Gujarati archaeologist Bhagvanlal with little English, lot of Sanskrit helped British read edicts

While this was a noteworthy achievement from an archaeological perspective, it was just a matter of passion for the Gujarati scholar who never thought of archaeology as a career.

Photo by special arrangement

Bhagvanlal Indraji was a pioneer Indian archaeologist and self-taught scholar who contributed immensely to the field of epigraphical studies and archaeological research even with a very limited knowledge of English. His contribution was such that the Netherlands’ Leiden University conferred him with an honorary doctorate in 1884. Noted Gujarati poet and writer Umashankar Joshi placed Bhagvanlal in the category of great personalities such as MK Gandhi, Jamsetji Tata, and Dadabhai Naoroji.

Bhagvanlal was born in 1839 in Junagadh. That was a time when formal literacy in India was still picking up and English wasn’t taught in smaller cities. Superstition ran rife, and many in Junagadh believed in an old canard that a treasure lay buried under the rock inscriptions near the Girnar mountain, adjacent to the city. The treasure was said to be protected by a ghost and the unreadable script was believed to be the mantra to control the supernatural. British officer and Brahmi script expert James Prinsep had made a copy of the edicts for the first time around 1837-38.

Back in the city, young Bhagvanlal felt intrigued by the edicts whenever he visited the place with his father, who had taught him Sanskrit. The rock had edicts of Ashoka, Rudradaman I, and Skandgupta inscribed separately. Bhagvanlal tried to decipher Rudradaman I’s edicts in Sanskrit using Prinsep’s copy as a reference but could not decode the text.

Then he decided to secure the old journals of various Asiatic Societies from a friend despite his lack of prowess in the English language. He compared the old script and the text and discerned the successive changes in the interpretations and how they came up. Bhagvanlal decided to study Rudradaman I’s edicts once again, and instead of relying on Prinsep’s copy, he visited the rock every afternoon and worked till sunset. Within a year, he had corrected mistakes in Prinsep’s copy and prepared a revised version of the text on Rudradaman I’s edicts.

Junagadh to Bombay

While this was a noteworthy achievement from an archaeological perspective, it was just a matter of passion for Bhagvanlal who never thought of archaeology as a career. Thereon he started collecting old coins and making sense of history through it. Colonel William Lang, Political Agent of Kathiawad, came to know about Bhagvanlal’s feat and referred to him as a ‘young antiquary’. Alexander Kinloch Forbes, the new Political Agent and writer of Raasmala: Hindoo Annals of the Province of Goozerat, in Western India, was impressed by Bhagvanlal and introduced him to Dr Bhau Daji of Bombay.

Ramkrishna Vitthal Lad, popularly known as Dr Bhau Daji, was a famous medical practitioner, dermatologist, and antiquarian with a keen interest in archaeological studies and Ayurvedic medicine. He invited Bhagvanlal to Bombay in 1861. The archaeology enthusiast convinced Dr Daji of the importance of studying the Girnar edicts afresh. The doctor, 38, saw the merit in the young man’s suggestion. Bhagvanlal returned to Junagadh and not only prepared fresh copies of the edicts but also took facsimiles on cloth and paper with utmost precision. It brought new facts to light. For instance, Prinsep had misread some of the names, including Rudradama as Aridama.

The following year at the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, Dr Daji presented a paper on the transcript and translation of the inscriptions of Rudradama and Skandagupta and mentioned Bhagvanlal as “a young Brahman who possessed a moderate knowledge of Sanskrit and of the cave character”. The same year, Bhagvanlal shifted to Bombay and worked with Dr Daji till the doctor died in 1874.

During those two years, Bhagvanlal visited many sites of archaeological interest, from Ajanta Caves in present-day Maharashtra to other historical places in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kashmir, Balochistan, and Nepal. He prepared transcriptions and translations for his guru, Dr Daji. His travels were facilitated by the doctor through his good offices with the British officials. Bhagvanlal’s wife Gangaben also accompanied him on some of his tours. The archaeologist carried a heavy plate camera and photographed many important monuments and inscriptions, which formed a very important part of archaeological documentation in the early days of photography in India.

Dr Daji wrote many articles and papers largely based on Bhagvanlal’s research work. One of them was The Ancient Sanskrit Numbers in the Cave Inscriptions.

Bhagvanlal’s vast body of work

Bhagvanlal continued to work after Dr Daji’s death and built warm relationships with many European experts.

He was the first scholar to establish the antiquity of Jainism and discover Buddhist caves in Junagadh. Bhagvanlal took up archaeological excavation at Sopara—a first by any Indian archaeologist. His book Early History of Gujarat cleared the confusion in reading the Nagari numerals. The scholar also drew up the genealogy of the Kshatraps based on his reading of coins and prepared the first critical edition of the Kama Sutra and its translation in Gujarati. These are just glimpses of the enormous work Bhagvanlal did during his short life of 49 years. He became the first Indian honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay, in 1877.

Bhagvanlal donated his rare collection of archaeological work, artefacts, and coins to the British Museum and manuscripts to the Royal Asiatic Society with the specific instruction to keep them with Dr Daji’s work and a note reading: ‘The collection of Bhagvanlal Indraji, the disciple of Dr Bhau Daji’.

Virchand Dharamsey, the biographer of Bhagvanlal, noted that the predecessors and contemporaries of the archaeologist in western India tended to lean heavily toward Puranic, literary, and oral sources. On the contrary, Bhagvanlal verified the traditional sources critically and trusted archaeological evidence the most.

Urvish Kothari is a senior columnist and writer based in Ahmedabad. He tweets @urvish2020. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)