Archaeology and the Public Purpose : Writings on and by M.N. Deshpande / Nayanjot Lahiri, M. N. Deshpande.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lahiri, Nayanjot, author.

Deshpande, M. N., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Excavations (Archaeology).

India--Antiquities.

India.

Deshpande, M. N. (Madhusudan Narhar), 1920-.

Deshpande, M. N.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (360 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Archaeology and the Public Purpose

Place of Publication:

New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2021.

Summary:

"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 about 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 who headed the Archaeological Survey in the twilight years of the British Raj; 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 historic cave shrines like Ajanta and Ellora, and; the political and administrative challenges faced by director generals of archaeology. The story is told through a main character--Deshpande himself--some of whose writings have been included here. Equally, there are others who figure in the narrative as it reconstructs and recounts the story of Indian archaeology after 1947 through those lives as also through the institutional history of the Archaeological Survey and the processes that were central to the discoveries it made and the challenges it faced"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

List of Images and Tables

Among Independent Indias Young Archaeologists

A Life in Public Archaeology

The Archaeologist and the Prime Minister

Director General Deshpande

The Archaeologist and the Environmentalist

Retirement and After

References

Archaeologys Contribution to History in Recent Times

Some Aspects of Folk Religion in the Konkana and Desh Regions of Maharashtra

The Siva Temple at Bhojpur

From Gol Gumbad to Konark

Problems of Conservation of Cultural Property in India

Gol Gumbad Bijapur

Qutb Minar

Konark Sun Temple

Kṛṣṇa Legend in the Jain Canonical Literature

Bahal 19523

Two Copper Coins of the Chola King Rajaraja I

Important Epigraphical Records from the Chaitya Cave

Ajanta Ellora Thanala and Tabo

Their Historical Perspective

A Walk through the Caves of Ellora

The Himalayan Ajanta

Buddhist Group of Thanala Caves

Archaeology Ethnography and History

Archaeologists and Ascetics

The Ekalavya of Archaeology

Colleague and LifeLong Friend

Centenarian Harijansevak

A Single Word That Changed My Life

Reaching Out and Looking Back

Experience of an Archaeologist

Index

Copyright.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Oxford University Press, viewed May 30, 2023).

ISBN:

0-19-099386-3

0-19-099387-1