Sir Alexander Cunningham (1814-1893): The First Phase of Indian Archaeology Author(s): Abu Imam Source: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 3/4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 194-207 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25202645 Accessed: 13-02-2017 05:07 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland This content downloaded from 125.22.40.140 on Mon, 13 Feb 2017 05:07:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SIR ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM (1814-1893): THE FIRST PHASE OF INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY By Abu Imam In recent years some admirable attempts have been made to offer a connected story of the development of the science of archaeology in various parts of the world in the last hundred years or so. No comparable account is available of its development in India. Arch aeology developed in Denmark, in the Aegean, in Egypt and in Cranborne Chase ? as it were, so many laboratories in which the methods and techniques of the new discipline were perfected. The question naturally arises in the mind as to why these methods did not grow in India, where literally hundreds of sites were at the archaeologists' disposal. What circumstances prevailed in the Indian archaeological scene to account for the remarkable delay in introducing developed concepts and techniques? To answer this question we must examine the phase when archaeology in India was dominated by Cunningham and Burgess. Alexander Cunningham came to India in 1833 at the age of 19 in the service of the Company as an army engineer. His career neatly falls into two distinct parts ? the first, his army life up to 1860 and the second ? for which he is better known today ? his period as the Director of the Indian Archaeological Survey until 1885 (with a short break from 1866-1870 when the first Survey was abolished). How did this army engineer become involved in the archaeology of the sub-continent ? For the answer we have to look at the in tellectual milieu of the British Calcutta of the time. Among the officers of the Company active there at the time was one of uncommon talents, unbounded energy and unlimited curiosity, who was in charge of the Calcutta mint ? James Prinsep. It so happened that the Company's currency system was going to be overhauled. This aroused his interest about the past coinages of India. He had more over been an apprentice under H. H. Wilson, the great doyen of Sanskrit scholarship, who was his former chief in the mint. Also, by another stroke of luck at this moment, Ventura, Ranjit Singh's French general, inspired by the success stories of Egyptian pyramid-robbers, took it into his head to dig into the bowels of the innumerable towers of unknown origin which stood mysteriously dotted about the plains of the Panjab and the hills of the Frontier, known as 'topes' by the local people. The people themselves had This content downloaded from 125.22.40.140 on Mon, 13 Feb 2017 05:07:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE FIRST PHASE OF INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 195 long learnt to accept them with a passive unconcern and would take no more notice of these Hopes' than of the surrounding landscape itself. But they whipped up the wonder and curiosity of the foreigner. Ventura utilized his influence with Ranjit Singh to obtain permission to dig. His findings created a sensation, and his example was followed by others. Curiosity increased as Bactrian, Roman and Indo Scythic coins began to turn up in greater and greater numbers. Everyone with an antiquarian bent of mind became engrossed in this new development, and the focus of all this intellectual activity was Prinsep's newly started Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Thus Prinsep became the pilot of this new venture into the unknown regions of Indian history. Prinsep's request for coins and inscriptions went out to the four corners of India and he was soon flooded with them, particularly from Panjab and Afghanistan, by Masson, Honigberger, Gerard, Keramat Ali and Mohan Lai. Ventura's collection was sent to Calcutta and he himself went there. Another sensation was Captain Cautley's accidental discovery of the remains of an ancient town near Behat, while excavating the Jumna canal. And Cunningham arrived in the midst of these enthusiastic activities. It is no wonder that he was at once caught in the whirlpool and that in a short time he became Prinsep's closest collaborator. The Brahmi and Kharosthi scripts were deciphered before his very eyes, the inscriptions of Piyadasi were read and Tumour discovered that this Piyadasi was no other than the cele brated ASoka of Buddhist tradition. Following Ventura, Cunningham himself opened the great Dhamek stupa at Sarnath at great expense and considerable trouble. In 1842 he discovered the site of Sankissa. While sent on geographical missions in 1839, 1846 and 1847 in Kashmir and Ladakh, he varied his normal duties with systematic antiquarian pursuits. Meanwhile, in that same historic decade of the thirties of the nineteenth century Buddhism was discovered by the combined researches of Hodgson, Tumour, Csoma, Remusat, Burnouf and Lassen, with tremendous consequences for the future course of Indian archaeology and historiography and with equally significant effects on the whole attitude of Cunningham towards Indian history and archaeology. During the following years he leaned more and more towards the study of Buddhism, and its archaeology and history in India. This This content downloaded from 125.22.40.140 on Mon, 13 Feb 2017 05:07:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 196 THE FIRST PHASE OF INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY was the beginning of that predominance of Buddhism in Indian archaeology that was to characterize it for the best part of the following century. His activities at Sarnath, his articles in defence of Hsiian Tsang,1 and finally his explorations in Sankissa in 18422 and his excavations at Sanchi in 1851s are the landmarks in his progress towards his Buddhism-centred archaeology. Cunningham has been wrongly criticized for this preoccupation, which was perhaps inevitable in the circumstances of the time. Indeed in a curious way it was Buddhism which provided him with the best reason for the study of Indian archaeology. When he discovered the site of Sankissa, he communicated the news to Colonel Sykes in London, adding that an archaeological survey of India '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'.4 Buddhism and its archaeology was therefore to be studied for the. cause of promoting Christianity. Brahmanism was not so changeless after all. For a systematic study of Buddhism, however, the first requisite was a survey at government cost. Since writing his letter to Sykes, he had been toying with the idea of a survey. The discovery of Sankissa left him wondering. In the same letter to Sykes he wrote: 'These few points, which have been ascertained by me on a march upon duty in the rainy season, and without a single halt, will show you what might be done if one had 1 "Verification of ftie Itinerary of Hwan Thsang through Ariana an<J India, with reference to Major Anderson's hypothesis of its modern compilation', JASB., 1848, Pt. I, 476-488 and Pt. II, 13-60. 2 *An Account of the Discovery of the Ruins of the Buddhist city of Samkassa*, JRAS., 1843, 241 ff. 3 'Opening of the Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India, JRAS., 1852, 108 ff. * Op. cit., JRAS., 1843, 246-7. This content downloaded from 125.22.40.140 on Mon, 13 Feb 2017 05:07:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE FIRST PHASE OF INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 197 the opportunity of marching leisurely, with time to halt at all places which seemed to offer any objects of interest. ... To open these, and to search out all the Buddhistical ruins in India, would be works of the greatest interest and importance. With what joy and zeal would not one trace Fa Hian's route from Mathura, his first Indian station, to his embarkation for Ceylon.' The point was driven home by another letter in 1848 to the Asiatic Society of Bengal.1 The publication of all the existing remains of Buddhism ? their archi tecture, sculpture, coins and inscriptions ? was as important for the illustration of the history of India as the printing of the Vedas and Puranas.