The tallest peak located in the Himalayas, now popularly known as Mount Everest, was first measured by an Indian, Radhanath Sikdar, in 1852, four years before the British declared Peak XV as the tallest mountain in the world. A mathematical genius, he was known in his time simply as a “computer.”

The tallest mountain was given the name after the then Surveyor General of India in 1856, George Everest, who was surveying the geography of the land controlled by the British.

With a few instruments and plenty of skill, Sikdar used trigonometry to do what no one else had – and for it, he never got the credit.

History might have allowed his name to fade, but as we say, some names are too sharp to be erased. Radhanath Sikdar is one of them.

FROM CALCUTTA CLASSROOMS TO THE GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL

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