by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/8/20
-- Epigraphia Indica, by Wikipedia
-- Studies in Indian Temple Architecture: Papers Presented at a Seminar held in Varanasi, 1967, edited with an introduction by Pramod Chandra, Professor in the Department of Art, University of Chicago, by American Institute of Indian Studies, 1975, Archaeological Survey of India
Archaeological Survey of India
Abbreviation: ASI
Motto: प्रत्नकीर्तिमपावृणु [Google translate: Mitochondria]
Formation: 1861
Headquarters: 24 Tilak Marg, New Delhi, India - 110001
Region served: India
Parent organisation: Ministry of Culture, Government of India
Budget: ₹1,246.75 crore (US$170 million) (2020-2021)[1]
Website asi.nic.in Edit this at Wikidata
The Archaeological Survey of India is an Indian government agency attached to the Ministry of Culture that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham who also became its first Director-General.
Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India.The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) (informally the Bengal Sappers or Bengal Engineers) is a military engineering regiment in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army of the East India Company's Bengal Presidency, and subsequently part of the British Indian Army during the British Raj. The Bengal Sappers are stationed at Roorkee Cantonment in Roorkee, Uttarakhand.
The Bengal Sappers are one of the few remaining regiments of the erstwhile Bengal Presidency Army and survived the Rebellion of 1857 due to their "sterling work" in the recapture by the East India Company of Delhi and other operations in 1857–58. The troops of the Bengal Sappers have been a familiar sight for over 200 years in the battlefields of British India with their never-say-die attitude of Chak De and brandishing their favourite tool the hamber.
-- Bengal Engineer Group, by Wikipedia
In 1861, he was appointed to the newly created position of archaeological surveyor to the government of India; and he founded and organised what later became the Archaeological Survey of India.
He wrote numerous books and monographs and made extensive collections of artefacts. Some of his collections were lost, but most of the gold and silver coins and a fine group of Buddhist sculptures and jewellery were bought by the British Museum in 1894...
Along with his older brother, Joseph, he received his early education at Christ's Hospital, London. Through the influence of Sir Walter Scott, both Joseph and Alexander obtained cadetships at the East India Company's Addiscombe Seminary (1829–31), followed by technical training at the Royal Engineers Estate at Chatham. Alexander joined the Bengal Engineers at the age of 19 as a Second Lieutenant and spent the next 28 years in the service of British Government of India. Soon after arriving in India on 9 June 1833, he met James Prinsep. He was in daily communication with Prinsep during 1837 and 1838 and became his intimate friend, confidant and pupil. Prinsep passed on to him his lifelong interest in Indian archaeology and antiquity.James Prinsep FRS (20 August 1799 – 22 April 1840) was an English scholar, orientalist and antiquary. He was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts of ancient India. He studied, documented and illustrated many aspects of numismatics, metallurgy, meteorology apart from pursuing his career in India as an assay master at the mint in Benares.
-- James Prinsep, by Wikipedia
From 1836 to 1840 he was ADC [aide-de-camp (a personal assistant or secretary to a person of high rank)]to Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India.The Governor-General of India (from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1947, the representative of the Indian head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of ‘Governor-general of the Presidency of Fort William’. The officer had direct control only over Fort William, but supervised other East India Company officials in India. Complete authority over all of British India was granted in 1833, and the official came to be known as the "governor-general of India".
-- Governor-General of India, by Wikipedia
During this period he visited Kashmir, which was then not well explored...
In 1841 Cunningham was made executive engineer to the king of Oudh. In 1842 he was called to serve the army in thwarting an uprising in Bundelkhand by the ruler of Jaipur. He was then posted at Nowgong in central India before he saw action at the Battle of Punniar in December 1843. He became engineer at Gwalior and was responsible for constructing an arched stone bridge over the Morar River in 1844–45. In 1845–46 he was called to serve in Punjab and helped construct two bridges of boats across the Beas river prior to the Battle of Sobraon.
In 1846, he was made commissioner along with P. A. Vans Agnew to demarcate boundaries. Letters were written to the Chinese and Tibetan officials by Lord Hardinge, but no officials joined. A second commission was set up in 1847 which was led by Cunningham to establish the Ladakh-Tibet boundary, which also included Henry Strachey and Thomas Thomson. Henry and his brother Richard Strachey had trespassed into Lake Mansarovar and Rakas Tal in 1846 and his brother Richard revisited in 1848 with botanist J. E. Winterbottom. The commission was set up to delimit the northern boundaries of the Empire after the First Anglo-Sikh War concluded with the Treaty of Amritsar, which ceded Kashmir as war indemnity expenses to the British. His early work Essay on the Aryan Order of Architecture (1848) arose from his visits to the temples in Kashmir and his travels in Ladakh during his tenure with the commission. He was also present at the battles of Chillianwala and Gujrat in 1848–49. In 1851, he explored the Buddhist monuments of Central India along with Lieutenant Maisey and wrote an account of these.
In 1856 he was appointed chief engineer of Burma, which had just been annexed by Britain, for two years; and from 1858 served for three years in the same post in the North-Western Provinces. In both regions, he established public works departments. He was therefore absent from India during the Rebellion of 1857. He was appointed Colonel of the Royal Engineers in 1860. He retired on 30 June 1861, having attained the rank of Major General.
Cunningham had taken a keen interest in antiquities early in his career. Following Jean-Baptiste Ventura, general of Ranjit Singh, who inspired by the French explorers in Egypt had excavated the bases of pillars to discover large stashes of Bactrian and Roman coins, excavations became a regular activity among British antiquarians.
In 1834 he submitted to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal an appendix to James Prinsep's article on the relics in the Mankiala stupa. He had conducted excavations at Sarnath in 1837 along with Colonel F. C. Maisey and made careful drawings of the sculptures. In 1842 he excavated at Sankassa and at Sanchi in 1851. In 1854 he published The Bhilsa Topes, an attempt to establish the history of Buddhism based on architectural evidence.
By 1851, he also began to communicate with William Henry Sykes and the East India Company on the value of an archaeological survey. He provided a rationale for providing the necessary funding, arguing that the venture... would be an undertaking of vast importance to the Indian Government politically, and to the British public religiously. To the first body it would show that India had generally been divided into numerous petty chiefships, which had invariably been the case upon every successful invasion; while, whenever she had been under one ruler, she had always repelled foreign conquest with determined resolution. To the other body it would show that Brahmanism, instead of being an unchanged and unchangeable religion which had subsisted for ages, was of comparatively modern origin, and had been constantly receiving additions and alterations; facts which prove that the establishment of the Christian religion in India must ultimately succeed
Following his retirement from the Royal Engineers in 1861, Lord Canning, then Viceroy of India, appointed Cunningham archaeological surveyor to the Government of India. He held this appointment from 1861 to 1865, but it was then terminated through lack of funds...
After his department was abolished in 1865, Cunningham returned to England and wrote the first part of his Ancient Geography of India (1871), covering the Buddhist period; but failed to complete the second part, covering the Muslim period. During this period in London he worked as director of the Delhi and London Bank. In 1870, Lord Mayo re-established the Archaeological Survey of India, with Cunningham as its director-general from 1 January 1871. Cunningham returned to India and made field explorations each winter, conducting excavations and surveys from Taxila to Gaur. He produced twenty-four reports, thirteen as author and the rest under his supervision by others such as J. D. Beglar. Other major works included the first volume of Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum (1877) which included copies of the edicts of Ashoka, The Stupa of Bharhut (1879) and the Book of Indian Eras (1883) which allowed the dating of Indian antiquities. He retired from the Archaeological Survey on 30 September 1885 and returned to London to continue his research and writing.
-- Alexander Cunningham, by Wikipedia
History
ASI was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham who also became its first Director-General. The first systematic research into the subcontinent's history was conducted by the Asiatic Society, which was founded by the British Indologist William Jones on 15 January 1784. Based in Calcutta, the society promoted the study of ancient Sanskrit and Persian texts and published an annual journal titled Asiatic Researches. Notable among its early members was Charles Wilkins who published the first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785 with the patronage of the then Governor-General of Bengal, Warren Hastings. However, the most important of the society's achievements was the decipherment of the Brahmi script by James Prinsep in 1837. This successful decipherment inaugurated the study of Indian palaeography.
Formation of the ASI
Sir Alexander Cunningham
Armed with the knowledge of Brahmi, Alexander Cunningham, a protégé of Prinsep, carried out a detailed survey of the Buddhist monuments which lasted for over half a century. Inspired by early amateur archaeologists like the Italian military officer, Jean-Baptiste Ventura, Cunningham excavated stupas along the width, the length and breadth of India. While Cunningham funded many of his early excavations himself, in the long run, he realised the need for a permanent body to oversee archaeological excavations and the conservation of Indian monuments and used his stature and influence in India to lobby for an archaeological survey. While his attempt in 1848 did not meet with success, the Archaeological Survey of India was eventually formed in 1861 by a statute passed into law by Lord Canning with Cunningham as the first Archaeological Surveyor. The survey was suspended briefly between 1865 and 1871 due to lack of funds but restored by Lord Lawrence the then Viceroy of India. In 1871, the Survey was revived as a separate department and Cunningham was appointed as its first Director-General.[2]
1885–1901
Cunningham retired in 1885 and was succeeded as Director General by James Burgess. Burgess launched a yearly journal The Indian Antiquary (1872) and an annual epigraphical publication Epigraphia Indica (1882) as a supplement to the Indian Antiquary. The post of Director General was permanently suspended in 1889 due to a funds crunch and was not restored until 1902. In the interim period, conservation work in the different circles was carried out by the superintendents of the individual circles.
"Buck crisis" (1888-1898)
Sir Edward Charles Buck (1838-1916), Civil servant in Bengal, India
From 1888 started severe lobbying aimed at reducing Government expenses, and at curtailing the budget of the Archaeological Survey of India, a period of about ten years known as the "Buck crisis", after the Liberal Edward Buck.[3] In effect, this severely threatened the employment of the employees of the ASI, such as Alois Anton Führer, who had just started a family and become a father.[3]
In 1892, Edward Buck announced that the Archaeological Survey of India would be shut down and all ASI staff would be dismissed by 1895, in order to generate savings for the Government's budget.[3][4][3] It was understood that only a fantastic archaeological discovery within the next three years for example might be able to turn public opinion and save the funding of the ASI.[3]
Alois Anton Führer own report on his discoveries, entitled Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birthplace, 1897, was withdrawn from circulation by the Government.[5]
Great "discoveries" were indeed made with the March 1895 discovery of the Nigali Sagar inscription, which succeeded in bringing the "Buck Crisis" to an end, and the ASI was finally allowed in June 1895 to continue operations, subject to yearly approval based on successful digs every year.[6] Georg Bühler, writing in July 1895 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, continued to advocate for the preservation of the Archaeological Survey of India, and expressed that what was needed were "new authentic documents" from the pre-Ashokan period, and they would "only be found underground".[6][7]
Another momentous discovery would be made in 1896, with the Lumbini pillar inscription, a major inscription on a pillar of Ashoka discovered by Alois Anton Führer. The inscription, together with other evidence, confirmed Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha.[8]
In 1896, accompanied by the local Nepalese governor, General Khadga Shamsher, Führer discovered a major inscription on a pillar of Ashoka, an inscription which, together with other evidence, confirmed Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha.[40] The pillar itself had been known for sometime already, as it had already been reported by Khadga Shamsher to Vincent Arthur Smith a few year earlier. Führer made his great discovery when he dug the earth around the pillar and reported the discovery of the inscription in a pristine state about one meter under the surface.
Führer claimed that the locals called the site "Rummindei", which he identified with the legendary "Lumbini", whereas it was found that the site was only called "Rupa-devi".
The authenticity of the discovery has long been doubted, and was openly disputed in a 2008 book by British writer Charles Allen.
Following the discovery of the pillar, Führer relied on the accounts of ancient Chinese pilgrims to search for Kapilavastu, which he thought had to be in Tilaurakot. Unable to find anything, he started excavating some structures he said were stupas, and was in the process of faking pre-Mauryan inscriptions on bricks, when he was caught in the act by Vincent Arthur Smith. The inscriptions were bluntly characterized by Smith as "impudent forgeries".
-- Alois Anton Fuhrer, by Wikipedia
The organization was rocked when Führer was unmasked in 1898, and was found to file fraudulous reports about his investigations. Confronted by Smith about his archaeological publications and his report to the Government, Führer was obliged to admit "that every statement in it [the report] was absolutely false."[9] Under official instructions from the Government of India, Führer was relieved of his positions, his papers seized and his offices inspected by Vincent Arthur Smith on 22 September 1898.[10] Führer had written in 1897 a monograph on his discoveries in Nigali Sagar and Lumbini, Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai,[11] which was withdrawn from circulation by the Government.[12] Führer was dismissed and returned to Europe.
1901–1947
John Marshall
The post of Director General was restored by Lord Curzon in 1902. Breaking with tradition, Curzon chose a 26-year-old professor of classical studies at Cambridge named John Marshall to head the survey. Marshall served as Director General for a quarter of a century and during his long tenure, he replenished and invigorated the survey whose activities were fast dwindling into insignificance. Marshall established the post of Government epigraphist and encouraged epigraphical studies. The most significant event of his tenure was, however, the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization at Harappa and Mohenjodaro in 1921. The success and scale of the discoveries made ensured that the ress made in Marshall's tenure would remain unmatched. Marshall was succeeded by Harold Hargreaves in 1928. Hargreaves was succeeded by Daya Ram Sahni.
Sahni was succeeded by J. F. Blakiston and K. N. Dikshit both of whom had participated in the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjodaro. In 1944, a British archaeologist and army officer, Mortimer Wheeler took over as Director General. Wheeler served as Director General till 1948 and during this period he excavated the Iron Age site of Arikamedu and the Stone age sites of Brahmagiri, Chandravalli and Maski in South India. Wheeler founded the journal Ancient India in 1946 and presided over the partitioning of ASI's assets during the Partition of India and helped establish an archaeological body for the newly formed Pakistan.
1947–2019
Wheeler was succeeded by N. P. Chakravarti in 1948. The National Museum was inaugurated in New Delhi on 15 August 1949 to house the artifacts displayed at the Indian Exhibition in the United Kingdom.
Madho Sarup Vats and Amalananda Ghosh succeeded Chakravarti. Ghosh's tenure which lasted until 1968 is noted for the excavations of Indus Valley sites at Kalibangan, Lothal and Dholavira. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act was passed in 1958 bringing the archaeological survey under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture. Ghosh was succeeded by B.B. Lal who conducted archaeological excavations at Ayodhya to investigate whether a Ram Temple preceded the Babri Masjid. During Lal's tenure, the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972) was passed recommending central protection for monuments considered to be "of national importance". Lal was succeeded by M. N. Deshpande who served from 1972 to 1978 and B. K. Thapar who served from 1978 to 1981. On Thapar's retirement in 1981, archaeologist Debala Mitra was appointed to succeed him - she was the first woman Director General of the ASI. Mitra was succeeded by M. S. Nagaraja Rao, who had been transferred from the Karnataka State Department of Archaeology. Archaeologists J. P. Joshi and M. C. Joshi succeeded Rao. M. C. Joshi was the Director General when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992 triggering Hindu-Muslim violence all over India. As a fallout of the demolition, Joshi was dismissed in 1993 and controversially replaced as Director General by Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Achala Moulik, a move which inaugurated a tradition of appointing bureaucrats of the IAS instead of archaeologists to head the survey. The tradition was finally brought to an end in 2010 when Gautam Sengupta an archaeologist, replaced K.M Srivastava an IAS officer as Director General.He was again succeeded by Pravin Srivastava, another IAS officer. Srivastava's successor and the present incumbent, Rakesh Tiwari is also a professional archaeologist.
Organisation
The Archaeological Survey of India is an attached office of the Ministry of Culture. Under the provisions of the AMASR Act of 1958, the ASI administers more than 3650 ancient monuments, archaeological sites and remains of national importance. These can include everything from temples, mosques, churches, tombs, and cemeteries to palaces, forts, step-wells, and rock-cut caves. The Survey also maintains ancient mounds and other similar sites which represent the remains of ancient habitation.[13]
The ASI is headed by a Director General who is assisted by an Additional Director General, two Joint Directors General, and 17 Directors.[14]
Circles
The ASI is divided into a total of 30 circles[15] each headed by a Superintending Archaeologist.[14] Each of the circles are further divided into sub-circles. The circles of the ASI are:
1. Agra
2. Aizawl
3. Amravati
4. Aurangabad
5. Bengaluru
6. Bhopal
7. Bhubaneswar
8. Chandigarh
9. Chennai
10. Dehra Dun
11. Delhi
12. Dharwad
13. Goa
14. Guwahati
15. Hyderabad
16. Jaipur
17. Jodhpur
18. Kolkata
19. Lucknow
20. Mumbai
21. Nagpur
22. Patna
23. Raipur
24. Raiganj
25. Ranchi
26. Sarnath
27. Shimla
28. Srinagar
29. Thrissur
30. Vadodara
The ASI also administers three "mini-circles" at Delhi, Leh and Hampi.[15]
Directors-General
The Survey has had 29 Directors-General thus far. Its founder, Alexander Cunningham served as Archaeological Surveyor between 1861 and 1865.[2]
1. 1871−1885 Alexander Cunningham
2. 1886−1889 James Burgess
3. 1902−1928 John Marshall
4. 1928−1931 Harold Hargreaves
5. 1931−1935 Daya Ram Sahni
6. 1935−1937 J. F. Blakiston
7. 1937−1944 K. N. Dikshit
8. 1944−1948 Mortimer Wheeler
9. 1948−1950 N. P. Chakravarti
10. 1950−1953 Madho Sarup Vats
11. 1953−1968 Amalananda Ghosh
12. 1968−1972 B. B. Lal
13. 1972−1978 M. N. Deshpande
14. 1978−1981 B. K. Thapar
15. 1981−1983 Debala Mitra
16. 1984−1987 M. S. Nagaraja Rao
17. 1987−1989 J. P. Joshi
18. 1989−1993 M. C. Joshi
19. 1993−1994 Achala Moulik
20. 1994−1995 S. K. Mahapatra
21. 1995−1997 B. P. Singh
22. 1997−1998 Ajai Shankar
23. 1998−2001 S. B. Mathur
24. 2001−2004 K. G. Menon
25. 2004−2007 C. Babu Rajeev
26. 2009−2010 K. N. Srivastava
27. 2010−2013 Gautam Sengupta
28. 2013−2014 Pravin Srivastava
29. 2014−2017 Rakesh Tewari
30. 2017-2020 Usha Sharma
31. 12 may 2020 to present V Vidyawati
"In major bureaucratic reshuffle, 35 secretaries, additional secretaries named". livemint.com/. 22 July 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2017.</ref>
Museums
India's first museum was established by the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1814. Much of its collection was passed on to the Indian Museum, which was established in the city in 1866.[16] The Archaeological Survey did not maintain its own museums until the tenure of its third director-general, John Marshall. He initiated the establishment of various museums at Sarnath (1904), Agra (1906), Ajmer (1908), Delhi Fort (1909), Bijapur (1912), Nalanda (1917) and Sanchi (1919). The ASI's museums are customarily located right next to the sites that their inventories are associated with "so that they may be studied amid their natural surroundings and not lose focus by being transported".
A dedicated Museums Branch was established in 1946 by Mortimer Wheeler, which now maintains a total of 50 museums spread across the country.[17]
Library
The ASI maintains a Central Archaeological Library in the Archaeological Survey of India headquarters building in Tilak Marg, Mandi House, New Delhi. Established in 1902, its collection numbers more than 100,000 books and journals. The library is also a repository of rare books, plates, and original drawings.
The Survey additionally maintains a library in each of its circles to cater to local academics and researchers.[18]
Publications
The day-to-day work of the survey was published in a series of periodical bulletins and reports. The periodicals and archaeological series published by the ASI are:
Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum
It consists of a series of seven volumes of inscriptions discovered and deciphered by archaeologists of the survey. Founded in 1877 by Alexander Cunningham, a final revised volume was published by E. Hultzsch in 1925.
Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy
The first volume of the Annual Report on Indian Epigraphy was brought out by the epigraphist -E. Hultzsch in 1887. The bulletin has not been published since 2005.
Epigraphia Indica
Epigraphia Indica was first published by the then Director-General, J. Burgess in 1888 as a supplementary to The Indian Antiquary. Since then, a total of 43 volumes have been published. The last volume was published in 1979. An Arabic and Persian supplement to the Epigraphia Indica was also published from 1907 to 1977.
South Indian Inscriptions
The first volume of South Indian Inscriptions was edited by E. Hultzsch and published in 1890. A total of 27 volumes were published till 1990. The early volumes are the main source of historical information on the Pallavas, Cholas and Chalukyas.
Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India
It was the primary bulletin of the ASI. The first annual report was published by John Marshall in 1902–03. The last volume was published in 1938–39. It was replaced by Indian Archaeology: A Review.
Ancient India
The first volume of Ancient India was published in 1946 and edited by Sir Mortimer Wheeler as a bi-annual and converted to an annual in 1949. The twenty-second and last volume was published in 1966.
Indian Archaeology: A Review
Indian Archaeology: A Review is the primary bulletin of the ASI and has been published since 1953–54. It replaced the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India.
1. 1953-54
2. 1954-55
3. 1955-56
4. 1956-57
5. 1957-58
6. 1958-59
7. 1959-60
8. 1960-61
9. 1961-62
10. 1962-63
11. 1963-64
12. 1964-65
13. 1965-66
14. 1966-67
15. 1967-68
16. 1968-69
17. 1969-70
18. 1970-71
19. 1971-72
20. 1972-73
21. 1973-74
22. 1974-75
23. 1975-76
24. 1976-77
25. 1977-78
26. 1978-79
27. 1979-80
28. 1980-81
29. 1981-82
30. 1982-83
31. 1983-84
32. 1984-85
33. 1985-86
34. 1986-87
35. 1987-88
36. 1988-89
37. 1989-90
38. 1991-92
39. 1992-93
40. 1993-94
41. 1994-95
42. 1995-96
43. 1996-97
44. 1997-98
45. 1998-99
State government archaeological departments
Apart from the ASI, archaeological work in India and conservation of monuments is also carried out in some states by state government archaeological departments. Most of these bodies were set up by the various princely states before independence. When these states were annexed to India after independence, the individual archaeological departments of these states were not integrated with the ASI. Instead, they were allowed to function as independent bodies.
• Haryana State Directorate of Archaeology & Museums (formed in 1972 by upgrading the cell that was earlier under the education department)
• Orissa State Archaeology Department (1965)
• Andhra Pradesh Department of Archeology and Museums
• Karnataka State Department of Archaeology (1885)
• Kerala State Archaeology Department (formed in 1959 by merging Travancore State Archaeology Department (est 1910) and Cochin State Archaeology Department (est 1925))
• Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department (1961)
Department of archaeology and museum, Government of West Bengal
Criticism
In 2013, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report found that at least 92 centrally protected monuments of historical importance across the country which have gone missing without a trace. The CAG could physically verify only 45% of the structures (1,655 out of 3,678). The CAG report said that the ASI did not have reliable information on the exact number of monuments under its protection. The CAG recommended that periodic inspection of each protected monument should be done by a suitably ranked officer. The Culture ministry accepted the proposal.[19] Author and IIPM Director Arindam Chaudhuri said that since the ASI is unable to protect the country's museums and monuments so they should be professionally maintained by private companies or through the public-private-partnership (PPP) model.[20]
In May 2018, the Supreme Court of India said that the ASI was not properly discharging its duty in maintaining the World Heritage Site of Taj Mahal and asked the Government of India to consider whether some other agency be given the responsibility to protect and preserve it.[21]
In popular culture
The fictional character Kakababu, in Sunil Gangopadhyay's famed Kakababu series, is an ex-Director of the Archaeological Survey of India.
See also
• Lists of State Protected Monuments in India
• List of World Heritage Sites in India
• Lists of Indian Monuments of National Importance
• Delhi Archaeological Society
• Survey of India, India's central agency in charge of mapping and surveying.
• Geological Survey of India
References
1. "Expenditure Budget, Ministry of Culture". Retrieved 6 June 2020.
2. "History". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
3. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 496–498. ISSN 1356-1863. JSTOR 40926240.
4. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 66. ISSN 0967-828X. JSTOR 23750866.
5. Thomas, Edward Joseph (2000). The Life of Buddha as Legend and History. Courier Corporation. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-486-41132-3.
6. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 499–502. ISSN 1356-1863. JSTOR 40926240.
7. Bühler, G. (1895). "Some Notes on Past and Future Archœological Explorations in India". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 649–660. ISSN 0035-869X. JSTOR 25197280.
8. Weise, Kai (2013). The Sacred Garden of Lumbini: Perceptions of Buddha's birthplace. UNESCO. pp. 63–64. ISBN 978-92-3-001208-3.
9. WILLIS, MICHAEL (2012). "Dhār, Bhoja and Sarasvatī: from Indology to Political Mythology and Back". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 22 (1): 152. ISSN 1356-1863. JSTOR 41490379.
10. Willis, M. (2012). "Dhar, Bhoja and Sarasvati: From Indology to Political Mythology and Back". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 22 (1): 129–53. doi:10.1017/S1356186311000794. Smith's report is given in the appendix to this article and is available here: [1].
11. Führer, Alois Anton (1897). Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai. Allahabad : Govt. Press, N.W.P. and Oudh.
12. Thomas, Edward Joseph (2000). The Life of Buddha as Legend and History. Courier Corporation. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-486-41132-3.
13. "Monuments". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
14. "Organisation". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
15. "Circles". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
16. "The Asiatic Society". Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
17. "Museums". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
18. "Central Archaeological Library". Archaeological Survey of India. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
19. "92 ASI-protected monuments missing - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
20. Pioneer, The. "India's monumental mess". The Pioneer. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
21. "Archaeological Survey of India failed, explore tasking Taj Mahal upkeep to another body: SC to Centre - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
External links
• Official website
• World Heritage, Tentative Lists, State : India—UNESCO
• Dholavira: a Harappan City, Disstt, Kachchh, Gujarat, India, India (Asia and the Pacific), Date of Submission: 03/07/1998, Submission prepared by: Archaeological Survey of India, Coordinates: 23°53'10" N, 70°11'03" E, Ref.: 1090
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Archaeological Survey of India Annual Report
• 1907-8