Ramchandra Lal (1821-1880) popularly known as Master Ramchandra,was the first to calculate the height of Mount Everest. Ramchandra was the son of Sundarlal Mathur born in 1821 at Panipat in Haryana. He was an open minded

person and realised the importance of Western Education. He bridged the mathematical legacy of India with modern mathematical ideas and showed his excellence through his book'Treatise on problems of Maxima and Minima solved by Algebra' written in English. He wrote articles on various topics, viz., astronomy, scientific contribution of Issac Newton, the relationship of human body and mind, etc.

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He changed his religion from Hinduism to Christianity on the suggestions of Rev. Jennings at St. James Church

near his college. While on a vacation in 1851, he came to Calcutta and noticed adverse reviews on his book in

local newspapers. He commented in this regard-"When I composed my work on "Problems of Maxima and Minima",

I built many castles in the air; but Calcutta reviewers, etc. destroyed these empty phantasms of my brain". On

being advised by his well wishers, he sent his reply to the newspapers and fortunately the Englishman published it.   

The Court of Directors honoured him for his book and The British Government handed him over five honorary robes

and Rs. 2000 through Robert McClagan.

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Those who are acquainted with higher Mathematics, are well aware of the fact that it is not easy to solve cubic and

bi-quadratic equations whereas for solving problems of Maxima and Minima, Ramchandra faced the challenge of

solving even seven degree equations. This clearly reveals his proficiency as a Mathematician. So it is sad and

surprising that his name has gone into oblivion. For this reason, Charles Muses in his article 'De Morgan's

Ramanujan, an Incident in Recovering Our Endangered Cultural Memory of Mathematics', published in

Mathematical Intelligencer in 1998, remarked that in spite of De Morgan's earnest effort, Ramchandra's name

has not entered in most of the books on Algebra. However, his life and work have been discussed in July, 1929

issue of Indian Scientists magazine. Recently, in 2007, The Associations of Mathematics Teachers of Chennai

has republished his book.