![]() The observatory was host to important Indian astronomers, with Chinthamani Ragoonatha Chary, a native of Nungambakkam, Madras, working in the observatory as well. The Survey of India, not yet named as such then, had its origins here as well” With them being located in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. It was also a question of where the army was located. This was a very well established station as far as they were concerned, in 1802. Sriram speaks on the cultural reasons behind choosing Madras: “Madras was really where the empire had begun. From this a series of triangles was carried, about 85 miles East, North and South to Cuddalore covering over 3,700 square miles. On 10 April, 1802, this survey commenced with the measurement of a baseline near Saint Thomas’ Mount, Madras. After having received better instruments, and rejecting his initial attempt in 1800, he began a journey he would never end up seeing finished: the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. ![]() Lambton, a soldier in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, had initially attempted to determine the breadth of the peninsula, from Madras to its opposite coast, and fix the latitudes and longitudes of many important places. ![]() ![]() This was soon rectified by William Lambton. When trying to solve this problem through surveys and exploration another problem arose: the lack of precise measurement for surveying. Following the defeat of Tipu Sultan in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, the British East India Company had control over vast amounts of the Indian subcontinent yet had little knowledge of its actual size and boundaries. The GTS’ history can be traced back to the early 1800s in modern-day Karnataka. If you’re interested in locating more such stations or benchmarks across Chennai or even India, the Triangulations in India and Adjacent Countries (GT Data Only), printed by the office of the Survey of India, is a good place to start your historical sleuthing. ![]()
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