Colin Mackenzie
Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB | |
|---|---|
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. The background was said by early commentators to be the statue of Gomateshwara at Shravanabelagola but Howes (2010) identifies it as Karkala. The hill to the left of the statue has a basket-and-pole used by the Great Trigonometrical Survey. | |
| 1st Surveyor General of India | |
| In office 1815–1821 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | John Hodgson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1754 Stornoway, Scotland |
| Died | 8 May 1821 (aged 63–64) Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, India |
| Resting place | South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta |
| Spouse |
Petronella Jacomina Bartels
(m. 1812) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | British East India Company |
| Branch/service | Madras Army |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Battles/wars | |
Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was a 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 and an indologist. 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 appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath on 4 June 1815.