The Pundits

Download or read book The Pundits written by Derek Waller and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a September day in 1863, Abdul Hamid entered the Central Asian city of Yarkand. Disguised as a merchant, Hamid was actually an employee of the Survey of India, carrying concealed instruments to enable him to map the geography of the area. Hamid did not live to provide a first-hand count of his travels. Nevertheless, he was the advance guard of an elite group of Indian trans-Himalayan explorers—recruited, trained, and directed by the officers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India—who were to traverse much of Tibet and Central Asia during the next thirty years. Derek Waller presents the history of these explorers, who came to be called "native explorers" or "pundits" in the public documents of the Survey of India. In the closed files of the government of British India, however, they were given their true designation as spies. As they moved northward within the Indian subcontinent, the British demanded precise frontiers and sought orderly political and economic relationships with their neighbors. They were also becoming increasingly aware of and concerned with their ignorance of the geographical, political, and military complexion of the territories beyond the mountain frontiers of the Indian empire. This was particularly true of Tibet. Though use of pundits was phased out in the 1890s in favor of purely British expeditions, they gathered an immense amount of information on the topography of the region, the customs of its inhabitants, and the nature of its government and military resources. They were able to travel to places where virtually no European count venture, and did so under conditions of extreme deprivation and great danger. They are responsible for documenting an area of over one million square miles, most of it completely unknown territory to the West. Now, thanks to Waller's efforts, their contributions to history will no longer remain forgotten.

Download or read book The Pundits written by Derek Waller and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a September day in 1863, Abdul Hamid entered the Central Asian city of Yarkand. Disguised as a merchant, Hamid was actually an employee of the Survey of India, carrying concealed instruments to enable him to map the geography of the area. Hamid did not live to provide a first-hand count of his travels. Nevertheless, he was the advance guard of an elite group of Indian trans-Himalayan explorers—recruited, trained, and directed by the officers of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India—who were to traverse much of Tibet and Central Asia during the next thirty years. Derek Waller presents the history of these explorers, who came to be called "native explorers" or "pundits" in the public documents of the Survey of India. In the closed files of the government of British India, however, they were given their true designation as spies. As they moved northward within the Indian subcontinent, the British demanded precise frontiers and sought orderly political and economic relationships with their neighbors. They were also becoming increasingly aware of and concerned with their ignorance of the geographical, political, and military complexion of the territories beyond the mountain frontiers of the Indian empire. This was particularly true of Tibet. Though use of pundits was phased out in the 1890s in favor of purely British expeditions, they gathered an immense amount of information on the topography of the region, the customs of its inhabitants, and the nature of its government and military resources. They were able to travel to places where virtually no European count venture, and did so under conditions of extreme deprivation and great danger. They are responsible for documenting an area of over one million square miles, most of it completely unknown territory to the West. Now, thanks to Waller's efforts, their contributions to history will no longer remain forgotten.

Download or read book A Code of Gentoo Laws Or, Ordinations of the Pundits written by and published by . This book was released on 1776 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Code of Gentoo Laws, Or, Ordinations of the Pundits written by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed and published by . This book was released on 1776 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A code of Gentoo laws, or ordinations of the pundits [tr. and ed. by N.B. Halhed]. written by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed and published by . This book was released on 1776 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Code of Gentoo Laws, or ordinations of the Pundits, from a Persian translation made from the original, written in the Shanscrit Language. Translated and edited by N. B. Halhed written by and published by . This book was released on 1781 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Spying for the Raj written by Jules Stewart and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2006-04-20 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1860s, Captain Thomas Montgomerie trained natives to be surveyors, and had them explore the region covertly. These men, known as pundits, were disguised as lamas (holy men). This book talks about these servants of the Raj who managed to map the Himalayas and Tibet, helping the British to consolidate their rule in the Indian sub-continent.