Thread by @sheshapatangi1

Today is the Jayanti of #PunditNainSinghRawat.

According to studies and his diaries, Pundit Nain Singh trekked more than 16000 kms

HJ/72/2 Pundit Nain Singh Rawat : Explorer Extraordinaire himalayanclub.org/hj/72/2/pundit…

before joining the Survey Department, and as a surveyor he trekked more than 26000 kms. He discovered more than a 100 places, many rivers and lakes, mines and monasteries.

The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) of London honoured him, he was awarded the title of CIE.

The colonial rulers might not have wanted to make him a hero of Himalayan and trans-Himalayan explorations but it was hard for them to avoid acknowledging his contributions. Persons like Henry Yule advocated his case in the RGS by describing him as ‘Pundit of Pundits’,

which finally became instrumental in awarding him the Victoria Medal of the RGS.

However, after his retirement nobody in the Survey of India was concerned about him. He received all his awards in absentia.
When the news arrived that Pundit was dead, no one cared to confirm it.

Edmund Smyth wrote an emotionally charged and moving obituary in 1882 (in the Proceedings of the RGS and Monthly Records of Geography, Vol. IV). However, the district officers failed to confirm the news. But as per Survey of India records, he died only in 1895 – the actual date

is not known. It is said that he died in village Madkot by the banks of river Gori. Both his houses are still standing - his great-great grandson was a bookseller there until a few years ago and the latter’s son is a teacher at Madkot.

In the end I must quote Henry Yule, from

what he said at the RGS :
“…Nain Singh is the Pundit of Pundits. Nain Singh’s great merits cannot be fully recognized by anything short of one of the Society’s Gold medals. Either of his great journeys in Tibet would have brought this reward to any European explorer.

To have made two such journeys adding so enormously to accurate knowledge…Is what no European but the first rank of traveller’s like Livingstone or Grant have done…
He is not a topographical automation, or merely of a great multitude of native employees with an average

qualification. His observations have added a larger amount of important knowledge to the map of Asia than those of any other living man and his journals form an exceedingly interesting book of travels. It will afford me great pleasure to take steps for the transmission of the

medal through an official channel to the Pundit.”
There is need to remember Nain Singh and re-evaluate his achievements today. His unique journey from a shepherd to porter, to surveyor to teacher/ trainer and finally to an explorer extraordinaire should set an example for

today’s lovers of Himalaya, adventurers and modern explorers.

Google paid him tributes on his 187th birthday with a doodle

#ForgottenHeroes
#VANDEMATARAM