Surveyor

Sources

• Historical records of the Survey of India (Dehra Dun, 1945-58) by Reginald Henry Phillimore. Comprises 5 volumes. Available on open shelves at British Library shelfmark OIR.354.54. Includes biographical notes of persons involved in the geographical and historical survey of India (the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India) from 1777 to 1843. Also available to read online, refer "Historical books online" below. Volume V, to 1861, may be downloaded as a pdf.

External links

• "The Trigonometrical Survey" by FC Danvers (a transcript of an article, possibly that in Quarterly Journal of Science VII 1870 pages 448-458) ces.iisc.ernet.in (archive.org link)
• Man who mapped India sits forgotten under tree by M T Saju, June 10, 2013, Times of India. This article is about the bust of William Lambton, who launched his work for the Great Trigonometrical Survey on top of St Thomas Mount. On FIBIS on Facebook, Harshawardhan Bosham Nimkhedkar commented on 10 June 2013: Lambton died in Hinganghat, a small town in (the present-day) Chandrapur district of the western state of Maharashtra (about 100 kilometres from Nagpur). He was travelling up north, doing his survey work but fell ill near Hinganghat and died due dysentery. John Keay in his wonderful book The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India gives the details. Keay also discovered Lambton's crumbling tomb in a Moslem graveyard in Hinganghat and photographed it. Lambton was succeeded by George Everest (pronounced Eve-rest), after whom the world's tallest peak Mount Everest in the Himalayas is named.
• Land Surveys Banglapedia (National Encyclopaedia of Bangladesh). It is stated "The objectives of the revenue survey were to make accurate maps of the village boundaries and, sometimes, of the estate boundaries, showing topographical details, compiling certain statistical data for general administrative purposes, and making maps (usual scale: 4 inches = 1 mile and 1 inch = 1 mile) of each village and pargana"
• A pioneering institution [The Madras Survey School] by S. Muthiah 13 November 2002 The Hindu
• "Science in British India" by RK Kochhar Indian Journal of History of Science 34(4) 1999 pp317-346 html version includes information about Surveys . Page 329 (page 13 of the link) states 'Madras Observatory ran a surveying school from 1794 to 1810 to train teenager European orphaned boys as practical revenue surveyors'.
• This India List post is about the training of boys from the Madras Male Orphanage in the Survey school from 1794.
• Obituary of Colonel Reginald Henry Phillimore 1879-1964 himalayanclub.org (archive.org link)

Historical books online

• A manual of surveying for India, detailing the mode of operations on the revenue surveys in Bengal and the North-western provinces by Ralph Smyth and Henry Edward Landor Thuillier 1851 Google Books
• A Memoir On The Indian Surveys by Clements R Markham Archive.org First Edition 1871, 2nd Edition 1878
• "Great Indian Trigonometrical Survey" from Ways and works in India being an account of the public works in that country from the earliest times up to the present day by G. W. Macgeorge 1894 Archive.org
• Records of the Survey Of India Volume XVII Memoir On Maps Of Chinese Turkistan and Kensu from the Surveys made during Sir Aurel Stein’s Explorations 1900-1, 1906-8, 1913-1915 by Aurel Stein, Indian Archaelogical Survey 1923 (Trigonometrical Survey Office, Dehra Dun) Photographs, following page 208. Note this book/file does not contain any maps. Archive.org
• Historical Records of the Survey of India by Colonel R H Phillimore (late Royal Engineers and Survey of India). Read online or download as pdfs Archive.org
  • Volume I 18th Century published 1945
    • Contents, Biographical Notes page 308, Index, Additional Volume I corrections (from Volume II), Some of the maps from Volume I
  • Volume II 1800-1815 published 1950
    • Contents, Biographical Notes page 376, Index, Additional Volume I and II corrections (from Volume III)
  • Volume III 1815-1830 published 1954
    • Contents, Nominal Roll, Civil Assistants Bengal, page 370, Nominal Roll, Civil Assistants Madras and Bombay page 384, Biographical Notes page 422, Index, page 517
  • Volume IV 1830-1843, published 1958 is available to read online on the Digital Library of India website, (as are Volumes I-III).
  • Volume V 1844-1861, published 1968, (first published 1964) may be downloaded as a pdf from Digital Himalaya at University of Cambridge Yale,(scroll down) as may Volume IV (and earlier volumes) (large files up to 47 MB). Volume V was withdrawn by the Indian Government soon after it was published, because of the strategic sensitivity of some of the subject matter (sogdianabooks.com and abebooks.co.uk) so it is not widely available.