Constructing India's past
THE DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT INDIA — Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology: Upinder Singh; Permanent Black, D-28, Oxford Apartments, 11 I P Extension, Delhi-110092. Rs. 695.
EXAMINING THE process of development of archaeology in India by any scholar outside the domain of government bodies was initiated about four decades back by Abu Imam. Very few scholars since then have taken any interest in this rather infertile branch of research.
Dilip Chakravarti was the only other Indian scholar who undertook a detailed analysis of this process of development in 1988. Apparently, he must have felt that a large chunk of time was not taken care of in this book and hence in 2003 he came out with yet another book to not only cover the history since 1947 but also examine this in the context of development in the neighbouring third world countries.
Upinder Singh studied with Chakravarti and as such may have developed interest in the history of archaeology. Singh is an acclaimed teacher of history and is astute and extremely balanced in her classroom deliberations. In this excellent piece of research she lives up to her image.
Three phases
Tracing the history of development of any academic discipline one can usually identify three distinct phases, which may be termed as the formative, descriptive and analytical.
It is also true that as one progresses from one phase to the next, one considers it almost as a self-appointed right to criticise the earlier works — as if one needs to legitimise the reason for seeking a change. Singh not only refrains from any such attempt but also sets a clear goal for herself.
In the preface she writes, "A large part of this book focusses unabashedly on individuals and their scholarly contributions. This is because of my conviction that individuals count and make a difference; they can make or break disciplines and institutions, more so at a time when these are in their fragile, embryonic stage." This conviction of the author, in one swift stroke, pushes history of archaeology from the infertile zone to a matter of primary importance.
Beginnings
The author starts her delineation with a chapter titled, "From antiquarianism to archaeology", wherein she notes how surveyors, collectors or adventurers were all clubbed together as one during the phase from 1750 A.D. to 1830 A.D. Even the word archaeology was not thought as important or even used.
It is during the latter half of the 19th Century that we come across early archaeological writings by government officials. Interest generated by the newly established Asiatic Society concentrating on texts, coins and sculptures brought about appreciable changes in these writings.
Founding of the Survey
The establishment of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861 brought about a sea change towards systematically surveying and also recording structures spread out all over the vast country. For decades the field was entirely dominated by Alexander Cunningham and a handful of assistants trained by him. With a gap of five years from 1866 to 1871, Cunningham continued to work till 1886.
This, indeed, was a long period and the foundations of archaeological investigations in this country, as such, were basically laid down by his efforts. Singh brings out, quite succinctly, how these otherwise praiseworthy investigations had an undercurrent of denying any credit to native researchers. The description of the early native scholars like Ram Raz, P.C. Mukharji, Rajendralala Mitra and other including Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan makes very interesting reading.
The final chapter "Archaeology, sites and monuments" describes how the Archaeological Survey finally decided that the antiquities need not be transported to England. Earlier the then prevailing attitude was that the natives did not care for their own past and hence as their colonial masters England had a right to take away important antiquities for better conservation.
Conservation efforts
The nationalist political movements emerging in the 19th Century also started constructing India's past for their purpose. Singh demonstrates how, at the same time, the British perception of India's past had always divided monuments into such categories as "Hindu" and "Mohammedan". They did not think, "...it conceivable that Indian princes could transcend sectarianism when it came to historical monuments in their realms.
"The fact that they often did is indicated by the contributions made by Maharaja of Dhar towards conservation work at the medieval site of Mandu, the steps taken by Nizam of Hyderabad to protect the Buddhist frescoes of Ajanta, the money given by Scindia for the restoration of Jaina temples in the Gwalior fortress and most eloquently by the long-standing concern of the Bhopal durbar for Sanchi."
All through the author has shown that archaeology in India ran parallel to available texts, including those of Chinese travellers; these parallel streams have always taken and also given findings of their respective fields to each other.
Unfortunately, those concerns of archaeology, which cannot be referred to any available texts, namely palaeolithic, mesolithic, neolithic and chalcolithic cultural periods (which incidentally covers four fifths of India's past) has basically remained grossly neglected during this formative period of the history of archaeology of India.
This is a well-researched book, documented with facsimile of original letters, sketches of early surveyors along with drawings of "stupas" reproduced. It will be of enormous help for anybody studying Indian archaeology.
D. K. BHATTACHARYA
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