Bureaucratic Archaeology

Bureaucratic Archaeology PDF

Author: Ashish Avikunthak

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-10-31

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1009082000

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Bureaucratic Archaeology is a multi-faceted ethnography of quotidian practices of archaeology, bureaucracy and science in postcolonial India, concentrating on the workings of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This book uncovers an endemic link between micro-practice of archaeology in the trenches of the ASI to the manufacture of archaeological knowledge, wielded in the making of political and religious identity and summoned as indelible evidence in the juridical adjudication in the highest courts of India. This book is a rare ethnography of the daily practice of a postcolonial bureaucracy from within rather than from the outside. It meticulously uncovers the social, cultural, political and epistemological ecology of ASI archaeologists to show how postcolonial state assembles and produces knowledge. This is the first book length monograph on the workings of archaeology in a non-western world, which meticulously shows how theory of archaeological practice deviates, transforms and generates knowledge outside the Euro-American epistemological tradition.

Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India

Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India PDF

Author: Daniel Michon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-12

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1317324587

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This book explores the ways in which past cultures have been used to shape colonial and postcolonial cultural identities. It provides a theoretical framework to understand these processes, and offers illustrative case studies in which the agency of ancient peoples, rather than the desires of antiquarians and archaeologists, is brought to the fore.

Art and Archaeology of Ancient India

Art and Archaeology of Ancient India PDF

Author: Naman P. Ahuja

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781910807170

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The Ashmolean Museum wide ranging collection of the art of the Indian subcontinent includes important holdings of archaeological artefacts and a strong representation of early Indian sculpture in terracotta, stone and other materials dating from before AD 600. These works are fully discussed and illustrated in the present catalogue, with the exception of Buddhist sculpture of the Gandhara region.

The World of India's First Archaeologist

The World of India's First Archaeologist PDF

Author: Upinder Singh

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2021-07

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780190131753

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Alexander Cunningham, India's first professional archaeologist, became the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1871. This volume contains a collection of 193 letters he wrote between 1871 and 1888 to his Archaeological Assistant, J. D. M. Beglar. The letters, published here for the first time, edited and with an introduction by Upinder Singh, offer exciting, new insights into Cunningham's life and career, telling the story of the birth of Indian archaeology and some of its greatest discoveries in real time, in Cunningham's own words. The letters provide a unique perspective on the construction of Indian history in the nineteenth century. They reveal the evolution of Cunningham's ideas and methods, his interventions in debates on conservation and restoration, and his interactions with textual scholars in India and Europe. They throw light on the place of archaeology in the politics of colonial India, the role of the princely states, and the growing rivalry between Indians and Europeans over the right to interpret India's past. They also show the friendship between Cunningham and Beglar, based on a shared passion for archaeology. In doing all this, these letters bring alive the history of Indian archaeology in its crucial, formative phase.

Excavating Asian History

Excavating Asian History PDF

Author: Norman Yoffee

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2006-10-26

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9780816524181

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Although history and archaeology each seek to elucidate the past, both sets of data are incomplete and ambiguous and thus open to multiple readings that invite contradictory interpretations of human activity. This is particularly true when scholars of each field ignore or fail to understand research in the other discipline. Excavating Asian History contains case studies and theoretical articles that show how archaeologists have been investigating historical, social, and economic organizations and that explore the relationship between history and archaeology in the study of pre-modern Asia. These contributions consider biases in both historical and archaeological data that have occasioned rival claims to knowledge in the two disciplines. Ranging widely across the region from the Levant to China and from the third millennium BC to the second millennium AD, they demonstrate that archaeological and historical studies can complement each other and should be used in tandem. The contributors are leading historians and archaeologists of Asia who present data, issues, and debates revolving around the most recent research on the ancient Near East, early Islam, India, China, and Southeast Asian states. Their chapters illustrate the benefits of interdisciplinary investigations and show in particular how archaeology is changing our understanding of history. Commentary chapters by Miriam Stark and Philip Kohl add new perspectives to the findings. By showing the evolving relationship between those who study archaeological material and those who investigate textual data, Excavating Asian History offers practical demonstrations of how research has been and must continue to be structured.

The Idea of Ancient India

The Idea of Ancient India PDF

Author: Upinder Singh

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2023-08-28

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 9357082425

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How can the complexities of ancient India be comprehended? This book draws on a vast array of texts, inscriptions, archaeology, archival sources and art to delve into themes such as the history of regions and religions, archaeologists and the modern histories of ancient sites, the interface between political ideas and practice, violence and resistance, and the interactions between the Indian subcontinent and the wider world. It highlights recent approaches and challenges in reconstructing South Asia's early history, and in doing so, brings out the exciting complexities of ancient India. Authoritative and incisive, this revised Penguin edition-with two new chapters-is essential reading for students and scholars of ancient Indian history and for all those interested in India's past.

Archaeology and the Public Purpose

Archaeology and the Public Purpose PDF

Author: Nayanjot Lahiri

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0190993863

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This book interleaves the history of post-Independence archaeology in India with the life and times of Madhukar Narhar Deshpande (1920-2008), a leading Indian archaeologist who went on to become the director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India. Spanning nearly a century, this is a tale told through a main character—Deshpande himself—some of whose writings have been included in the volume. We explore the circumstances which brought men like Deshpande to this career path; what it was like to grow up in a family devoted to India's freedom; the watershed moment that created a large cohort that was trained by Mortimer Wheeler, the doyen of British archaeology; the unknown conservation stories around the Gol Gumbad in Bijapur and the Qutb Minar in Delhi; the forgotten story of how the fabric of a historic Hindu shrine, the Badrinath temple, was saved; the chemistry shared by the prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the archaeologist, Deshpande, at the Ajanta and Ellora cave shrines, and; the political and administrative challenges faced by director generals of archaeology. The book is a must read for anyone interested in India's past in general and the history of Indian archaeology in particular.