Braj Basi Lal is a noted archaeologist and specialist in the field of prehistoric archeology of Indian subcontinent. He was the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India during 1968 to 1972. He was later Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. Prof. Lal was awarded the Padma Bhusana by the President of India in 2000.
Background
Born on 2 May, 1921 at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Braj Basi Lal had a very brilliant academic career throughout, culminating in a first class first at the M. A. (Sanskrit) examination in 1943 at the University of Allahabad. On joining the Archaeological Survey in January 1946, he held charge of the Excavations Branch and participated with Sir Mortimer Wheeler in the excavations at Harappa, now in Pakistan. In 1951 he was deputed for advanced studies at the Institute of Archaeology, London. Soon Lal paved his way up in the Survey and in 1959 became the first Director of the newly established School of Archaeology. In 1965 he became the Joint Director General and in 1968 the Director General.
Career
Lal has worked as an archaeologist for more than 50 years. He trained in excavation by a veteran archaeologist, Mortimer Wheeler at sites such as Taxila, Harappa and Sisupalgarh in Odisha.
The Archaeological Survey of India had performed conservation and restoration of Buddhas of Bamiyan, Khwaj Parsa’s Mosque at Balkh and the shrine of Khwaja Abu Naser under R. Sen Gupta and Lal in Afghanistan.
During 1950-52 he worked on archaeology of Mahabharata sites, including Hastinapura, the capital city of the Kurus. He made discoveries of many Painted Grey Ware (PGW) sites in the Indo‑Gangetic Divide and upper Yamuna‑Ganga doab.
In Nubia, the Archaeological Survey of India, Lal and his team discovered middle and late stone age tools in the terraces of the river Nile near Afyeh. The team excavated a few sites at Afyeh and cemetery of C-group people having 109 graves. Lal worked on Mesolithic site of Birbhanpur (West Bengal), Chalcolithic site of Gilund (Rajasthan) and Harappan site of Kalibangan(Rajasthan). He also worked on Ramayana sites of Ayodhya, Bharadwaj Ashram, Nandigram, Chitrakut and Shringaverapura, etc.