Each millennium had thrown up passion for doing something unique. One such passion prevailed in the 19th through the 18th century was the accurate determination of the dimension of the earth and the location of important geographical features in terms of latitude and longitude. In the western world as well as in India this passion was pursued with great zeal by committed people in the field of survey. Col. Lambton, Sir George Everest, Col. Waugh and Col. Walker were the persons who pursued the measurement of the great meridional arc from Kanyakumari to Banog in the foothills of the Himalayas and covering a large part of India by Trignometrical Survey from 1800 to 1866. Their works attempted to provide an accurate base for systematic topographic and revenue surveys of India.
One of the greatest projects of nineteenth century geography was the GreatTrigonometricSurvey of India.
In the 1860s, Thomas G. Montgomerie, a captain in the survey, realised that the solution to this problem would be to train natives from Indian border states such as Sikkim to be surveyors, and have them explore the region.
The pundits were given extensive training in surveying: They learned to use the sextant, determine height by measuring the temperature of boiling water, make astronomical observations.
One of the great scientific questions of the 18th and 19th centuries was the accurate determination of the dimension of the Earth, and the subsequent location of geographical features in terms of latitude and longitude.
The GreatTrigonometricSurvey was an attempt to measure an arc of 78¡E from Tinavelley to Banog.
All British survey activities were supposedly unified in 1878 by the formation of the Survey of India, of which the GTS became the Geodetic Branch, but establishing a uniform approach and uniform goals across the country proved impossible.
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