The document discusses the potential for designating Kodaikanal Observatory in India as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for astronomy. It provides a history of the observatory, noting that it has collected solar data continuously from the same instrument for over 100 years, the longest such record in the world. It describes how the observatory was established in 1899 and instrumental to the development of solar physics as a scientific discipline. The document argues that preserving and promoting Kodaikanal Observatory could help recognize important astronomical achievements and heritage.

1. Rajesh Kochhar
President IAU Commission 41: History of Astronomy
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research
Mohali
rkochhar2000@yahoo.com
Colloquium given at Indian Institute of Astrophysics Bangalore,
25 September 2012
Kodaikanal Observatory as a
potential world astronomy
heritage site

2. As is well known, Unesco has a mission to
safeguard and preserve world heritage
sites. Towards this end, it prepares a
World Heritage List, in which cultural
properties from all over are inscribed ( that
is included) . Additionally, Unesco
encourages international cooperation in
heritage conservation.

3. Unesco has now undertaken a Thematic
Initiative on ‘Astronomy and World
Heritage’. It has enlisted technical
assistance from International Astronomical
Union for this purpose. Within IAU, the
responsibility has been entrusted to>

4. Commission 41: History of Astronomy.
Phase I of this Initiative aims at ‘acquiring
an in-depth knowledge of the outstanding
properties connected with astronomy in all
geographical regions through their
identification, study and inclusion of the >

5. most representative of these properties on
the national tentative lists. Phase II aims at
promoting the most outstanding of these
properties which recognize and celebrate
achievements in science through their
inscription on the World Heritage List.

6. In simpler words, an astronomical property
must first enter its nation’s tentative list
and then campaign for inscription in the
World List. Note that Unesco does not deal
with individuals, only with member
countries.

7. You are all familiar with the rust-free iron
pillar in Delhi near Qutub Minar. It is
famous the world over for its metallurgy.
What is not so well known is its
astronomical significance. It was brought
to Delhi in relatively recent times, that is
1233 CE. >

8. It was originally installed in about 400CE
in Udaigiri, Central India, on Tropic of
Cancer, as a gnomon. If this pillar had
remained at its original location, it would
have been an obvious choice as a world
astronomical heritage property.

9. .

10. As things stand, I think the only candidate
for astronomical world heritage list from
India is the Solar Physics Observatory
Kodaikanal ( est 1899 ), which now has
solar picture data with the same instrument
for the longest period in the world (since
1912), with some short interruptions due to

11. maintenance/ upgradation.
Since you are all practitioners of science
( and not merely historians), I will try to
place Kodaikanal in the larger context of
development of solar physics as a
scientific discipline.

12. By the middle of the 19th
century, physical
astronomy, as distinct from positional
astronomy, had already taken some shape,
thanks to advent of solar spectroscopy and
photography.

13. There were a number of solar eclipses in
quick succession and visible from India :
1868, 1871 and 1872. These eclipses
attracted observers from Europe, and gave
a fillip to solar instrumentation and studies
the world over.

14. In 1868, the French astrophysicist Pierre
Jules Cesar Janssen discovered helium
from Guntur . During his post-eclipse stay
at Simla, Janssen created the first spectro-
helioscope, which facilitated daily
examination of the sun.

15. Then came the 1874 Transit of Venus. The
scientists’ agenda for it ran deep. What
was advertised was the brief passage of
Venus in front of the solar disc; what was
planned was a long-term study of the disc
itself.

17. The British Association for the
Advancement of Science passed a
resolution asking the Government of India
to make arrangements for observing the
event and to provide instruments which
were afterwards to be transferred to a solar
observatory.

18. Such was the prestige enjoyed by science
and scientists in Europe at the time that the
British Empire, as the owner of the most of
the world’s sunshine, agreed to help,
though partially.

19. The 1874 transit eventually led to regular
solar physics studies in India, even though
the exercise took 25 years. The initiative
came from the influential British scientist
of the time , Sir Norman Lockyer.
To sum up in advance, the step-wise
developments were as follows.

20. 
Observation of the 1874 event.

Creation of interim facilities for
collection of data and its transmission to
Europe.

Permanent facility in India.

21. The 1874 event
It is noteworthy that Survey of India
( and not Madras Observatory) was
asked to make transit observations.
More than 100 photos of the sun were
taken at Roorkee and sent to the
Astronomer Royal Sir George Biddell
Airy.

22. Photos from all over were reduced by
Captain G. L. Tupman who wrote:
‘There is only one really sharp image
in the whole collection, including the
Indian and Australian contingents, and
that is one of Captain Waterhouse’s
wet plates taken at Roorkee’.

23. Dehra Dun Observatory (1878-1925)
Lockyer used his equation with Lord
Salisbury, the Secretary of State for
India, for making arrangement for
solar photography in India.

24. Salisbury wrote to the Viceroy on 28
September 1877: ‘Having considered
the suggestions made by Mr. Lockyer,
and viewing that a study of the
conditions of the sun’s disc in relation
to terrestrial phenomenon has become
an important part of physical
investigation, I have thought it

25. desirable to assent to the employment
for a limited period of a person
qualified to obtain photographs of the
sun’s disc by the aid of the instrument
now in India’.

26. From the technical details given in the
letter , it is clear that it was drafted by
Lockyer himself.
Accordingly, starting from early 1878,
solar photographs were regularly
taken at Dehra Dun under the auspices
of Survey of India,

27. and sent to England every week. Dehra
Dun continued solar photography till
1925, but more out of a sense of duty
than enthusiasm.

28. The larger of the two photoheliographs
fell into disuse, and in 1898, Lockyer
was stung by on-the-spot discovery
that ‘the dome has been taken
possession of by bees’.
The arrangement was discontinued in
1925, and equipment sent to
Kodaikanal.

29. St Xavier’s College Observatory, Calcutta
(1879)
Sunny India caught the attention of
astronomers in the continent also. The
Italian transit-of-Venus team led by
Professor P. Tacchini of Palermo
Observatory stationed itself in Bengal,

30. its Chief instrument being the
spectroscope, `an instrument not
recognized in the equipment of any of
the English parties’. A co-opted member
of the Italian team was the Belgian Jesuit
Father Eugene Lafont (1837-1908), the
popular professor of science at the elitist

31. St. Xavier’s College. Lafont was no
researcher himself was an inspiring
educator and science communicator.

32. Tacchini suggested to Lafont ‘the
advisability of erecting a Solar
Observatory in Calcutta, in order to
supplement the Observations made in
Europe, by filling up the gaps caused in
the series of solar records by bad
weather’.

33. Lafont used his influence with
Europeans, Anglo-Indians (half-castes),
rajas, zamindars, and Indian men of note,
and soon collected a substantial sum of
Rs 21000 through donations, including
Rs 7000 from the Lieutenant Governor of
Bengal.

34. A 9 in refractor by Steinhill of Munich
was purchased and housed in a spacious
dome constructed for the purpose.
No research or teaching use was ever
made of this facility. This is unfortunate.
If the experiment had succeeded,
observational astronomy

35. might have become part of Indian
education system. As it is, astronomy has
largely remained decoupled from
college/ university teaching.

36. Takhtasinghji's Observatory Poona
(1888-1912)
It was a Government Observatory, named
after the principal funder, Maharaja of a
princely state, Bhavnagar. It was India’s
first modern astrophysical observatory.
Unfortunately, it was created for an
individual

37. and did not last long. The original plan
was to establish a spectroscopic
laboratory at Elphinstone College
Bombay for use by the students. The
initiator of the proposal was a

38. lecturer in the College, Kavasji Dadabhai
Naegamvala (1857-1938), who obtained
seed money of Rs 5000 from the
Maharaja of Bhavnagar and a matching
grant from the Bombay Government.

39. While in England in 1884 for buying the
equipment, he was persuaded by the
Astronomer Royal and Lockyer to build
a spectroscopic observatory instead.

40. Since Poona was a better astronomical
site than Bombay, in 1885 Naegamvala
was transferred there to College of
Science where the Observatory came up
in 1888.
Its chief instrument was a 16½ inch
aperture silver-on-parabolic glass
Newtonian made by Grubb.

41. In addition, Lockyer equipped Poona as a
satellite facility. A six-inch Cooke
equatorial purchased by the Government
for the 1874 transit observation from
India had been loaned to Lockyer’s
Observatory in South Kensington.

42. The India Office also purchased two
spectroscopes from Hilger (one solar, the
other stellar) for his use. The equatorial
and the spectroscopes were given to
Naegamvala so that he could observe
with them and send raw data to Lockyer.

43. Similarly, data was received by Lockyer
and more generally in England from
Kodaikanal and Mauritius.

44. Not surprisingly, relationship between
Poona and South Kensington was non-
symmetrical. Whenever South
Kensington found fault with data
collection at Poona, it did not write
directly to Naegamvala, but formally
complained to >

45. his British superiors. Yet, when
Kodaikanal Observatory was being
planned, Lockyer suggested
Naegamvala’s name for the directorship.
The position was however offered to an
Englishman, Charles Michie Smith, a
non-descript physics professor at
Madras.

46. Lockyer and Astronomer Royal
constituted two independent centres of
power in England, and Kodaikanal came
under the latter’s sphere of influence.
Naegamvala took observations till the
very last date of his employment, 11
January 1912.

47. The Observatory was officially abolished
on the day of his retirement and all
equipment was sent to Kodaikanal.
Thus instead of creating a permanent
educational facility, a temporary research
centre was created for the primary
benefit of European solar physicists.

48. Kodaikanal Observatory (1899)
If the 1874 transit of Venus was
important for solar physicists, so was the
severe famine of 1876-77 in the Madras
Presidency. Monsoons fail at times, but
the severity of famines was

49. particularly high in the colonial period
because of large-scale export of food
grains from India to Britain in utter
disregard of local requirements.
Astronomers of course would not worry
about avoiding famines, but in predicting
monsoon behaviour.

50. In 1879, Lockyer presented a report to
the Indian Famine Commission claiming
that famines were correlated with
sunspot minima.
There is no doubt that Lockyer and
many others genuinely believed in a
correlation with solar activity and
terrestrial weather.

51. But it is also a fact that the practical
benefits to be derived from a study of the
sun were exaggerated to gain
Government support.

52. In 1881, Government of India’s chief
meteorologist Henry Francis Blanford
reported to the Famine Commission that
no such simple sunspot-monsoon
correlation as suggested by Lockyer
existed.

53. In any case, the Government decided to
go ahead with the Solar Observatory. It
was however decided to wait till the
neurotic Madras Astronomer Pogson was
dead. This happened in 1890.

54. Kodaikanal started shakily. The first task
was the acquisition of instruments.
A photoheliograph (Dallmeyer No. 4)
originally made for the 1874 transit was
given on loan by Greenwich to
Kodaikanal. It was used till 1912.

55. Madras had acquired a 6 in telescope on
English mounting, by Lerebours and
Secretan of Paris, in 1850. It was
remodelled in 1898 by Grubb of Dublin
who provided it with an electric drive,
and mounted a 5 in aperture a 5 in
aperture Grubb photographic lens on the
frame.

56. The telescope has been in use for solar
photography since 1912, from the North
Dome.
Kodaikanal has the unique distinction of
possessing an unbroken series of solar
pictures from the same instrument for an
extended period of 100 years.

57. These and other pictures have now been
digitized.
George Evershed arrived in 1907 no
doubt to be able to work in solitary
splendour. Kodaikanal rose to great
heights under him.

58. His first task was the installation of Ca-K
spectroheliograph that had been received
in 1904. His 1909 discovery of the radial
flow in sun spots_ the Evershed Effect_
is the only major discovery ever made
from Kodaikanal.

59. In 1911, Evershed made an auxiliary
specroheliograph and bolted it to the
existing instrument. The Sun could now
be photographed not only in Ca-K light
but also in H-alpha.
This is the only time a state-of-art pure
astronomical instrument was ever made
in India.

60. The Spectro building has a priceless
clock from the 18th
century. It is among
the dozen odd gridiron pendulum clocks
made by John Shelton for the 1761 or
1769 ( probably the latter) transit of
Venus. It is not known when and how
one of the Sheltons ended in India.

61. The clock was one of the original
instruments at Madras Observatory (est
1787). It was transferred to Kodaikanal
in 1899. It is still working, and is in use
as an ordinary clock.

62. These old twin spectroheliographs are no
longer in use. The H-alpha pictures were
discontinued in about 2005, and the Ca-
K in about 2007. In the mean time, in
1995, as a back-up, Ca-K line filtergrams
using a CCD camera were begun.

63. Finally, in 2008 a newly constructed
twin telescope was commissioned to take
pictures in Ca-K and white light. In other
words, Kodaikanal does not take H-alpha
pictures any more. It takes Ca-K pictures
all right, but with a new equipment, as in
the Spectro building and white-light
pictures at two places ( North Dome and

64. In 1933, a Hale spectrohelioscope was
received as a gift from Mount Wilson
Observatory.
Next, International Geophysical Year
1957-1958 provided an opportunity for
ordering three new instruments. Two of
these, Lyot heliograph, and Lyot
coronograph,

65. were never really utilized. The third
instrument, acquired on turn-key basis,
was the Solar Tunnel Telescope which
was commissioned by M. K. Vainu
Bappu, who joined as Director in 1961.
This was the last time Kodaikanal got a
new instrument.

66. Over the years many minor instruments
were obtained; and new temporary
activities initiated ( radio,
magnetic/ionospheric).
At present, the Tunnel Telescope,
‘Spectro’, and the North Dome are the
only regular activity centres of
Kodaikanal Observatory.

67. Kodaikanal was never a well-endowed
Observatory. There was therefore lot of
improvisation; cutting up of old
instruments to make new ones for solar
eclipse expeditions, e. g.
About 25 years ago, I traced the history
of almost every instrument, or parts
thereof, that was in actual existence or >

68. was mentioned in the Stores Stock
Register. Many of these details have
been published ( eg in Vistas in
Astronomy). Here I have drawn attention
to only some of them.

69. • IIA has a priceless instrumentation
heritage. It deserves to be documented
case by case and preserved.
• Kodaikanal Observatory has always
been an important feature on the town’s
tourist map. The Observatory however
needs to revamp its Outreach
Programme, combine it with education,

70. • Many buildings in the Kodaikanal
campus are lying unused .Utilizing them
for a combination of heritage, education
and science popularization will help
preserve the buildings also. The
Kodaikanal Observatory needs to be
protected not only as culrural property
but as real estate also.

71. Concluding remarksConcluding remarks
Kodaikanal Observatory is a respected
name in the world solar physics. Many
better-known observatories have
discontinued their old programmes, or
even shifted to new locations, and
become more high tech.

72. It is the continuity in Kodaikanal that
makes its history so interesting.
Whether it should be inscribed in the
Astronomy and World Heritage List or
not is for IIA to decide. The procedure
is simple.

73. IIA should prepare a detailed dossier
on the Observatory.
Persuade MHRD ( Indian node for
UNESCO) to include it in the national
list.
Get it inscribed in the UNESCO
World Heritage List.

79. Thank You

80. Thank You

81. Thank You