiastic about it. The Great Arc has always been presented as British achievement. Lambton and Everest associated with it were British. One has to remember as someone said this evening, most of the mathematical work- which is really the most important aspect of the expedition was done by….

Before he concluded the Frontline Journalist  asked : By Bengalis ?

A: Not just Bengalis. Precision Engineering necessary for the instruments were made in India. The Great arcs senior instrument engineer was in fact from  Arcot in Tamil Nadu. He was called Syed Hussain Mohisin, I think. He was a most brilliant instrument manufacturer. People like Lambton and George Everest were heavily indebted to him and indeed said so..

THIS CLINCHES THE ISSUE.A TAMILIAN SYED HUSSAIN MOHISIN DESERVES HIS DUE PLACE IN HISTORY. INFACT WHEN COLONIAL NAMES WHERE CHANGED MOUNT EVEREST MUST HAVE BEEN RENAMED AS MOUNT SYED HUSSAIN MOHISIN

To conclusively prove my statement let me quote the last question of that interview.

Q: Is it true that George Everest had never seen the  peak that is named after him :

John Kaey replied : He never saw the peak

This is John Kaey’s interview in Frontline magazine. .