K. S. Krishnan and the Kodaikanal Observatory

Abstract

In 1920, K. S. Krishnan was a demonstrator in chemistry in Madras Christian College. Alexander Moffat, his teacher in physics, was very fond of him and had already spotted his exceptional talent in sci- ence. So, when Moffat’s friend John Evershed, the distinguished Director of the Solar Physics Observatory in Kodaikanal, mentioned to Moffat that there was an opening for the Second Assistant’s position in Kodai- kanal, Moffat at once recommended Krishnan for the post. Krishnan sent a formal application to Evershed and both sides were hopeful that he would soon arrive in Kodaikanal to embark on a career of research in solar physics. However, through a series of circumstances, described in this paper, Krishnan’s appointment in Kodaikanal fell through and he left for Calcutta in July of the same year to enroll himself in the post- graduate programme in physics of the University of Calcutta. As his friend and the pioneer agricultural meteorologist, L. A. Ramdas later said, ‘Solar Physics lost all that Physics gained by this decision of Krishnan’. This is the story of an association that was never really consummated and one may only speculate how the course of Indian science in the twentieth century would have been affected, had it really happened.