R. D. Banerji: Difference between revisions

In 1931, in the introduction of ''Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization'', London: Arthur Probsthain, 1931, Sir John Marshall wrote, "Three other scholars whose names I cannot pass over in silence, are the late Mr. R. D. Banerji, to whom belongs the credit of having discovered, if not Mohenjo-daro itself, at any rate its high antiquity, and his immediate successors in the task of excavation, Messrs. [[Madho Sarup Vats|M.S. Vats]] and [[Kashinath Narayan Dikshit|K.N. Dikshit]]. ... no one probably except myself can fully appreciate the difficulties and hardships which they had to face in the three first seasons at Mohenjo-daro."

 

Bandyopadhyay was born on 12 April 1885<ref name=e/><ref name=g>{{cite web|url=https://www.lindahall.org/r-d-banerji/|title=Scientist of the Day - R. D. Banerji|date=12 April 2017|access-date=20 Oct 2020|archive-date=20 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020133957/https://www.lindahall.org/r-d-banerji/|url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Baharampur|Berhampore]] of [[Murshidabad District]], in present-day [[Indian States|Indian state]] of [[West Bengal]], to Matilal and Kalimati.<ref name=e>{{cite news|url=https://www.anandabazar.com/editorial/rakhaldas-created-history-by-his-own-1.1091882|title=রাখালদাস নিজেই গড়ে ফেললেন ইতিহাস|language=Bengali|publisher=Anandabazar Patrika|date=7 Jan 2020|access-date=20 Oct 2020|archive-date=20 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020155104/https://www.anandabazar.com/editorial/rakhaldas-created-history-by-his-own-1.1091882|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=f>{{cite book|last1=Sengupta|first1=Subodhchandra|last2=Bose|first2=Anjali|title=Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan(Biographical dictionary)|language=Bengali|publisher=Sahitya Samsad|year=1976|place=Calcutta|page=455}}</ref> He passed his entrance examination from the [[Krishnath College School]] in Berhampore in 1900. He lived in [[Bangaon]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Five New Heritage Buildings for West Bengal|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/travelnews/story/70419/west-bengal-to-enlist-five-heritage-precincts|access-date=2021-11-18|website=www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/|language=en|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726081248/https://www.outlookindia.com/outlooktraveller/travelnews/story/70419/west-bengal-to-enlist-five-heritage-precincts|url-status=live}}</ref>

 

He was the first to study the [[Bengali language|proto-Bangla script]], the original form of Bangla script. He wrote the classic historical works on medieval [[Indian coinage|Indian coins]], and the standard works on the [[iconography]] of Indian art, in particular [[Gupta Empire|Gupta]] sculpture and architecture. His best known work was ''Eastern Indian Medieval School of Sculpture,'' published posthumously in 1933.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

 

Bandyopadhyay is known for unearthing pre-Buddhist artifacts at the ruins at [[Mohenjo-Daro]] and for noting similarities between the site at Mohenjo-Daro and Harrappa. Those discoveries led to excavations at the two sites that established the existence of the then-unknown [[Bronze Age]] [[Indus Valley civilisation]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Humes|first=Cynthia Ann|title=Hindutva, Mythistory, ; Pseudoarchaeology|journal=Numen: International Review for the History of Religions|volume=59|year=2012|issue=2–3|jstor= 23244958|pages=178–201|doi=10.1163/156852712x630770}}</ref>

 

 

His last novel, ''Lutf-Ulla'', is set in Delhi at the time of the invasion by [[Nadir Shah]]. Another work, ''Hemkana'' (uncompleted), was published in ''[[Prabasi]]'' (magazine) from 1911 to 1912.<ref>Sen, Sukumar (1999). ''Bangala Sahityer Itihas'', vol V, Kolkata: Ananda Publishers; {{ISBN|81-7215-950-1}}, pp. 210–11</ref> A number of his novels were translated into other Indian languages.

 

==Legacy==

[[Category:1885 births]]

[[Category:1930 deaths]]

[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]

[[Category:20th-century Indian novelists]]

[[Category:Academic staff of Banaras Hindu University]]

[[Category:Bengali-language writers]]

[[Category:Historians of India]]

[[Category:Indian epigraphers]]

[[Category:Indian historical novelists]]

[[Category:Indian male novelists]]

[[Category:People from Murshidabad district]]

[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Calcutta]]

[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]