Abstract
This paper demonstrates the important contribution material culture makes to histories of cartography. Focusing on the tangible and intangible heritage of the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) of India, and West Bengal in particular, the material landscape legacies of the GTS are analysed and interpreted. This reveals new insights into how surveys of the GTS were undertaken in the nineteenth century, under George Everest, and the infrastructure that was created to underpin the British mapping of India. The trigonometrical stations built by the GTS were of different designs and construction, adapted in response to local conditions and circumstances. Today, this ‘survey heritage’ is at risk, yet provides a basis for understanding more deeply the materiality of mapping and survey practices used in mapping empires. The paper connects the three-dimensional ‘spaces of survey’ with the two-dimensional ‘space of the map’, and concludes by arguing for greater consideration of the verticality of mapping.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
British Academy award PM150229. The ‘Surveying Empires’ project team comprised Keith Lilley, Satish Kumar and Siobhán McDermott from Queen’s University Belfast, and Bishnupriya Basak, Rajat Sanyal and Sharmista Chatterjee from the University of Calcutta. The author wishes to thank the whole project team for their support and guidance in the field in West Bengal. For more project information, see surveyingempires.org.
References
Crosbie B (2012) Irish imperial networks: migration, social communication and exchange in nineteenth-century India. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Edney M (1997) Mapping an empire: the geographical construction of British India, 1765–1843. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Edney M (2002) Field/map. In: Nielsen KH, Harbsmeier M, Ries CJ (eds) Scientists and scholars in the field. Studies in the history of fieldwork and expeditions. Wiley, Aarhus, pp 431–456
Everest G (1847) An account of the measurement of two sections of the meridional arc of India, bounded by the parallels of 18° 3′ 15″; 24° 7′ 11″ & 29° 30′ 48″. J. & H. Cox, London
Hennessey JBN (1883a) Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India volume XX. Descriptions and co-ordinates of the principal stations and other fixed points of the Calcutta Meridional Series or Series T and the Brahmaputra Meridional Series or Series V of North-East Quadrilateral. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Hennessey JBN (1883b) Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India volume XXI. Descriptions and co-ordinates of the principal stations and other fixed points of the East Calcutta Longitudinal Series or Series U and the Eastern Frontier Series, Sec. 23° to 26°, or Series W of the North-East Quadrilateral. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Keay J (2000) The Great Arc: the dramatic tale of how India was mapped and Everest was named. Harper Collins, London
Lilley KD (2017) Mapping the nation: landscapes of survey and the material cultures of the early Ordnance Survey in Britain and Ireland. Landscapes 18(2):178–199
Mukherjee N (2011) ‘A desideratum more sublime’: imperialism’s expansive vision and Lambton’s Trigonometrical Survey of India. Postcolonial Stud. 14(4):429–447
Phillimore RH (1954) Historical records of the Survey of India, vol. III. 1815 to 1830. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Phillimore RH (1958) Historical records of the Survey of India. Volume IV. 1830 to 1843 George Everest. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Prinsep J (1832) Progress of the Indian trigonometrical survey. J Asiatic Soc. Bengal 1:71–72
Sen N (2002) Mapping of India and naming of Mount Everest—a bicentenary. Curr Sci 82(7):780–782
Walker JT (1880a) Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India volume XII. Descriptions and co-ordinates of the principal stations and other fixed points of the Calcutta Longitudinal Series or Series B of South-East Quadrilateral. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Walker JT (1880b) Synopsis of the results of the operations of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India volume XIII. Descriptions and co-ordinates of the principal stations and other fixed points of the East Coast Series or Series C of South-East Quadrilateral. Survey of India, Dehra Dun
Yolland W (1847) An account of the measurement of the Lough Foyle Base in Ireland. Palmer and Clayton, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lilley, K.D. (2020). Surveying Empires: Archaeologies of Colonial Cartography and the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. In: Kent, A., Vervust, S., Demhardt, I., Millea, N. (eds) Mapping Empires: Colonial Cartographies of Land and Sea. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23447-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23447-8_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23446-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23447-8
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)