
This book interleaves the history of post- Independence archaeology in India with the life and times of Madhukar Narhar Deshpande (1920-2008), a leading Indian archaeologist who went on to become the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India. Spanning nearly a century, this is a tale told through a main character-Deshpande himself-some of whose writings have been included in the volume. We explore the circumstances which brought men like Deshpande to this career path; what it was like to grow up in a family devoted to India's freedom; the watershed moment that created a large cohort that was trained by Mortimer Wheeler, the doyen of British archaeology; the unknown conservation stories around the Gol Gumbad in Bijapur and the Qutb Minar in Delhi; the forgotten story of how the fabric of a historic Hindu shrine, the Badrinath temple, was saved; the chemistry shared by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the archaeologist, Deshpande, at the Ajanta and Ellora cave shrines, and; the political and administrative challenges faced by director generals of archaeology. The book is a must read for anyone interested in India's past in general and the history of Indian archaeology in particular.
How did the professional trajectory of M.N. Deshpande mirror the evolution of post-independence Indian archaeology and the preservation of the nation's cultural heritage? Professor Nayanjot Lahiri utilizes the life of Madhukar Narhar Deshpande to examine the institutional development of the Archaeological Survey of India. By synthesizing biographical details with selected primary writings from Deshpande, the author constructs a framework that links individual administrative decisions to the broader political and social climate of mid-twentieth-century India.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars and historians recognize this work as a significant contribution to the institutional history of Indian archaeology. Readers frequently note the balance between personal biography and the technical challenges of site management during a transformative period in Indian history.
Page Count:
360
Publication Date:
2021-03-07
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190130482
ISBN-13:
9780190130480
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