Radhanath Sikdar (1813–1870), a brilliant mathematician employed by the Great Trigonometrical Survey, is credited with deducing that Peak XV (later christened “Everest”) was the highest mountain in the world. Using data from six distinct observation stations, he calculated its height as 29,000 ft (8,839 m) a number later adjusted by his British contemporaries by adding two extra feet to lend it gravitas.

Despite his pivotal role, historical credit shifted. When the Royal Geographical Society formally named the peak in 1865, it bore the name of Sir George Everest who never even saw the mountain. Sikdar’s contributions were quietly sidelined; he wrote key technical treatises and authored chapters in surveying manuals, yet his name faded from later editions of official documents.

Some historians argue the erasure was systematic. As a native “computer” the term then used for human calculators his role was significant but undervalued in a colonial system that preferred recognizing foreign officers. Today, efforts to reclaim his legacy argue for renaming Peak XV as “Sikdar Parvat” or “Mount Sikdar,” thereby restoring rightful acknowledgment.

Sikdar never stood on Everest, but with his pen and trigonometry, he scaled heights that history almost forgot.