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The Madras Literary Society, now busy trying to revive itself, is offering a series of monthly talks on historical and literary subjects. The most recent one was on three persons who, starting out from Madras, contributed significantly to our knowledge of India — namely, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, William Lambton and Colin Mackenzie. I call them pioneering ‘surveyors’ because their work led to the Botanical and Zoological Surveys of India, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India and the Survey of India. Leading from the talk, a story or two about each of the ‘surveyors’ found its way to me.

Dr. Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, generally known as Buchanan, began his assignment in South India after the final Mysore War with the mandate to gather botanical, agricultural and zoological information as well as knowledge about the soil and natural resources found in the area of his first survey. One of the things he ‘discovered’, I was told, was laterite in what is now Kerala. Buchanan called it “indurate clay” or “iron clay” and said this soft red soil which hardened on exposure to air and heat was ideal for building purposes, something long known in the area but first recorded for a wider audience, and given a name by him.

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