Shabd Sakal Prithvina: Number nine on the back of Asia

Ajay Singh Chauhan

After a hundred years of the Crusades, Europe began to recover from the Dark Ages and the imperialist rivalry began. English, French, Dutch, Spanish all could not do without finding new territories, continents and islands for empire-space. For that, different organizations were established and many entrepreneurs set out to explore the unknown world to create new maps. E in London. S. In 1830, the Royal Geographical Society was founded. In the same year, Pandit Nain Singh Rawat was born in the hills of Kumaon in India. He was later honored with a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society. It so happened that the importance of Tibet, which was a buffer zone between the three empires of British India, Russia and China, suddenly increased in the 19th century. The British government wanted to know Tibet both geographically and culturally. But Tibet sat with its doors closed to outsiders. E. S. Before 1860 some European adventurers-explorers entered Tibet and made some maps but these were incomplete. At such a time, Nainsingh is ready to go on a mission to Tibet risking his life. Nainsingh, who has lost his father since childhood, leaves home due to the torture of his stepmother. Shaped by many experiences and struggles in life, Nain Singh joins a British search party along with his cousin. With his own skill and hard work, he becomes adept at measuring the latitude and longitude, measuring the height of the space using machines. With this peculiar ability of his, he becomes the trust of the British officers. Hence he is selected for the Tibet mission. E. S. In 1865 he started the journey. Even the lowest point in Tibet is higher than the highest peak in Europe. Apart from that, a strange environment. For days on the road there is no human settlement or even a single green tree. No one will enter without the permission of the government, all this less. Death penalty if caught. The solution is the same. Joining a caravan of traders carrying grain, cotton cloth, jaggery, iron, tobacco from India and bringing wool, salt, butter, horses, sheep and goats from Tibet. Nain Singh met such merchants and proceeded with them. Often he went around in the guise of a Buddhist monk and kept the devices hidden in the prayer yantra. During the day, without anyone knowing the barometer-compass, measuring the air pressure, latitude-longitude and determining the directions by looking at the stars at night, they started with commitment to record all in the diary. Although Nainsingh's main purpose was geographical survey, due to his personal interest, he also made in-depth observations about the society, culture, trade, political situation there. Some of these may surprise us. A hospitality custom in a region of Nepal is to hand over one's wife to a guest at night. And only by doing that, it is considered to be done correctly. Poor Nain Singh knew this custom; He lives in a tent away from the village. Speaking of Lhasa (lha: god and sa: city; city of gods) it is written that E. S. According to the 1852 census, the population was 15,000. Of which 9,000 are women and 6,000 are men. They also consider this disparity as a reason behind the practice of polygamy in Tibet. He further noted that every major city in Tibet had a Chinese military presence in the ratio of 1:4. For example, Gyantse had 200 Tibetan soldiers against 50 Chinese soldiers. It has been a year since Nainsingh completed this journey. He stayed in Lhasa for three months. During this time he conducted several surveys and collected information. Also, Nain Singh traveled from Leh to Yarkand; In which hoof bandits were the biggest threat. He was ill for a long time during the journey. However he came back and prepared for the last and most difficult quest of his life. In this journey, he entered Tibet from Leh, reached Lhasa via Kailas. From there it was to follow Songpo (Brahmaputra) along the coast and enter India from Tawang in Arunachal and cross the whole of North-Eastern India to reach Dehradun. In this journey of 4000 km, the entire land called the back of Asia was to be circumnavigated. The risk was high in this journey. Because the Tibetan government had already received the information of his previous journey and now also received the information that he is coming again. However, Nain Singh completed this journey. In a field that was mostly owned by European entrepreneurs, Nainsingh made a mark with his hard work, dedication and entrepreneurship. During his life he discovered more than 100 lakes, mountains, rivers, monasteries, gold mines, which were not on the world map before. Discovered a new mountain range behind Kailas which was named 'Nainsingh Range'. The British government conferred the title of 'Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire' and a jagir with an annual income of 1000 rupees. But, such a son of India was forgotten by India itself. Professor Uma Bhatt and Shekhar Pathak of Kumaon University researched for 40 years based on the diaries written by Nainsingh, reports of British officers (Nainsingh's code name is Number-9 in the report). Finally, on the 175th year of his birth, he published the book 'Asia Ki Peeth Par.' Government of India issued postal stamp of Nainsingh Rawat. Over the years, the life of the anonymous researcher came to light. However, the general public is still unfamiliar with them. }