John Goldingham FRS: Astronomer, Architect and Scentist in Madras

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Goldingham with his two Assistants

The advent of the East India Company and uts military and political domination over India has been the subject of a recent book by William Dreflect detail the inteigues, violence and pillage that accompanied the rise of the Empire, there is another story waiting to be told. The story of men, mostly from Scotland who entered the Company service and spent a good part of their lives in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, historical research and Antiquaran pursuits. The name of Col Colin MacKenzie comes immediately to mind when we reflect on the formative decades of Company rule in India. For very Robert Clive there was a Mark Wilks, a William Roxburgh a Colin MacKenzie and therefore the historical context of early Company ule must also encompass the work of these men who were in many ways the products of the Scottish Enlightenment.

John Goldingham a Fellow of the Royal Society came to India in the early years of the nineteenth century when the great geodesic project like the measurement of the Meridian Arc, the Trignomentrical Survey and terrestrial mapping of India was underway. A practical problem all these projects faced was the determination of the Longitude which could be used to caliberate all their maps and calculations. Navigation on the high seas also depended on the determination of the Longitude as that wouldenable safe sailing. The loss of 4 battle ships near the Isle of Scicylly near the coast of Cornwall and the loss of 2000 sean men made the English Government intervene and John Harrison in1748 succedded in making the Chronemeter that enabled ships to carry the local time with them while sailing.The Longitude is the angular distance between the Equator (latidute) and the Prime Medidian which was the Observatory at Greenwich. Until Harrison invented his very sophisticated Chronometer sailors were at the mercy of the sky, the stars and extremely poor astronomical instruments like the sexton and the qyadrant.Harrison's instument was a robust chronemeter that allowed the Longitude to be determined by the difference between local time(on the sailing ship) and the time in a fixed meridian. Thyco Brahe (1546-1601) and Johhanes Kepler (1571-1630) kept detailed observations os the stellar objcets and these tables were used as aids in navigation. However, navigation by the help of the stars was both risky and with the southern hemisphere becoming the new frontier of exploration with the several voyages of James Cook a reliable method was needed. In India, this meant determination of a meridian that could be used as a base for accurate reliable mapping.

John Goldingham succeeded Michaek Topping as the Astronomer of the East India Company and he undertook extensive work at Topping's Observatory at Nugambakkam on the banks of the Cooum. Being a trined Astronomer, John Goldingham decided to use the Ecpises of Jupiter in order to determnie the Longitude of Madras. He had at his disposal the excellent series of astronomical data collected over several decades by William Petrie between 1787 to 1782. He also had the data of Michael Topping and his own. He presented his method in a lenghty paper in which he discussed the eclipses of Jupiter as a possible determinat of the Longitude on Earth.His findings were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol 112 (1822). He cross checked his finding by comparing the result with Lunar Eclipses in which the use of Kepler's table becomes the base for calculation. Goldingham was able to estblish the Medidian for Madras' His Indian assistants perhaps depicted in the illustration above were Srinivasachary and Tiruvenkatachary.

Banquetting Hall designed by Goldhinham before it became ugly

John Goldingham was an Astronomer and he was the first Principal of the Madras School of Survey that grew into the famous Guindy Engineering College' Edward Clive as Love points out in Vlume III of his Vestiges of Old Madras was keen on establishing a distinct Depatment of Civil Engineering separate from the Military and John Goldingham was appointed the Architect to design the Garden House of the Madras Governor and a Public Hall which stands today as the Banquetting Hall after a series of "rennovations" which have altered the character and concept of the architect. Goldingham's drwaing have been presevered in Netehlands and thes structures were meant to proclaim the invincibility of the Company after its victories over the usurper ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan.Lord Clive who was the Governor from 1798 to1803 sanctioned 58,000 pagodas and the Architect was paid a 15% commission giving him a permenant stake in cost escalation. Finally Goldingham was dismissed and the project completed.

After this work Goldhimham returned to England where he died in 1849. Havell suggests that Goldingham was the first architect to use Indian elements in his building a trnd tken forwatd by the likes of Chilsom.

The Redoubt at Egmore: Possible Location and History

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

1733 Map of Madras showing the Egmore Redoubt

Redoubt Pic Story of Madras

The Map given on the left is an important histoical document in that it gives us on overview of what Madras looked like in the first quarter of the eighteeenth century. More importantly, it illustrates the exact location of the Egmore Redoubt: the square bounded area outside the dark boundary lines towards the left top corner of the map. This Map was apparentlydone during the Governorship of Pitt when Madras underwent dramatic expansion. Right below we have the only surviving illustration of theEgmore Redoubt. The location geneally identified with the Redoubt is the Egmore Railway Station on theGandhi Irwin Road, opposite the Archives. This identification which was suggeted by Professor Srinivasachari in his "Place Names Of Madras"which he published in 1936 in the volume of essay commemoration the 300 years of the foundation of the City in 1636.

The identification seems to be slightly off the mark because there are historical documents that when sifted carefully give us a better site.

The location of the Redoubt was outside of the Bounded Hedges that surrounded the East India Company's self procalimed limits of its possessions. There was a Choultry in the place where the Redouby was constructed. And the purpose was strictly military. If we keep these factors in mind we get a better understanding of the location. The documents sate clearly that the Redoubt will have a brick wall around the Choultry in order to lodge such "forces as we shall send to defend peace". While there were frequent skirmishes with Dawood Khan, Mafuz Khan and even on ocassion with the Portuguese, the English faced only one serious contender, the French located in Pondicherry.And the defence of Madras implied guardingthe access points to the City. The obvious attacks from the sea were warded off as Love points out in his Vestiges of Old Madras by strengthening the Sea Gate with heavy weapons. And popular memory has it that the Fortification Walls were constructed with money collected from the Residents of the Black Town, that is the indigenous people and hence the name Wall Tax Road, The attaks on Madras by Dadood Khan prompted Thomas Pitt, whose granson was to become the Prime Minister of England, to seriously consider the issue of defenses.Kanchipuram and and Poonamalee were importantl towns frequently attacked by the Maharattas who controlled the Fort of Ginji and Vellore. Adding to the owes of the East India Company were polegars like Lingappa who commanded considerble armed following in the vicinity of Madras and preyed upon the trade and mechaindise passing through the area. It was during the invasion of the French under Count de Lally that we hear of the military role of the Egmore Redoubt.

The Consultations of the Governor in Council of the year 1710 state that a sum of 350 pagodas was sanctioned for the maintenance of the Choultry clearly a recognition that it was a useful asset. However the location of the Choultry in Egmore presented some thorny issues. Did East India Company have jurisdiction over thie area. Dawood Khan claerly a most colorful figure in the history of the time one one of his visits to Madras with the sole purpose of cadging liquor from the Governor, remarked that if the English came to trade why did they need fortifications, guns and cannon. A question that the Governor parried. By July 1711 a furter 563pagodas was spent in strngthening the Choultry and making it a Redoubt, a masonary fort.Apart from naking it a fort, the Company decided to build a Powder Mill in the same locaton. The reason recorded in the Consultations for the Year 1711 is the poor quality of gun powder available and the erratic supply from Europe which was involved in its usual seasonal conflicts. Brohiers was put in charge f the Powder Mill which was located within the Redoubt. By 1713 a total of 5060 pagodas had been expended on the Fortifications and th Powder Mill. The Redoubt had a dual purpose: to hold the Choultry Plains and was a Signal Post to alert the forces atFort St. George should an Army or Cavalry be seen. If these aspects are kept in mind it is clear that the location at the Egmore Station would have been quite futile to its stated purposes.

We have some other cluse about the location of the Egmore Redoubt in Robert Orme's Military Transactions of the British Nation in Hindustan. Wrting about the defense of Madras by Col Lawrence during the invasion of Lally he sates that the Choultry Plain extends two miles west of the Enclosures which bound St Thomas Mount and this plain extends right up to Mylapore. There is a reference to Chindradipettah as being close to the Redoubt and this is obviously a weaving village, chinna tari pettai. And there is a settlement by that name close to where we have located theRedoubt.

The Choultry Plain consisisted of (1) Puddupakkam (2) Chindradripet (3) Roypettah (4) Nungambakkam (5) Triplicane. Egmore itself came under the shifting sands of competing claims and various warlords of the time lid claim to it. The claim was finally setteld when Egmore was acquired by the Comapny.

Given these factors, and the location of the Redoubt given in the Map it appears that the location was much further west from where Srinivasachari located it.

  (This is only a tentative identification as this Historian has not had the opportunity of traveling to Madras and making an on the spot assessment)