Niranjan Prasad Chakravarti (IAST: Nirañjana Prasāda Cakravarti) OBE (1 July 1893 – 19 October 1956) was an Indian archaeologist who served as the Chief epigraphist to the Government of India in 1934 to 1940 and as Director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1948 to 1950.
Niranjan Prasad Chakravarti OBE | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | October 19, 1956 | (aged 63)
Occupation(s) | epigraphist, archaeologist |
Chakravarti was born on 1 July 1893 in Krishnanagar in the Nadia district of Bengal Presidency, India. His parents were Hariprasad Chakravarti and Shahimukhi Devi.[1] After graduation, he served as a lecturer of Sanskrit and Pali at the University of Calcutta. After working at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Berlin University on a scholarship in 1921, Chakravarti went to the United Kingdom and obtained a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 1926.[2] After obtaining his PhD from Cambridge, he was tasked by Paul Pelliot with editing and annotating the oldest Brahmi inscriptions found in Central Asia.[3]
Chakravarti returned to India in 1929 and joined as the Assistant Superintendent for Epigraphy at Ootacamund. In 1934, he was promoted to the post of Chief Epigraphist for the Government of India. In 1938, he excavated some (exact number unknown) of the 100 Chaitya caves in Bandhavgarh National Park.[4]
In 1940, he was promoted to the rank of the Deputy Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India and then the rank of the Joint Director-General in 1945. In 1948, Chakravarti succeeded Mortimer Wheeler as the Director General of the ASI serving in this position till 1950.[5] He was the first Indian to hold this rank in Independent India. He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal.[6]
Following his retirement, Chakravarti was appointed as an advisor to the Department of Archaeology, Government of India and served till 1952. Chakravarti died on 19 October 1956 in New Delhi.
Edited: