Bhagwan Lal Indraji

Bhagwan Lal Indraji
Born (1839-11-08)November 8, 1839
Junagadh, Junagadh State, Kathiawar Agency
Died March 16, 1888(1888-03-16) (aged 48)
Bombay, Bombay Presidency
Nationality Indian
Other names Bhagwanlal Indraji, Pandit Bhagvanlal Inderji
Occupation Archaeologist
Known for Deciphering ancient Indian inscriptions

Bhagwan Lal Indraji was an Indian archaeologist. A member of the Royal Asiatic Society's Bombay branch, he made transcripts of several ancient Indian inscriptions, including the Hathigumpha inscription. He discovered many archaeological relics, including the Mathura lion capital.

Early life

Bhagwan Lal Indraji was born in 1839, in a Gujarati family of Junagadh. He obtained his primary education in Junagadh, and learnt Sanskrit from his father, a Prashnora Nagar Brahmin.[1]

Initiation into archaeology

As a teenager, Bhagwan Lal frequented Girnar, which had several rocks with inscriptions in the Brahmi script. Colonel Lang, the Political Agent of Kathiawar took a lot of interest in these inscriptions. In 1854, he handed over a copy of James Prinsep's paper containing Pali Brahmi alphabet to Manishankar Jatashankar, a local scholar. Jatashankar shared it with Bhagwan Lal, who made a copy of his own. Using this copy, Bhagwan Lal tried to decipher the Rudradaman I inscription on a Girnar rock. He could not understand the compound letters and the matras. So, he wrote to a friend in Bombay, requesting research material related to Girnar rock inscriptions. In response, he received several journals of the Royal Asiatic Society's Bombay branch. Using this material, he mastered the Pali alphabet, including its several varieties from different periods. He was able to make out unfamiliar letters, and to address omissions and inaccuracies in Prinsep's copy. He finally succeeded making a completely new transcript of the Rudradaman inscription, which greatly impressed Colonel Lang. A.K. Forbes, who succeeded Lang as the Political Agent, introduced Bhagwan Lal to Bhau Daji, a renowned Bombay-based scholar of India antiquties.[1]

In October 1861, Bhau Daji invited Bhagwan Lal to Bombay. There, he introduced him to H. Newton, the President of the Royal Asiatic Society's Bombay branch. Newton was writing a paper on Western Kshatrapas, and some Kshatrapa coins brought by Bhagwan Lal greatly interested him. Bhagwan Lal also presented his transcripts of Girnar's Rudradaman and Skandagupta inscriptions. At that time, Bhau Daji was doing research on the Sah inscription of Girnar. He found Horace Hayman Wilson's translation of the inscription to be inadequate, and requested Bahgwan Lal to make a new transcript. Accordingly, Bhagwan Lal set out to Kathiwar. There, he learnt of his father's death. After performing the funeral rites, he set out to Girnar, and prepared a new transcript of the Sah inscription. An impressed Daji later employed Bhagwan Lal permanently. On 24 April 1862, Bhagwan Lal moved to Bombay, where he initially lived in a tent in the compound of Daji's house.[1]

Archaeology career

Mathura lion capital, excavated by Indraji in 1869

In 1863, Bhau Daji sent Bhagwan Lal as a draftsman to Ajanta Caves. Bhagwan Lal returned to Bombay with the new transcripts. In Bombay, he spent time making transcripts of the inscriptions recovered from the caves at Nashik, Karli, Bhaja, Bhayandar, Junnar, Pitalkhora and Naneghat.[1]

On 22 December 1863, Bhagwan Lal set out on a tour of British India; his companions included Ardeshir Framji Moos and Cursetji Nusserwanji Cama among others. The group toured South India, North-Western Provinces, Bengal and North India.[1]

In 1864, Bhau Daji sent Bhagwan Lal and Pandurang Gopal Padhye to Jaisalmer, to examine the ancient Jain manuscripts. The two men spent three months there, preparing copies of the literature preserved in the Jain manuscripts at a bhandar (store house). However, the damp atmosphere of the bhandar made them sick. Bhagwan Lal was down with typhoid for 22 days during his stay at Jaisalmer. The two returned to Bombay in May 1864.[1]

In 1868, Bhagwan Lal set out on an year-long expedition to visit the ancient Hindu shrines, in order to personally examine the old inscriptions. He first visited Nagpur and Jabalpur, before spending five days in Allahabad. There, he made a transcript of a Samudragupta inscription, and sent it to Bhau Daji. This new transcript revealed revealed new names of the king's contemporaries. Next, Bhagwan Lal visited Banaras, Bhitari, Mathura and Delhi.[1] In Mathura, in 1869, he excavated the Mathura lion capital.[2] He also discovered 'Kambojika' (a Gandhara-style life-size statue). He purchased several Bactrian and Scythian coins from the local markets, until he ran out of money. He returned to Bombay with several inscriptions, coins and other archaeological curosities.[1]

On 7 March 1871, Bhagwan Lal set out on another journey, financed by the Junagadh princely state. At the instance of Bhau Daji, Charles James Lyall, Under-Secretary to the Government of India, provided him a letter. The letter directed the Magistrates of Mathura, AGra, Benares, Farrukhabad, Gorakhpur, Ghazipur and Allahabd to help Bhagwan Lal in his pursuits. Accompanied by his wife Gangaben, Bhagwan Lal visited (in that order) Khandwa, Omkareshwar, Indore, Ujjain, Bhojpur, Bhilsa, Sanchi, Udayagiri, Benares, Allahabad, Delhi, Kalsi, Mathura, Agra and Gwalior. At Gwalior, his wife fell seriously ill, and he had to return to Bombay via Allahabad in March 1872.[1]

After his wife recovered from illness, Bhagwan Lal again set out an expedition in December 1873. Once again, the princely state of Junagadh agreed to sponsor the journey. This time, Bhagwan Lal visited Nepal, Indo-Tibet border, Baluchistan and the Yusufzai territory.[1] He also visited the Barabar and Nagarjunni Caves, Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Kashmir and Taxila.[3]

He also arranged a genealogy of the Kashtriya rulers of India, on the basis of coins. In addition, he prepared detailed records of language, costumes, lifestyle, religion and culture in various regions of India. He gifted all his notes, inscriptions, coins, manuscripts and other research material to the Royal Asiatic Society, the British Museum and the Bombay Native General Library.[4]

Bhagwan Lal did not know English language, which greatly impeded his research and the acknowledgment of his work by the European scholars. He died on 16 March 1888, after a prolonged illness.[1]

Awards and honours

Honours accorded to Bhagwan Lal include:[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Javerilal Umashankar Yajnik (1889). Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Memoir of the late Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji LL.D, Ph.D (Asiatic Society of Bombay). pp. 18–46.
  2. ↑ Jason Neelis (19 November 2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL. pp. 122–. ISBN 90-04-18159-8.
  3. ↑ Virchand Dharamsey (2012). Bhagwanlal Indraji: The First Indian Archaeologist. Darshak Itihas Nidhi. ISBN 978-8192263922.
  4. 1 2 Amaresh Datta (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 428–. ISBN 978-81-260-1803-1.
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