Colin Mackenzie

For other people named Colin Mackenzie, see Colin Mackenzie (disambiguation).

Colonel
Colin Mackenzie
CB
Painting by Thomas Hickey (1816)
1st Surveyor General of India
In office
1815–1821
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byJohn Hodgson
Personal details
Born1754
Stornoway, Scotland, Great Britain
Died8 May 1821(1821-05-08) (aged 63–64)
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, India
Resting placeSouth Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta
Spouse
Petronella Jacomina Bartels
​
​
(m. 1812)​
Military service
AllegianceBritish East India Company
Branch/serviceMadras Army
RankColonel
Battles/wars
Painting by Thomas Hickey (1816). Suggested identities of the persons from left to right are Dhurmia, a Jain pandit holding a palm-leaf manuscript, Cavelli Venkata Lechmiah, a Telugu Brahmin pandit, Colin Mackenzie in the red uniform of the East India Company and Kistnaji, a peon holding a telescope.[1] The background was said by early commentators to be the statue of Gomateshwara at Shravanabelagola but Howes (2010) identifies it as Karkala.[2] The hill to the left of the statue has a basket-and-pole used by the Great Trigonometrical Survey.[1]

Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, making use of local interpreters and scholars to study religion, oral histories, inscriptions and other evidence, initially out of personal interest, and later as a surveyor. He was ordered to survey the Mysore region shortly after the British victory over Tipu Sultan in 1799 and produced the first maps of the region along with illustrations of the landscape and notes on archaeological landmarks. His collections consisting of thousands of manuscripts, inscriptions, translations, coins and paintings, which were acquired after his death by the India Office Library and are an important source for the study of Indian history. He was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815.[3]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference blj was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Howes, Jennifer (2010). Illustrating India: The Early Colonial Investigations of Colin Mackenzie (1784–1821). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ East-India Register and Directory. W.H. Allen. 1819. p. 71.