2023-04-12 06:45:05
Rakhaldas Banerjee
● Indian archaeologist and ancient historian Rakhaldas Banerjee was born on April 12, 1885 in Murshidabad, Bengal.
● After elementary education, he did M.A. in History from Presidency College, Calcutta.
● During studies, he came in contact with Harprasad Shastri, Bangla writer Ramendrasundar Tripathi and Archaeological Superintendent of Bengal Circle, Dr. Block, and Rakhaldas Banerjee's interest in history and archeology was ingnited in their company. From the time of college, he started working in explorations and excavations.
● In view of the attachment to history, the responsibility of preparing the catalog of the Provincial Museum and Lucknow was handed over to him. While doing this, he studied history well and started writing articles on history.
● In the year 1910, he passed the examination of Master's degree. After this he was promoted to the post of Excavation Assistant (Archaeological Survey of India).
● In the year 1917, Rakhaldas Banerjee was appointed as Superintendent of the Western Division of the Archaeological Survey of India at Poona (now Pune).
● Later, he visited the princely states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Sindh (now Punjab), Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, during which Rakhaldas Banerjee did many things. The details of his important works are still available in the 'Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India'.
● He excavated at Bhumra in Madhya Pradesh and discovered ancient Gupta era temple and medieval Haihay-Kalchuri monuments.
● In the year 1922, Rakhaldas Banerjee was doing research on a Buddhist stupa, during excavation of which he discovered the ancient civilization of Mohenjodaro.
● Mohenjodaro was named as World Heritage Site (number 138) in the year 1980.
● In the year 1924, Rakhaldas Banerjee was transferred to the Eastern Division of the Archaeological Survey, Calcutta, where he remained for about two years. In this short span, he got the ancient temple of Paharpur excavated remarkably.
● Banerjee had to retire from government service in the year 1926 due to some administrative reasons.
● He was appointed to the post of 'Manindra Nandi Professor' of Ancient Indian History in 'Banaras Hindu University' and remained on this post till his death.
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