PROFESSOR BIRBAL SAHNI, Sc.D. (Cantab.), F.R.S
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OBITUARY NOTE PROFESSOR BIRBAL SAHNI, Sc.D. (Cantab.), F.R.S. (1891-1949) THE premature demise of Professor Birbal Sahni on 10th AWil 1949 at the early age of 58 is a tragedy of the first magnitude not only to the" Republic of India, but to the cause of Science all the world over; and the void caused by his death cannot be easily filled. When all the eyes of the scientists of India and of other nations were turned towards the Sahni Institute of Pal~o- botany in 1949--an institution unique of its kind in the world with a most inspiring Director as its head--the cruel hand of destiny dealt a blow, the consequences of which are hard to imagine. Professor Birbal Sahni was born on the 14th November 1891, at Bhera, Shahpur District, West Punjab, adjacent to the Salt Range, the stratigraphy and tectonics of which have attracted the attention of eminent geologists of international repute, including Professor Sahni himself, during the later part of his life. Professor Sahni's grandfather, Lala Karamchand Sahni, was a flourishing banker by profession with experimental alchemy as his hobby. Professor Sahni was the second son of Professor Lala Ruchiram Sahni and Srimathi Eswari Devi. Ruchiram Sahni who retired in 1918 as the Professor of Chemistry from the Government College, Lahore, and died only a few years ago, spent his retirement in public service, social reform activities, and in clutural pursuits. His reputation for scholarship and character was high all over India, and he was a familiar figure in political and scientific circles. Professor Birbal Sahni's first education was under his great father and even as a child he displayed extraordinary interest in nature study including the collection of leaves, shells, rocks and minerals. The father, recognising his child's talents, not only encouraged him in these pursuits, but often took him during his tours to the mighty Himalayas. The lure of the Himalayas attracted Professor Sahni to the end of his life and almost every year he would sojourn from the turmoil, heat and dust of the plains, to the cool and serene heights of Kashmir where some of his most important researches and intel- lectual pursuits were carried out in an atmosphere of Nature's grandeur and the company of his charming and devoted spouse, Srimathi Savitri Sahni. After his early education at the Central Model School at Lahore, P/ofessor Sahni joined the Government College as a student of Botany under Professor Kashyap, one of the most inspiring teachers and researchers in India of that generation. This happy early association of Professor Sahni was a landmark in his career. After graduating in Science in 1911 BI 287 288 Obituary---Professor Birbal Sahni from Punjab University, Birbal Sahni proceeded to the Emmanuel College, Cambridge, for Tripos in Natural Sciences. Besides Botony, he studied Geology for his Tripos, and despite his protestations to the contrary he was a discerning geologist. After obtaining the Tripos, he joined Professor Sir A. C. Seward as a Research Scholar and remained with him throughout the war. Professor Seward was even at that time a leading Pala~obotanist with an international reputation. It is no wonder that one so gifted and charming as Birbal Sahni should win the admiration, esteem and life-long friendship of his Professor Sir A. C. Seward. He had a very distinguished record at Cambridge as a Founder-Scholar, Exhibitioner and the winner of the Sudbury Hardyman Prize. He spent some summers at Munich under Professor K. Goebel. He was awarded the Doctorate in Science of the London University in 1919; and the Cambridge University conferred on him the Se.D. degree in 1929, in recognition of his brilliant researches. Professor Sahni returned to India in 1919 and held the Chair of Botany at the Universities of Benaras and the Punjab for a year in succession. He continued to hold the Honorary Professorship of Benaras Hindu University to the end of his life. In 1920 he married Savitri Suri, younger daughter of Sri. Sundara Das Suri of the Punjab Educational Department. In 1921 he was appointed Professor of Botany at the University of Lucknow and from 1933 onwards he was also the Dean of the Faculty of Science. The Botany Department at Lucknow under Professor Birbal Sahni soon became a place of pilgrimage for those seeking higher botanical and pal~eobotanical education. Students from all parts of India clustered round him, and despite his own preoccupations, he encouraged generously every seeker after knowledge by precept and example. He practically spent his whole life during those years in his laboratory, ably assisted by Mrs. Savitri Sahni. He did not consider any part of the work required for research as too trivial, and was an adept in section-cutting, sketching clay moulding, and photography. Between 1920-26, he spent the summer holidays in the study of the fossil plant collections of the Geological Survey of India at Calcutta. He developed in his students the qualities for which he was himself deservedly famous, viz., initiative, correct observation, meticulous care of details, a critical attitude, and a thoroughness of work. He had an open mind on any problem, and never came to hasty conclusions. It was therefore not easy to shake a position which he generally took after due deliberation and a judicious sifting of facts. He did not try to smother or minimise the opponent's point of view, but always met it squarely and fairly; in spite of the extreme courtesy and politeness in his expressions, the effect of his argu- ments was often devastating to the cause he opposed. ObiluarynProlCessor Birbal Sahni 289 Professor Sahni's first and foremost love was Pal~eobotany; but his contributions on the living plants were of no less importance, specially in the field of morphology and evolutionary trends of the Pteridophyta and the Gymnosperms. Some of his important papers on living plants are " Observations on the Evolution of Branching in Filicales " (1917), "Modern Psilotace~e and Archaic Terrestrial Plants " (1923), "The Ontogeny of Vascular Plants and Theory of Recapitulation" (1925). While at Cambridge, he brought out an Indian edition of" Lowson's Text-book of Botany " in the Cambridge University Series, which to this day is unrivalled for its excellence as an introduction to the study of plants with particular reference to India. Of his contributions in Pala~obotany, it is not easy to do justice in this short note. His first paper of Pal~eobotany was on "Zygopteridian Leaf", published in Ann. Bot., 1918. Since then in his innumerable papers, he has enriched pal~eobotanical literature, and given it a status in the deciphering of controverted stratigraphic problems as few had been able to do. While at Cambridge, he commenced his studies in collaboration with Professor Seward on a critical examination of the Gondwana plants. The results of these investigations were published in the Palteontologica Indica, new series Vol. VII, 1920. In 1928 and 1931, his exhaustive memoirs on the Indian Fossil Conifers were published in the same Journal. In several contributions in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, the results of his investigations on fossil plants from Australia, Western Siberia, and other countries were published. His contributions on Gondwana land Permo-carboniferous, Life-Provinces, Pal~eogeography, Wegener's Theory of Continental, Drift, the Himalayan Uplift, and the Eastward Opening of the Himalayan Geosyncline, all based on his Pal~eo- botanical researches, are classical in the realm of Geology, and stand on solid foundations. The stratigraphical horizons in India which attracted much of his attention were the Rajmahal Hills of Bihar, the intertrappeans in the Deccan Traps, the saline series of the Salt Range of the Punjab, and the post-Tertiaries of the Kashmir Himalayas. Though most of his work on Pal~eobotany was carried out in his laboratories, he believed in field studies and the collection of material by himself and his associates for investigation. Thus, Rajmahal Hills in Bihar, Intertrappeans in Central Provinces and the Salt Range and Himalayas were his happy hunting grounds, where he would spend some of his vacations with his band of devoted scholars, forgetful of his health and sometimes, even to the anxiety of his dear and near ones. His close acquaintance with the field relations of the problems in which he was interested as a Pala~obotanist, gave him the additional advantage that he had seen all that a field geologist 290 Obituary--Pu Birba! Saltni could see; and if he differed from the field geologist on the results of his pal~eobotanical researches, it was after taking due cougnisance of the field relations also, though out of modesty, he would not stress on this aspect. This gave him a unique advantage in the controversies on some of the stratigraphic problems, such as the classification of the Gond- wanas, the Age of the Deccan Traps, and the Age of the Saline Series. The sheer discovery of several new species of fossil plants and their description and correlation earned for him the foremost place as a Pal~eobotanist. The application of these studies to the elucidation of controverted problems in stratigraphical geology has made his work doubly valuable. His positive contributions to Indian stratigraphy are that the Deccan Traps are tertiary in age as against the Mesozoic Age advocated by the Geologists of the Geological Survey of India, and that the Saline Series of the Punjab are of Tertiary Age and not Cambrian as believed by some of the Officers of the Geological Survey of India and others. It is perhaps his interest in the Saline Series that drew him closely to the study of microfossils the technique of which he developed in his laboratories with a degree of precision, and care of detail the subject demands.