Alexander Cunningham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Alexander Cunningham (23 January 1814–28 November 1893) was a British archaeologist and army engineer, known as the father of the Archaeological Survey of India.
Born in London to the Scottish poet Allan Cunningham, he joined the Bengal Engineers at the age of 19 and spent the next 28 years in the service of British Government of India. Soon after arriving in India, a meeting with James Prinsep sparked his lifelong interest in Indian archaeology and antiquity. Cunningham retired in 1861, having attained the rank of Major General.
The Archaeological Survey of India was set up following a correspondence between Cunningham and Charles John Canning, then the viceroy of India. Cunningham was appointed the first director of the project, which operated from 1861 to 1865. In 1865 the Archaeological Survey was halted. In the year 1867, Cunningham was knighted. Upon the resumption of the Archaeological Survey in 1870, he returned to the directorship, maintaining his post until 1885.
General Cunningham had visited Bharhut stupa, located in present Satna district in Madhya Pradesh in 1873 on his way to Nagpur. He was fascinated to find such a heritage site like Bharhut but at the same time pained at its ignorance by the people and the government. He left some guards behind to look after the site and came back in February 1874. He collected the scattered pieces of sculptures and records and tried to understand its design and lay out. He came third time in November 1874 with some legal rights. He carried some of the sculptures to Kolkata and started a Bharhut gallery in the National Museum at Kolkata. After a detailed study of Buddhist literature and the sculptures from the site, he published in 1876 a book titled "The Stupa of Bharhut", which is still an authentic book about the Bharhut stupa. The famous 8 Buddhist stupas have been built on the relics of Buddha in his honour. Bharhut is not in that list. It is still not clear about on whose relics this stupa is built. General Cunningham had found in 1874 excavations a small box carrying the "Rakh Phool (ashes)" , which could not be identified but he handed it over to the Raja of Nagod for safe custody.[1]
Cunningham died in London in 1893; today, his collection of rare Indian coins is displayed in the British Museum.
Cunningham was associated with the excavation of many sites in India, including Sarnath, Sanchi, and the Mahabodhi Temple. In the case of Mahabodhi, Cunningham's work of restoring the Temple was completed by the pioneer of Buddhist revival in India, Anagarika Dharmapala.
Books written by him include
- Bhilsa Topes (1854), a history of Buddhism
- The Ancient Geography of India (1871)
- The Book of Indian Eras (1883)
- Coins of Ancient India (1891)
- The Stupa of Bharhut : A Buddhist Monument Ornamented with Numerous Sculptures Illustrative of Buddhist Legend and History in the Third Century B.C. Reprint. First published in 1879, London. 1998
[edit] External links
- Sir Alexander Cunningham at Banglapedia
- Ror community
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Neeraj Jain, Bharhut Stoopa Gatha (Hindi), Ed. Ramnarayan Singh Rana, Satna, 2007, p. 51-52
