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Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-century Asia
Although the ultimate prize of the Great Game played out between Great Britain and Imperial Russia in the 19th century was India, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Maps and knowledge of the enemy were crucial elements in Britain’s struggle to defend the ‘jewel in the crown.’
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India had been founded in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the country. While most people today are readily able to identify the world’s highest mountain, few know of the man, George Everest, after whom it was named, or the accomplishment that earned him this singular honor. Under his leadership, the Survey of India mapped the Great Arc, which was then lauded as ‘one of the greatest works in the whole history of science,’ though it cost more in monetary terms and human lives than many contemporary Indian wars.
Much of the work of the Survey was undertaken by native Indians, known as Pundits, who were trained to explore, spy out and map Central Asia and Tibet. They did this at great personal risk and with meager resources, while traveling entirely on foot. They would be the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. They were the greatest group of explorers the world has seen in recent history – yet they remain the classic unsung heroes of the British Raj.
The story of these extraordinary pioneers who explored much of Asia during the 19th century to fill in large portions of its map, and spy out the region for military reasons is often forgotten, but Riaz Dean’s vivid account of their exploits, their adventurous spirit and their tenacity in the face of great adversity, all set within the context of the Great Game and the Survey of India, will finally bring them the attention they deserve.
The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India had been founded in the 18th century with the aim of creating a detailed map of the country. While most people today are readily able to identify the world’s highest mountain, few know of the man, George Everest, after whom it was named, or the accomplishment that earned him this singular honor. Under his leadership, the Survey of India mapped the Great Arc, which was then lauded as ‘one of the greatest works in the whole history of science,’ though it cost more in monetary terms and human lives than many contemporary Indian wars.
Much of the work of the Survey was undertaken by native Indians, known as Pundits, who were trained to explore, spy out and map Central Asia and Tibet. They did this at great personal risk and with meager resources, while traveling entirely on foot. They would be the first to reveal the mysteries of the forbidden city of Lhasa, and discover the true course of Tibet’s mighty Tsangpo River. They were the greatest group of explorers the world has seen in recent history – yet they remain the classic unsung heroes of the British Raj.
The story of these extraordinary pioneers who explored much of Asia during the 19th century to fill in large portions of its map, and spy out the region for military reasons is often forgotten, but Riaz Dean’s vivid account of their exploits, their adventurous spirit and their tenacity in the face of great adversity, all set within the context of the Great Game and the Survey of India, will finally bring them the attention they deserve.
317 pages, Hardcover
Published December 12, 2019
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February 28, 2020
When European powers competed among themselves for colonial annexation in the nineteenth century, it became the lot of Asia to come under their hegemonic invasions and also to provide the battleground for their internecine warfare. Britain stood its ground in India quite firmly and convincingly by 1818, when they defeated the Marathas, the last native challenge to colonialism. While Britain had no ambitions on the barren wastelands of Central Asia with its sparsely populated but aggressively tribal communities, this was not the case with Russia under the tsars. Russia always coveted a land route to the warm water ports of South Asia. With Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, their hopes were kindled to try something bold. Their overtures to Persia and the Khanates of Turkestan stung Britain to wake up to the possibility of a Russian invasion on India, by that time treated as the Jewel in the Crown. It too began countermeasures towoo and/or browbeat the petty principalities which controlledthe trade routes. This diplomatic and sometimes military confrontation is known as ‘The Great Game’. It continued on and off for nearly a century till 1907 when an Anglo-Russian Convention was signed to keep Afghanistan as a buffer state between the two empires. While this tussle for new land was being played out, the colonial government in India came alive to the need for making maps of the subcontinent using thoroughly scientific methods. The Great Trigonometrical Survey precisely did the same with painstaking work that spanned four decades. This book is the charming story of these initiatives along with the East India Company's desire to open trade up with Tibet which wanted to keep itself hidden in a clock of mystery and deep religiosity.Born and brought up in the Fiji Islands, Riaz Dean has travelled much of Central Asia including Turkestan and the roof of the world. He has written on the ancient Silk Road and its mapping. He lives in New Zealand. This is his first book.
The author identifies William Moorecroft as the first Britisher to investigate beyond Afghanistan. Arrived in India as superintendent of studs, he took it as a pretext to venture north in search of fine horses. It was essential to keep such secrecy as spieswere immediately executed in the war-torn principalities. He set out in 1811 and his third journey was especially important due to another unexpected development. We know that literature in India extended to the first millennium BCE, but Indians were reluctant to write down history. On this aspect, she trailed behind Greece. We had the equivalent of Pythagoras or Democritus, but no one comparable to Herodotus or Thucydides. Other than eulogies and epics that exaggerated facts to an unrecognisable mangle, India can point out only to the treatise ‘Rajatarangini’(river of kings) written in Kashmir in the eleventth century CE about its dynasty. This book was brought to light by Moorecroft’s efforts. He had some medical talents and he cured a learned Brahmin while in Kashmir and managed to obtain the manuscript of the volume as a reward.He died in Afghanistan on his last journey and the copious notes and logbooks he left behind were recovered and published after his demise.
It is amusing to know that India was the only country in the world that was mapped with state of the art cartographic methods in the early nineteenth century. This was achieved by the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) organised and kick-started in 1802. This system involved fixing three prominent pointsin the countryside as the vertices of a triangle and then proceeded to measure the angles between them. Based on the length – actual or calculated – betweenany two vertices, the other two lines can be computed trigonometrically. Hilltops were the usual targets, and even the tower soaring above the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur had also been used as a point. Lambton carried on the measurements for twenty-one years in the rugged country with a most demanding climate. He died in 1823 while surveying near Nagpur. The management of the men and instruments was a herculean task. The measurement apparatus alone took thirty-four camels and three elephants to move. It employed up to 700 workers and was completed only in 1841 when it reached the Himalayan foothills. This was soon extended to other uncharted regions and the principal triangulation of the subcontinent was finally finished in 1883.
Dean notes down the enthusiastic participation of native surveyors in finalising the route surveys to Tibet. It was a forbidden country for foreigners, but a few tribes in the Kumaon sector were permitted to travel there and carry out essential trade. The British saw this as an opportunity to explore the theocratic kingdom under the nominal suzerainty of China. They trained Indian volunteers in the art of surveying and taught them to walk all the way to Tibet in a consistent fashion. Their trained steps of standard length were then carefully counted from specially made prayer beads. They then walked into Tibet and other uncharted territory under the guise of merchants or religious mendicants. They were called pundits and the most famous among them was Nain Singh who made it to Lhasa in 1866. Kishen Singh made another great feat by traversing 2800 miles entirely by walking in a span of two years. These pundits were on their own on these long travels. In the absence of modern communication facilities, they were often presumed to be dead. When Kishen Singh returned, he found his two-year old son already dead and his wife had taken up with another man. Abdul Hamid is another noteworthy figure who had made more than fifty explorations. In all, these pundit mapmakers route-surveyed over 25,000 miles of territory worth of India’s frontiers, covering a staggering one million square kilometres. Much of this region was previously uncharted and where most European explorers had dared not venture.
This book also presents the picture from the Russian side too, where the kingdom gradually gobbled up the Central Asian states. The towering Hindukush mountain ranges made it difficult for transporting troops from the Indian side. But no such geographical features hindered the Russians. The Volga River flowed into the Caspian Sea and a rail line was laid from the other shore of this land-locked sea to Tashkent. What is remarkable is the relative ease with which the Russian forces overwhelmed the fabled Turkish defences. These remained firmly under Russian control till the fall of Communism in 1991 when they turned independent one by one. Turkestan was in effect divided into two parts by the imperial interests of Russia and China. China renamed its half Xinjiang which remains under sectarian rife even now. The Great Game came to an end after Russia’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Japan in 1905 and the rise of Germany as a concern for both powers in the run up to the First World War.
The book is very easy to read. It has three major sections – those dealing with the power struggle with Russia, surveying of India and opening up of the trade route to Tibet. These three are practically mutually exclusive with nothing to link them. It thus takes extraordinary coordination on the part of the author to seamlessly join them so that the readers’ attention is not jarred. The author always exhibits an understanding of the sensibilities of the Indian readers in exposing the blatant racial prejudices in favour of the British geographers whose only physical trouble was the exposition of the efforts of their Indian subordinates and translation of their narrative into English.
The book is highly recommended
The author identifies William Moorecroft as the first Britisher to investigate beyond Afghanistan. Arrived in India as superintendent of studs, he took it as a pretext to venture north in search of fine horses. It was essential to keep such secrecy as spieswere immediately executed in the war-torn principalities. He set out in 1811 and his third journey was especially important due to another unexpected development. We know that literature in India extended to the first millennium BCE, but Indians were reluctant to write down history. On this aspect, she trailed behind Greece. We had the equivalent of Pythagoras or Democritus, but no one comparable to Herodotus or Thucydides. Other than eulogies and epics that exaggerated facts to an unrecognisable mangle, India can point out only to the treatise ‘Rajatarangini’(river of kings) written in Kashmir in the eleventth century CE about its dynasty. This book was brought to light by Moorecroft’s efforts. He had some medical talents and he cured a learned Brahmin while in Kashmir and managed to obtain the manuscript of the volume as a reward.He died in Afghanistan on his last journey and the copious notes and logbooks he left behind were recovered and published after his demise.
It is amusing to know that India was the only country in the world that was mapped with state of the art cartographic methods in the early nineteenth century. This was achieved by the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) organised and kick-started in 1802. This system involved fixing three prominent pointsin the countryside as the vertices of a triangle and then proceeded to measure the angles between them. Based on the length – actual or calculated – betweenany two vertices, the other two lines can be computed trigonometrically. Hilltops were the usual targets, and even the tower soaring above the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur had also been used as a point. Lambton carried on the measurements for twenty-one years in the rugged country with a most demanding climate. He died in 1823 while surveying near Nagpur. The management of the men and instruments was a herculean task. The measurement apparatus alone took thirty-four camels and three elephants to move. It employed up to 700 workers and was completed only in 1841 when it reached the Himalayan foothills. This was soon extended to other uncharted regions and the principal triangulation of the subcontinent was finally finished in 1883.
Dean notes down the enthusiastic participation of native surveyors in finalising the route surveys to Tibet. It was a forbidden country for foreigners, but a few tribes in the Kumaon sector were permitted to travel there and carry out essential trade. The British saw this as an opportunity to explore the theocratic kingdom under the nominal suzerainty of China. They trained Indian volunteers in the art of surveying and taught them to walk all the way to Tibet in a consistent fashion. Their trained steps of standard length were then carefully counted from specially made prayer beads. They then walked into Tibet and other uncharted territory under the guise of merchants or religious mendicants. They were called pundits and the most famous among them was Nain Singh who made it to Lhasa in 1866. Kishen Singh made another great feat by traversing 2800 miles entirely by walking in a span of two years. These pundits were on their own on these long travels. In the absence of modern communication facilities, they were often presumed to be dead. When Kishen Singh returned, he found his two-year old son already dead and his wife had taken up with another man. Abdul Hamid is another noteworthy figure who had made more than fifty explorations. In all, these pundit mapmakers route-surveyed over 25,000 miles of territory worth of India’s frontiers, covering a staggering one million square kilometres. Much of this region was previously uncharted and where most European explorers had dared not venture.
This book also presents the picture from the Russian side too, where the kingdom gradually gobbled up the Central Asian states. The towering Hindukush mountain ranges made it difficult for transporting troops from the Indian side. But no such geographical features hindered the Russians. The Volga River flowed into the Caspian Sea and a rail line was laid from the other shore of this land-locked sea to Tashkent. What is remarkable is the relative ease with which the Russian forces overwhelmed the fabled Turkish defences. These remained firmly under Russian control till the fall of Communism in 1991 when they turned independent one by one. Turkestan was in effect divided into two parts by the imperial interests of Russia and China. China renamed its half Xinjiang which remains under sectarian rife even now. The Great Game came to an end after Russia’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Japan in 1905 and the rise of Germany as a concern for both powers in the run up to the First World War.
The book is very easy to read. It has three major sections – those dealing with the power struggle with Russia, surveying of India and opening up of the trade route to Tibet. These three are practically mutually exclusive with nothing to link them. It thus takes extraordinary coordination on the part of the author to seamlessly join them so that the readers’ attention is not jarred. The author always exhibits an understanding of the sensibilities of the Indian readers in exposing the blatant racial prejudices in favour of the British geographers whose only physical trouble was the exposition of the efforts of their Indian subordinates and translation of their narrative into English.
The book is highly recommended
February 11, 2020
India was the jewel in the British Empire’s crown. Its security was vitally important, but India was vulnerable along its northern frontiers where Imperial Russia prowled. The contest along this fault line became known as the Great Game. This was a region full of dangerous tribes who did not welcome outsiders, yet it was important for the British to have accurate maps. And in the can-do spirit of Victorian adventurers, they set out to get them. Riaz Dean tells their incredible stories.
Riaz Dean surveys the background to the Great Game in the Napoleonic era and the first explorer William Moorcroft of the Honourable East India Company. He and his associate travelled into Tibet and Afghanistan and sent back important information. The threat of Russian intervention spurred Britain on with Arthur Conolly and Alexander Burnes taking up the reins. Britain’s involvement in the region deepened, ending in war with the Afghans, Burnes’ death, and the infamous retreat from Kabul. Conolly also died around this time, a martyr to the Great Game. The British also mapped India on a stunningly ambitious scale. Known as the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS), this was the brainchild of William Lambton and carried on by George Everest. Dean narrates their methods and achievements along with the local khalasis who did much of the groundwork. These redoubtable and mostly unheralded men performed extraordinary feats of endurance and bravery alongside their British officers, men like Thomas Montgomorie. The GTS brought about the introduction of the Pundits, Indians who could cross into areas where the British were excluded while carrying disguised scientific instruments to conduct their mapmaking. To get caught, pacing out distances and boiling water to determine altitude, meant almost certain death. Dean pays homage to the Pundits through naming them and narrating their astounding deeds across the northwest frontier and Tibet, and deservedly so. Dean brings the Great Game to a close with a description of Russian expansion into the region, the Indian Mutiny, the Second Afghan War, joint agreements to settle the borders in the region, and the disreputable British invasion of Tibet in the early 20th Century. The Great Game ended in 1907.
Mapping the Great Game is an enjoyable read. These were remarkable people doing remarkable things in remarkable times and Dean tells their stories with respect and confidence. This does not compare to Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game but Dean adds another level to our understanding. I would have liked to have seen more footnotes, and, ironically, maps, but Dean supplies a useful bibliography for further exploration. If you like the Colonial period or just true adventure stories, then you will enjoy this book.
Riaz Dean surveys the background to the Great Game in the Napoleonic era and the first explorer William Moorcroft of the Honourable East India Company. He and his associate travelled into Tibet and Afghanistan and sent back important information. The threat of Russian intervention spurred Britain on with Arthur Conolly and Alexander Burnes taking up the reins. Britain’s involvement in the region deepened, ending in war with the Afghans, Burnes’ death, and the infamous retreat from Kabul. Conolly also died around this time, a martyr to the Great Game. The British also mapped India on a stunningly ambitious scale. Known as the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS), this was the brainchild of William Lambton and carried on by George Everest. Dean narrates their methods and achievements along with the local khalasis who did much of the groundwork. These redoubtable and mostly unheralded men performed extraordinary feats of endurance and bravery alongside their British officers, men like Thomas Montgomorie. The GTS brought about the introduction of the Pundits, Indians who could cross into areas where the British were excluded while carrying disguised scientific instruments to conduct their mapmaking. To get caught, pacing out distances and boiling water to determine altitude, meant almost certain death. Dean pays homage to the Pundits through naming them and narrating their astounding deeds across the northwest frontier and Tibet, and deservedly so. Dean brings the Great Game to a close with a description of Russian expansion into the region, the Indian Mutiny, the Second Afghan War, joint agreements to settle the borders in the region, and the disreputable British invasion of Tibet in the early 20th Century. The Great Game ended in 1907.
Mapping the Great Game is an enjoyable read. These were remarkable people doing remarkable things in remarkable times and Dean tells their stories with respect and confidence. This does not compare to Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game but Dean adds another level to our understanding. I would have liked to have seen more footnotes, and, ironically, maps, but Dean supplies a useful bibliography for further exploration. If you like the Colonial period or just true adventure stories, then you will enjoy this book.
November 28, 2020
Interesting book! What I missed though, were having more comprehensive maps, as it can be difficult to interpret some movement for those unfamiliar with the Indus region.
February 8, 2023
Mapping the Great Game is a somewhat scattered but still fascinating account of geography and spycraft in 19th century Asia. India was the crown gem in the British Empire, but its frontiers were poorly understood and even less well defined, and it took a dedicated effort to map them. The consistent fear was one of Russian attack from the north, a rivalry that prefigured the Cold War, and was in many was a mirrored provocation by the imperial powers at the expense of the locals.
The story is bookended by military history, the First Anglo-Afghan War and the 1904 British Expedition to Tibet, two of the more pointless and brutal imperial exercises of the period. The heart of the book is an account of the Pundit expeditions. While Europeans were conspicuous and vulnerable beyond the frontier, Indian natives could pass as traders and pilgrims, and specially trained locals, most notably Nain Singh, carried out long distance route surveys to fix the location of ancient Silk Road oasis cities and the courses of mighty rivers. Their methods were crude: trained paces, latitude observations with sextants and altitude observations with boiling thermometers, and they always operated under risk of exposure and execution as spies, but they were surprisingly accurate in their measurements and gained significant accolades.
A second theme is the Grand Trigonometric Survey. As people who have read James Scott or Foucault know, accurate maps and census are a key part of governmentality, and the British Empire launched an ambitious plan to map India using the most modern trigonometric methods, starting with a painstakingly measured baseline and then extrapolated by large triangles, until every key point was fixed. This was a physical and mathematical odyssey, requiring precise measurements with heavy instruments in the worst of conditions, and then painstaking calculations to compensate for everything from atmospheric refraction to gravitational anomalies pulling plumb bobs out of true. It took hundreds of men decades to complete, and broke new ground in precisely measuring the Earth.
The story is bookended by military history, the First Anglo-Afghan War and the 1904 British Expedition to Tibet, two of the more pointless and brutal imperial exercises of the period. The heart of the book is an account of the Pundit expeditions. While Europeans were conspicuous and vulnerable beyond the frontier, Indian natives could pass as traders and pilgrims, and specially trained locals, most notably Nain Singh, carried out long distance route surveys to fix the location of ancient Silk Road oasis cities and the courses of mighty rivers. Their methods were crude: trained paces, latitude observations with sextants and altitude observations with boiling thermometers, and they always operated under risk of exposure and execution as spies, but they were surprisingly accurate in their measurements and gained significant accolades.
A second theme is the Grand Trigonometric Survey. As people who have read James Scott or Foucault know, accurate maps and census are a key part of governmentality, and the British Empire launched an ambitious plan to map India using the most modern trigonometric methods, starting with a painstakingly measured baseline and then extrapolated by large triangles, until every key point was fixed. This was a physical and mathematical odyssey, requiring precise measurements with heavy instruments in the worst of conditions, and then painstaking calculations to compensate for everything from atmospheric refraction to gravitational anomalies pulling plumb bobs out of true. It took hundreds of men decades to complete, and broke new ground in precisely measuring the Earth.
January 30, 2025
This is an overview of the history of exploration, survey and mapping in the time and locale of “The Great Game”. The writing is okay, but there seems to be little original research or insight. It is more a compilation or summary of other sources.
The worst thing about the book is: how can a book called “Mapping the Great Game” have so few maps??? There are only a couple and they are notably poor. There should have been 25-50! Surely the original maps from this period are no longer classified intelligence and long out of any kind of copyright restriction. Many could have been included if a serious effort had been made, which obviously was not done. 3 stars for the writing, but 1 star for the lack of maps in a book that is supposedly about them.
The worst thing about the book is: how can a book called “Mapping the Great Game” have so few maps??? There are only a couple and they are notably poor. There should have been 25-50! Surely the original maps from this period are no longer classified intelligence and long out of any kind of copyright restriction. Many could have been included if a serious effort had been made, which obviously was not done. 3 stars for the writing, but 1 star for the lack of maps in a book that is supposedly about them.
April 10, 2022
This is a passable overview of the events involved in implementing Russian and British foreign policy in Central Asia during the nineteenth century, severely limited in scope and usefulness by the author's failure to examine the implications and ramifications of Russo-British policies (why are the borders between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan so wacky? What does it mean that Britain and Russia imposed predefined borders on Afghanistan?) or to examine the wider context in which the eponymous game was played out. It's also hampered by Dean's self-conscious insistence on keeping his focus extremely narrow: I lost count of the times that Dean introduced some important-if-auxiliary element of the story and then dismissed it with "...but that's not what this book is about."
What this book is about, as it turns out, is a sketchy overview of some of the journeys made by explorers and adventurers in Asia in the nineteenth century. Not even just explorers and adventurers in Central Asia: despite the book's title and the author's insistence on staying true to his topic, a solid third of Mapping the Great Game is devoted to the geopolitically irrelevant trigonometrical survey of India. Worst of all, this book doesn't even contain examples of the maps and watercolours that are its nominal subjects. Utterly forgettable.
What this book is about, as it turns out, is a sketchy overview of some of the journeys made by explorers and adventurers in Asia in the nineteenth century. Not even just explorers and adventurers in Central Asia: despite the book's title and the author's insistence on staying true to his topic, a solid third of Mapping the Great Game is devoted to the geopolitically irrelevant trigonometrical survey of India. Worst of all, this book doesn't even contain examples of the maps and watercolours that are its nominal subjects. Utterly forgettable.
Want to read
November 30, 2019This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2020
It's hard to put this book under a stereotypical genre - it is one of those random picks, something that catches your eye browsing through a small bookshop or a random airport hole-in-the-wall, with no specific objective in mind.
The book revolves around the stories and adventures of explorers through the 18th and 19th century in the Indian sub-continent, a time when a lot of the "east" was unexplored for the western world. It marks a time when the East India Company was winning access to greater areas in the sub-continent, and thus the great need to map this area to be able to collect taxes and rule efficiently. Not only for their governed areas but, in order to analyse potential threats from the North, it was equally important for them to understand and map areas North of the sub-continent (Afghanistan, Tibet, China). The author brings out the importance of mapping in this context, and focuses on the individuals who made some of these seemingly impossible endeavours possible.
As included in the title, the book is also set in the context of the importance of this ability to map in the "Great Game" - the cold war equivalent rivalry between the UK and Russia in this period, for dominance over Asia. I did not find this positioning particularly apt and found the idea of cartography playing a role in the Great Game being forced; Instead, a much easier read would have been positioning this as simply a brief history of cartography and the adventurers who led to advancements in it.
The other issue with this book is some tendency to get into unnecessarily elongated narratives. This was particularly true of a chunk of the narrative that focuses on the journey of"Pundits". These are locals, trained in basics of cartography and working for the EIC to map regions north of India (as Europeans were banned entry for the most part in these territories). Whilst each such journey may have been unique in its own way, for a reader going through the details of each one becomes a drag.
However, the biggest takeaway for me which made this an exciting read, was celebrating the audacity of these individuals. Starting from explorers like Alexander Burnes who made first inroads into venturing as far as and establishing a relationship with Bokhara (then in Afghanistan), to the Great Trigonometric Survey of India, which aimed to map the entire Indian sub-continent, by PHYSICALLY walking the length and breadth of the country and using physical measurement and math to do so (after completing the recalibrating the survey, the margin of error was 6 inches!). And ultimately into the Pundit described above who undertook journeys stretching into years, into unknown territories, all the while counting steps and taking some star readings to map regions and rivers! All this in times when means of transport were none, equipment was rudimentary, no means of long-range communication, and territories being largely unknown. It speaks to the audacity and sense of adventure of these explorers like Alexander Burnes, George Everest, Nain Singh etc. a virtue of daring and audacity that we may have lost to some measure in recent times.
The author's style of writing is very easy to follow. A fun read overall and a recommended read.
The book revolves around the stories and adventures of explorers through the 18th and 19th century in the Indian sub-continent, a time when a lot of the "east" was unexplored for the western world. It marks a time when the East India Company was winning access to greater areas in the sub-continent, and thus the great need to map this area to be able to collect taxes and rule efficiently. Not only for their governed areas but, in order to analyse potential threats from the North, it was equally important for them to understand and map areas North of the sub-continent (Afghanistan, Tibet, China). The author brings out the importance of mapping in this context, and focuses on the individuals who made some of these seemingly impossible endeavours possible.
As included in the title, the book is also set in the context of the importance of this ability to map in the "Great Game" - the cold war equivalent rivalry between the UK and Russia in this period, for dominance over Asia. I did not find this positioning particularly apt and found the idea of cartography playing a role in the Great Game being forced; Instead, a much easier read would have been positioning this as simply a brief history of cartography and the adventurers who led to advancements in it.
The other issue with this book is some tendency to get into unnecessarily elongated narratives. This was particularly true of a chunk of the narrative that focuses on the journey of"Pundits". These are locals, trained in basics of cartography and working for the EIC to map regions north of India (as Europeans were banned entry for the most part in these territories). Whilst each such journey may have been unique in its own way, for a reader going through the details of each one becomes a drag.
However, the biggest takeaway for me which made this an exciting read, was celebrating the audacity of these individuals. Starting from explorers like Alexander Burnes who made first inroads into venturing as far as and establishing a relationship with Bokhara (then in Afghanistan), to the Great Trigonometric Survey of India, which aimed to map the entire Indian sub-continent, by PHYSICALLY walking the length and breadth of the country and using physical measurement and math to do so (after completing the recalibrating the survey, the margin of error was 6 inches!). And ultimately into the Pundit described above who undertook journeys stretching into years, into unknown territories, all the while counting steps and taking some star readings to map regions and rivers! All this in times when means of transport were none, equipment was rudimentary, no means of long-range communication, and territories being largely unknown. It speaks to the audacity and sense of adventure of these explorers like Alexander Burnes, George Everest, Nain Singh etc. a virtue of daring and audacity that we may have lost to some measure in recent times.
The author's style of writing is very easy to follow. A fun read overall and a recommended read.
August 25, 2024
Also Called the ‘Tournament of Shadows’
The East India Company, was a joint stock company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, constituted to carry out ‘quiet trade’ in India and the East Indies. However, by a freak incident, it blundered into administration and governance following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, when it received the ‘Diwani’ (the right to collect revenue) from the Emperor Shah Alam II. How would you collect land revenue (property tax in current parlance) if you did not know the lay of the land? The answer lay in the Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS) of the Indian peninsula, by a technique known as ‘triangulation’. A certain Lambton- an undistinguished Company soldier, started the Survey in 1802, with the objective of determining the latitude and longitude of all major points in the subcontinent. Underlying the GTS, was the Topographic Survey as the country was not flat like a table top. At lower level still lay the revenue survey- the survey of agricultural land holdings. This last survey was the least sophisticated, but the most useful to the Company bent upon maximizing the collection of land revenue.
What is The Great Game?
Readers of this review in India, may take some vicarious pleasure in knowing that most wars fought in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were centered around the idea of invading India! By the late eighteenth century, the Company had begun to consolidate its rule over major parts of India. The frontiers of Russia, Britain’s bitter enemy, lay 2000 miles away from the Afghan frontier. Located in the area intervening the frontiers of the two empires were the Central Asian Khanates. Ruled by the sword of Islam, abhorrent of new knowledge, hostile to foreigners, ignorant of the rapidly changing world outside, these Khanates were a medieval anachronism who survived on the trade of Russian and Persian slaves. The two adversaries eyed this vast territory from their distant frontiers. Both sent spies to survey the area covertly. Eighteenth century spies were polyglots: soldiers, explorers, surveyors, geologists, archeologists, botanists, collectors, traders, mendicants, linguists, ambassadors- all rolled into one. These shadowy figures spent years on uncharted roads, risking disease, detection, capture, imprisonment and death. Many perished, others earned fame. The paths of the dramatis personae from both Britain and Russia, often crossed paths, they competed with each other, and many times cultivated strange camaraderie. The British called this The Great Game, and the Russians called it The Tournament of Shadows.
What is the connection between the GTS and The Great Game?
Once the Great Trigonometric Survey was completed within the Company territory, it was extended into the domain of princely states and surrounding friendly kingdoms such as the Punjab, Kashmir, Leh, and Nepal. But the problem remained beyond these boundaries from where the Russian threat was expected. Successive Tsars from Paul (1796-1801) to Alexander III (1881-1894) waved the red rag of an Indian invasion to the British bull, sending the latter into paroxysms of military insanity. The British adopted a policy of surrounding their Indian empire with friendly buffer states. In trying to install friendly regimes in Afghanistan, the British fought two disastrous wars (see my review of the book ‘Balochistan, the British and the Great Game’ by T.A. Heathcote), in each of which they lose a whole army and return to the very point they started. The other route the Russians could take to invade India is from the north crossing over from the Tien Shan mountain ranges and the Pamirs. To seal these passages, these areas had to be surveyed, and regimes changed to establish friendly buffer states; those that can engage the enemy much before they get to the gates of India. This means more wars: the campaigns of Hunza, Chitral, and Tibet, not to speak of the two elaborate Forsyth missions to Yarkhand in Chinese Turkestan. Much of this is well documented in the Great Game literature.
Relevance of the Current Book
While Central Asia and the trans-Himalayas were closed to Westerners, given the hostility of local rulers to Europeans, they were open to Indians and the hill tribes who trod the trade routes routinely carrying goods deep into Chinese Turkestan, the forbidden city of Lhasa, and to a lesser extent even the Central Asian Khanates. When Montgomerie came to head the GTS, after the tenure of his better known predecessors Lambton and Everest, he proposed the idea of utilizing literate natives to survey the buffer ground closed to Europeans. Literate natives, generally teachers- pandits in contemporary parlance, of both religions were recruited, and trained in the art and science of surveying. They kept distance by walking in measured strides and keeping count of their strides using the teller beads of a pilgrim. They hid their notes in prayer wheels. They concealed their survey equipment in their staff. They used mercury to mark contours, thermometers to determine the boiling point of water and estimate the height above sea level. They went as pilgrims, traders and mendicants. They went on the road for years at a time. If they were discovered, arrested and executed, no Government took responsibility for their actions. If they returned triumphant with crucial survey data, and military intelligence, they received no accolades, only some money and pension. These were the men who played the Great Game at the edge of civilization. Dean’s book is perhaps the very first in the Great Game literature to bring the moving story of the Pandits to the reading public. For this reason alone the book is recommended reading, for those interested in the history of the period.
Aside from the chapters related to the methodology of the GTS, and the biography of the Pandits, Dean brilliantly encapsulates the two Afghan wars of the nineteenth century, and the Tibetan campaign of Francis Young Husband in separate chapters. For those who do not have the time to read 500 page-long books on each of these campaigns, this book provides excellent summaries.
The East India Company, was a joint stock company, listed on the London Stock Exchange, constituted to carry out ‘quiet trade’ in India and the East Indies. However, by a freak incident, it blundered into administration and governance following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, when it received the ‘Diwani’ (the right to collect revenue) from the Emperor Shah Alam II. How would you collect land revenue (property tax in current parlance) if you did not know the lay of the land? The answer lay in the Great Trigonometric Survey (GTS) of the Indian peninsula, by a technique known as ‘triangulation’. A certain Lambton- an undistinguished Company soldier, started the Survey in 1802, with the objective of determining the latitude and longitude of all major points in the subcontinent. Underlying the GTS, was the Topographic Survey as the country was not flat like a table top. At lower level still lay the revenue survey- the survey of agricultural land holdings. This last survey was the least sophisticated, but the most useful to the Company bent upon maximizing the collection of land revenue.
What is The Great Game?
Readers of this review in India, may take some vicarious pleasure in knowing that most wars fought in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were centered around the idea of invading India! By the late eighteenth century, the Company had begun to consolidate its rule over major parts of India. The frontiers of Russia, Britain’s bitter enemy, lay 2000 miles away from the Afghan frontier. Located in the area intervening the frontiers of the two empires were the Central Asian Khanates. Ruled by the sword of Islam, abhorrent of new knowledge, hostile to foreigners, ignorant of the rapidly changing world outside, these Khanates were a medieval anachronism who survived on the trade of Russian and Persian slaves. The two adversaries eyed this vast territory from their distant frontiers. Both sent spies to survey the area covertly. Eighteenth century spies were polyglots: soldiers, explorers, surveyors, geologists, archeologists, botanists, collectors, traders, mendicants, linguists, ambassadors- all rolled into one. These shadowy figures spent years on uncharted roads, risking disease, detection, capture, imprisonment and death. Many perished, others earned fame. The paths of the dramatis personae from both Britain and Russia, often crossed paths, they competed with each other, and many times cultivated strange camaraderie. The British called this The Great Game, and the Russians called it The Tournament of Shadows.
What is the connection between the GTS and The Great Game?
Once the Great Trigonometric Survey was completed within the Company territory, it was extended into the domain of princely states and surrounding friendly kingdoms such as the Punjab, Kashmir, Leh, and Nepal. But the problem remained beyond these boundaries from where the Russian threat was expected. Successive Tsars from Paul (1796-1801) to Alexander III (1881-1894) waved the red rag of an Indian invasion to the British bull, sending the latter into paroxysms of military insanity. The British adopted a policy of surrounding their Indian empire with friendly buffer states. In trying to install friendly regimes in Afghanistan, the British fought two disastrous wars (see my review of the book ‘Balochistan, the British and the Great Game’ by T.A. Heathcote), in each of which they lose a whole army and return to the very point they started. The other route the Russians could take to invade India is from the north crossing over from the Tien Shan mountain ranges and the Pamirs. To seal these passages, these areas had to be surveyed, and regimes changed to establish friendly buffer states; those that can engage the enemy much before they get to the gates of India. This means more wars: the campaigns of Hunza, Chitral, and Tibet, not to speak of the two elaborate Forsyth missions to Yarkhand in Chinese Turkestan. Much of this is well documented in the Great Game literature.
Relevance of the Current Book
While Central Asia and the trans-Himalayas were closed to Westerners, given the hostility of local rulers to Europeans, they were open to Indians and the hill tribes who trod the trade routes routinely carrying goods deep into Chinese Turkestan, the forbidden city of Lhasa, and to a lesser extent even the Central Asian Khanates. When Montgomerie came to head the GTS, after the tenure of his better known predecessors Lambton and Everest, he proposed the idea of utilizing literate natives to survey the buffer ground closed to Europeans. Literate natives, generally teachers- pandits in contemporary parlance, of both religions were recruited, and trained in the art and science of surveying. They kept distance by walking in measured strides and keeping count of their strides using the teller beads of a pilgrim. They hid their notes in prayer wheels. They concealed their survey equipment in their staff. They used mercury to mark contours, thermometers to determine the boiling point of water and estimate the height above sea level. They went as pilgrims, traders and mendicants. They went on the road for years at a time. If they were discovered, arrested and executed, no Government took responsibility for their actions. If they returned triumphant with crucial survey data, and military intelligence, they received no accolades, only some money and pension. These were the men who played the Great Game at the edge of civilization. Dean’s book is perhaps the very first in the Great Game literature to bring the moving story of the Pandits to the reading public. For this reason alone the book is recommended reading, for those interested in the history of the period.
Aside from the chapters related to the methodology of the GTS, and the biography of the Pandits, Dean brilliantly encapsulates the two Afghan wars of the nineteenth century, and the Tibetan campaign of Francis Young Husband in separate chapters. For those who do not have the time to read 500 page-long books on each of these campaigns, this book provides excellent summaries.
May 6, 2021
Constant game of escalation between English & Russian forces leading to a 100 year Cold War affecting all of Central Asia. Which unfortunately has been replaced by US and Russia/China in the 20th and 21st century. Proxy wars between empires on spheres of influences
October 4, 2021
Trigonometric espionage and science drama! Great tales of the dedicated surveyors who accomplished the enormous task of mapping India and Central Asia under stupefyingly difficult conditions.
December 11, 2025
This is a most interesting book and tells us how critical reliable maps are to both war and trade.
The English East India Company and then the British Colonial Government controlled India and generated enormous wealth through, among other things, its monopoly of saltpetre (used to make gunpowder) and opium (used to trade for Chinese tea), which it wanted to protect.
The Russian Empire was slowly advancing south towards India as it acquired control over the various states of Central Asia, and the British were fearful of a Russian invasion.
Riaz Dean has traversed this region, and his book vividly describes the role of the British military, their spies, and their cartographers in charting the regions of Central Asia and how ‘The Great Game’ played out between the Imperial powers of Britain and Russia — recommended reading.
The English East India Company and then the British Colonial Government controlled India and generated enormous wealth through, among other things, its monopoly of saltpetre (used to make gunpowder) and opium (used to trade for Chinese tea), which it wanted to protect.
The Russian Empire was slowly advancing south towards India as it acquired control over the various states of Central Asia, and the British were fearful of a Russian invasion.
Riaz Dean has traversed this region, and his book vividly describes the role of the British military, their spies, and their cartographers in charting the regions of Central Asia and how ‘The Great Game’ played out between the Imperial powers of Britain and Russia — recommended reading.
September 2, 2024
This book has few footnotes so it is hard to be scholarly and rigorous.
As for the part describing the Pundits, the content is very similar to previous studies, which is to say it lacks some new things.
3 star.
But I am moved by the author's sympathy for the pundits.As he wrote:"The Pundits remain unsung heroes of the British Raj. Although their achievements were diminished in the eyes of many Westerners at the time because they were natives, at least some of their number should rank equal amongst other renowned explorers. Native or otherwise, though, when considered as a whole, the Pundits were undoubtedly the greatest group of explorers the world has seen in recent history. They deserve to be well remembered."
plus 1 star.
As for the part describing the Pundits, the content is very similar to previous studies, which is to say it lacks some new things.
3 star.
But I am moved by the author's sympathy for the pundits.As he wrote:"The Pundits remain unsung heroes of the British Raj. Although their achievements were diminished in the eyes of many Westerners at the time because they were natives, at least some of their number should rank equal amongst other renowned explorers. Native or otherwise, though, when considered as a whole, the Pundits were undoubtedly the greatest group of explorers the world has seen in recent history. They deserve to be well remembered."
plus 1 star.
March 29, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it provided a fantastic introduction to the confrontation known as "the Great Game". The accounts of the explorers travelling to different parts of India, Tibet and Asia was extremely interesting. The book was easy to read and provides a good introduction to both British and Russian foreign policy in Asia. Additionally, British foreign policy towards Afghanistan and the reasons of invading was very insightful. I would strongly recommend reading this book as a good introduction to the Great Game.
December 16, 2024
Britain trained Indian surveyors, known as "pundits," to covertly map Central Asia. They disguised themselves as local traders or pilgrims to avoid detection and carried concealed measuring tools like prayer beads with counting mechanisms (etymological origin of "pundit")
Individuals like Arthur Conolly (who coined "Great Game") were idealistic adventurers. Conolly was captured and executed in Bukhara, highlighting the dangerous stakes of this geopolitical 4d chess match.
Individuals like Arthur Conolly (who coined "Great Game") were idealistic adventurers. Conolly was captured and executed in Bukhara, highlighting the dangerous stakes of this geopolitical 4d chess match.
January 3, 2022
A great read on the topic. Engaging and well written though it slows down a little in the middle. I would recommend to anyone that is into geography, period history, Central Asia, and exploration. Also some really good points that show echoes in todays relations with Russia, Central Asia, China, and India.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2023
This work kept my interest through a grueling day of travel. I have traveled to many of the areas discussed but never gave much thought to the mapping or political climate of that particular time. A few pieces of the puzzle of that area fell into place. I particularly enjoyed the exploits of the Pundits.
April 3, 2023
Brisk, enlightening book about the British and Russian rivalry
The book did a great job putting a spotlight on the Pundits, the native explorers tasked by the Empire to map India and Central Asia. Concisely written backgrounder on the British and Russian rivalry was a great cap to put all the exploits of explorers in context
The book did a great job putting a spotlight on the Pundits, the native explorers tasked by the Empire to map India and Central Asia. Concisely written backgrounder on the British and Russian rivalry was a great cap to put all the exploits of explorers in context
July 24, 2024
An interesting book about cartography, I certainly learned a good deal about 19th century geography. The prose is a little dry and I'm not sure the conclusion was really meaty enough to leave a final impression. Overall a good read on a specialized topic
July 18, 2022
An absolute eye opener into the South Asian peninsula
September 26, 2022
Interesting, fairly dry read on, mostly British, actions in the 19th century.
October 1, 2025
Didn’t have big expectations but this is one of the most exciting and interesting books of this year. I had no idea of a rivalry between Russia and Britain in the age before the world wars.
June 9, 2022
A good overview of a time and place in history I knew very little about before reading this book. I had been reading about Mt. Everest, and the Great Trigonometrical Survey (GTS) had been mentioned briefly. I was intrigued and sought this book out to learn more.
As I had understood it, the GTS was about measuring a single line across India from south to north to better understand the shape of the Earth. This was only partially correct. The GTS was a massive surveying project intended to not only understand the curve of the Earth, but the dimensions of India, a project just as ambitious. I couldn’t believe how much land was actually covered and how arduous the process. This book clearly explained the scope of the project, how it was executed, and who the main players were. I appreciated that focus was given to the native Indian laborers, mathematicians, and surveyors in addition to the British managers, surveyors, etc.
Even though I read this book primarily to learn about the GTS, I also enjoyed learning about the greater context for this project, the explorations of lands near India, and their political implications. I wish explorers such as William Moorcroft and Nain Singh were better known! I’m now especially curious to read about the history and culture of Tibet after Singh’s account.
What could have improved this book? More maps! I’m shocked there are so few in a book so focused on their making. I was constantly consulting my atlas and maps online to trace the routes taken by the various personages in this book.
As I had understood it, the GTS was about measuring a single line across India from south to north to better understand the shape of the Earth. This was only partially correct. The GTS was a massive surveying project intended to not only understand the curve of the Earth, but the dimensions of India, a project just as ambitious. I couldn’t believe how much land was actually covered and how arduous the process. This book clearly explained the scope of the project, how it was executed, and who the main players were. I appreciated that focus was given to the native Indian laborers, mathematicians, and surveyors in addition to the British managers, surveyors, etc.
Even though I read this book primarily to learn about the GTS, I also enjoyed learning about the greater context for this project, the explorations of lands near India, and their political implications. I wish explorers such as William Moorcroft and Nain Singh were better known! I’m now especially curious to read about the history and culture of Tibet after Singh’s account.
What could have improved this book? More maps! I’m shocked there are so few in a book so focused on their making. I was constantly consulting my atlas and maps online to trace the routes taken by the various personages in this book.
November 12, 2023
This is a highly interesting and entertaining history of the race between Imperial Russia and Victorian Great Britain to map India, Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. The author made sure to include lesser known heroes, even nameless ones, in addition to the famous. It is easy to read, and surprisingly engrossing. I definitely recommend it to those with any interest in this very specific area.
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