Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha Pandit Gaurishankar Hirach | UTKARSH in ENGLISH

Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha
Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha was born on 15th September, 1863 in a Brahmin family in a small village called 'Rohida' situated on the border of Mewar and Sirohi states.
His early education took place in the village itself and later in 1877, at the age of just 14, he went to Mumbai for higher education, where in 1885 he passed the matriculation examination from 'Elphinstone High School'.
In 1888 AD, Ojha ji had reached Udaipur. Kaviraj Shyamaldas was so impressed by him that he made him an assistant minister in his history office, which gave him the opportunity to visit different historical places of Mewar and collect historical material.
He was made the head of the Library and Museum of Victoria Hall, Udaipur. There he got an opportunity to collect historical materials like inscriptions, coins, idols etc. for the Department of Archaeology.
While living here, Ojha ji gained special fame in the world of archaeology by writing a book named 'Bhartiya Prachin Lipimala' (1894 AD).
On coming in contact with Lord Curzon, being impressed by the scholarship of Ojhaji, Curzon made him the president of the museum in Ajmer and while living there, he wrote 'History of Sirohi State' in the year 1911.
The History of Rajputana series was started in the year 1926 and over a period of fifteen years the histories of Udaipur (Mewar), Jodhpur, Bikaner, Dungarpur, Banswara and Pratapgarh were published.
Inscriptions, coins, handwritten Khyat, communiqués, Rao-Bhats Bhahiye, poetry of Rajasthani and Sanskrit, texts of Gujarati and Marathi languages, translation of Persian texts and descriptions of foreign travellers have been the basis of Ojha ji's history writing.
He tried as much as possible to prove their veracity by using all the base sources found in the description of each incident and clearly mentioned the reference material in the foot note.
Ojhaji died on April 20, 1947 at the age of 84.