When Cunningham, the first Director-General of the ASI, began archaeological excavations in the mid-nineteenth century, archaeologists preferred to use the written word (texts and inscription) as a guide to investigations.
Alexander Cunningham was the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey Of India.
When Cunningham, began archaeological excavations in the mid-nineteenth century, his main interest was in the archaeology of the Early Historic (c. sixth-century BCE-fourth century CE) and later periods.
He used the accounts left by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims who had visited the subcontinent between the fourth and seventh centuries CE to locate early settlements.
Cunningham also collected, documented, and translated inscriptions found during his surveys.
When he excavated sites he tended to recover artifacts that he thought had cultural value.
A site like Harappa, which was not part of the itinerary of the Chinese pilgrims and was not known as an Early Historic city, did not fit very neatly within his framework of investigation.
So, although Harappan artifacts were found fairly often during the nineteenth century and some of these reached Cunningham, he did not realize how old these were.
A Harappan seal was given to Cunningham by an Englishman.
He noted the object, but unsuccessfully tried to place it within the time frame with which he was familiar. This was because he, like many others, thought that Indian history began with the first cities in the Ganga valley. |
