RADHANATH SIKDAR : The man who identified Mount Everest to be the highest mountain in the world

RADHANATH SIKDAR(1813-1870)

(The man who identified Mount Everest to be the highest mountain in the world)

29 May 1953. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Yet, nearly a century before that historic climb, a Bengali mathematician had already identified Everest as the highest mountain in the world.

The man was Radhanath Sikdar, born in 1813 at Jorasanko in Calcutta. Coming from a modest family, he excelled in mathematics and studied at Hindu College, where his remarkable talent impressed his teachers. In 1831, at the age of nineteen, he joined the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, one of the most ambitious scientific projects of the British Empire.

Radhanath soon earned a reputation for his exceptional skill in calculations, particularly in spherical trigonometry. His abilities impressed even George Everest, the Surveyor General of India, who considered him one of the survey’s most valuable officers.

At the time, Kangchenjunga was widely believed to be the world’s highest mountain. However, while examining survey data, Radhanath became convinced that a little-known Himalayan peak called Peak XV was actually higher. After years of careful calculations, he informed Surveyor General Andrew Waugh in 1852 that Peak XV was the highest mountain on Earth.

Wanting complete certainty, Radhanath recommended further verification before any public announcement. His calculations were eventually confirmed, and in 1856 the British authorities officially declared Peak XV the world’s highest peak.

Despite this achievement, Radhanath received little recognition. Instead of adopting local names such as Chomolungma or Sagarmatha, Andrew Waugh named the mountain after his predecessor, George Everest. Thus, the peak became known as Mount Everest.

Radhanath’s contribution was gradually pushed into the background, and later official publications largely ignored his role. Yet his achievement remains extraordinary. Long before anyone stood on Everest’s summit, it was a Bengali mathematician who first proved, through mathematics and survey science, that this was the highest mountain in the world.

Source : Hari S. Shekhawat in Facebook