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also found that these could be used to ward off curious co-travelers: each time someone came too near, he would start whirling the wheel around and pretend to be in religious contemplation. Usually this would be enough to stop others from addressing him. Another way of keeping their observations was
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A number of tricks were developed to enable the pundits to make their observations without being found out. They were "trained to walk at precisely two thousand paces to the mile." To count them, they used a modified loop of prayer beads used in
Buddhism, called a
150:, who was originally a schoolteacher (or pundit). His accomplishments were so remarkable that the whole group of around twenty native explorers became known as the Pundits.
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to be surveyors, and have them explore the region. These would raise less suspicion than
Europeans, and might be able to make observations disguised as a trader or a
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253:, instead, "the scroll hidden within (...) was replaced by a blank roll of paper upon which data could be surreptitiously recorded." Pundit
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was used in the second half of the 19th century to denote native Indian surveyors used by the
British to secretly explore regions north of
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of India. The
British also wanted geographical information on the lands further north. This was not just out of scientific curiosity: the
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243:, but instead of the usual 108 beads it had 100, every tenth being slightly larger. Every 100 paces a bead was dropped. A
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Account of the Pundit's
Journey in Great Tibet - Capt. H. Trotter, The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1877).
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Derek J. Waller, 2004, "The
Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia," University Press of Kentucky.
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However, in some regions these surveys seemed impossible. Some of the Indian border countries, in particular
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An extensive list of the pundits (and their forerunners) has been detailed chronologically by
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The use of pundits by the
British during the Great Game is fictionalized in the 1901 novel
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Peter
Hopkirk, 1982, "Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa",
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Volume 103, 1998. (His entry for 1858 is incorrect – Bir and Deb Singh were with
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Mapping The Great Game: Explorers, Spies & Maps in
Nineteenth-century Asia
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Into the
Silence : The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest
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200:(holy man). These native surveyors are called pundits. One such pundit,
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Burrard, S. G. (1915). "The Identity of the Sanpo and Dihang Rivers".
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Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet
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Two of the most famous pundits included the cousins Nain Singh and
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to turn them into a poem, and recite that during their travels.
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One of the greatest projects of 19th century geography was the
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was the code-name for one of the first native explorers,
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Native explorers who assisted British surveys of Asia
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532:, Tarcher (1 June 1983), hardcover, 274 pages,
443:Bulletin of the American Geographical Society
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291:in 1812.) Some notable pundits include:
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454:: 249–264.
321:Mirza Shuja
300:Abdul Hamid
296:Abdul Mejid
210:Brahmaputra
570:Categories
538:0874772575
366:References
325:Nain Singh
308:Hyder Shah
179:Great Game
148:Nain Singh
144:The Pundit
69:newspapers
512:773021726
263:surveying
134:The term
354:See also
304:Hari Ram
171:Russians
312:Kinthup
281:in the
267:sextant
224:Methods
214:Pacific
202:Kinthup
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