Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. It's height is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia and is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, Tibet, and China. Radhanath Sikdhar (1813–1870) discovered Mount Everest. He was born in a Brahmin Family on October 1813 in Jorasanko, Calcutta's old city. He studied mathematics at the city's renowned Hindu College and had a basic knowledge of English. He was a workaholic and never got married, instead he dedicated his life to solve knotty mathematical calculations.
Radhanath Sikdar joined the Survey of India at Dehra Dun in December 1831 in the post of a Computor and he was the first Indian to do so. He was barely nineteen years old at that time. Dr Tytler, Professor of Mathematics at Hindu College, Calcutta, had recommended his pupil’s name to George Everest for his keen mathematical proficiency and investigative mind. Both George Everest and his successor, Andrew Waugh had held Radhanath in high esteem. Radhanath Sickdhar spent four long and arduous years of unscrambling mathematical data as part of the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) in 1819 to determine the height of Peak XV, which became known as Mt. Everest. The world's highest mountain was named after Sir George Everest, the surveyor general of India.
In 1852, Radhanath Sikdar reported to the then Surveyor General, Andrew Waugh, about a Himalayan peak that was the tallest in the world, and which was later named by Waugh, after his predecessor - Sir George Everest, as Mount Everest. Sickdhar was 39 when he made his discovery and he was one of the survey's largely unsung heroes. The mountain stood at 29,002 feet (8,840 metres).The survey involved several thousand Indians and was named the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) in 1819. It was first identified as a possible contender for the world's highest peak in 1847 when surveyors glimpsed it from near Darjeeling. Several observations were recorded over the next three years by different survey parties. But the announcement that it was the highest - thanks to Sikdhar's efforts - was delayed until 1856 as calculations had to be checked repeatedly.
