India Discovered (39 page)

1902 Marshall arrives as Director of Archaeology

1908 Havell’s Indian Sculpture and Painting published

1910 Controversy over Indian art at Royal Society of Arts

1913 Marshall begins excavations at Taxila

1920 Ajanta restorations begin

1921 Banerji discovers Mohenjo-daro

1924 Excavation of Mohenjo-daro begins

1927 Coomaraswamy’s
Indian and Indonesian Art
published

The Great Arc

The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named

John Keay

“A wonderful and fascinating book’
LAWRENCE JAMES,
The Times

“More extraordinary than any fiction’

CHARLOTTE CORY
,
Mail on Sunday

The Great Indian Arc of the Meridian, begun in 1800, was the longest measurement of the earth’s surface ever to have been attempted. The 1600-mile survey took nearly fifty
years and cost more lives than most contemporary wars. Hailed as ‘one of the most stupendous works in the history of science’, it was also one of the most perilous. Through hill and jungle, flood and fever, an intrepid band of surveyors carried the Arc from the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent up into the frozen wastes of the Himalayas. William Lambton, an endearing genius, conceived the
idea; George Everest, an impossible martinet, completed it. Both found the technical difficulties horrendous. With instruments weighing half a ton, their observations had often to be conducted from flimsy platforms ninety feet above the ground or from mountain peaks enveloped in blizzard. Malaria wiped out whole survey parties; tigers and scorpions took their toll.

Yet the results were commensurate.
India as we now know it was defined in the process. The Arc also resulted in the first accurate measurements of the Himalayas, an achievement which was acknowledged by the naming of the world’s highest mountain in honour of Everest. More important still, the Arc significantly advanced our knowledge of the exact shape of our planet.

“This wonderful book – surely Keay’s most compelling, and one of the most remarkable works of non-fiction to be published this year – is a fitting monument not just to Everest but also to the Great Arc itself

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
,
Sunday Times

0-00-653123-7

India: A History

John Keay

“In an environment where every fact is infinitely malleable, every interpretation politicised, the need for clear, accessible and unbiased popular history is all the greater. It is hard to imagine anyone succeeding more gracefully in producing a balanced overview than John Keay has done in
India: A History
& a book that is as fluent and readable as it is up-to-date and impartial. Hardly a page passes without some fascinating nugget or surprising fact & one can only hope that John Keay’s
India
will be widely read, and its lessons taken to heart.’

WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
,
GUARDIAN

“[John Keay’s] astute commentary on the development of Indian history is a delight& one of the best general studies of the subcontinent.’

ANDREW LYCETT,
Sunday Times

“Certainly the most balanced and the most lucid [one-volume history of the subcontinent] & his passion for India shines through and illuminates every page & puts Keay in the front rank of Indian historiographers.’

CHARLES ALLEN
,
Spectator

0-00-638784-5

HarperCollins
Publishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.fireandwater.com

This paperback edition 2001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

First published in Great Britain in 1981
First published in paperback by William Collins 1988

The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

ISBN 0 00 712300 0

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EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-007-39964-2