Records & People
In 1852, a Bengali mathematician working from a survey office in Calcutta calculated the height of a peak he was forbidden from ever approaching —…
By Laxman Rawal · Jul 20, 2026
In 1852, in a survey office in Calcutta, a 39-year-old Bengali mathematician named Radhanath Sikdar worked through a stack of trigonometric observations and arrived at a number: 29,000 feet. He had just calculated that a barely-named summit, recorded in the…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Sikdar's arithmetic said 29,000 feet exactly. His superior, Surveyor-General Andrew Waugh, reportedly worried that a number that round would look like a rough estimate rather than a precise calculation — so he added two feet before making it official…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
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