Preserving Heritage With Ancient Stories

Nayanjot Lahiri, an eminent historian, archaeologist and author, has contributed immensely to our understanding of ancient history. A professor at Ashoka University,  

She has written a large number of books including The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (1992); The Decline and Fall of the Indus Civilization (2000); Finding Forgotten Cities – How the Indus Civilization was Discovered (2005); Marshalling the Past – Ancient India and its Modern Histories (2012); Ashoka in Ancient India (2015) and Monuments Matter – India’s Archaeological Heritage since Independence (2017); Time Pieces – A Whistle-Stop Tour of Ancient India (2018); and Archaeology and the Public Purpose – Writings on and by M.N. Deshpande (2021).  

Lahiri has been a Member, Delhi Urban Art Commission; Member, Council of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR); and Member, Governing Board of the Nehru Memorial Museum Library Society. 

She was awarded the Infosys Prize in Humanities – Archaeology for 2013, and her book Ashoka in Ancient India won the John F. Richards Prize of the American Historical Association for the best book in South Asian History for 2015. In an interview with BW Education, she shares her inspiration and journey into the past. Excerpts from the interview: 

Tell me about your journey so far in brief. What motivated you to spend time in archives and libraries to become an accomplished historian and archaeologist?  

The joy of research is what has kept me going. My journey began in 1982 with the inscriptions of Assam (published as Pre-Ahom Assam in 1991). I became involved in field work from 1985 on.  

This journey has involved discovering prehistoric stone tools, pottery scatters, and sculpture in villages and in the Aravalli hills of Haryana and Delhi, looking at the archaeology of Indian trade routes through published India (my Phd thesis, which was published under that name in 1992), two books on Emperor Ashoka based on field work, and numerous papers on antiquity as well as the material remains in modern India, from how the 1857 revolt was remembered in Delhi to the partitioning of India’s past in 1947. Equally, I have been deeply interested in the history of Indian archaeology. This has involved archival digging — in the Archaeological Survey of India’s holdings, where I recovered the little-known story of how the Indus civilisation was discovered, and later, in the private collection of the family of the archaeologist MN Deshpande. For the past few years, it has been in the jungles of Bandhavgarh National Park and Tiger Reserve where I have been working.  

How do you approach making complex historical topics accessible to a wider audience?  

It all began with the first couple of draft chapters of what was eventually published as Finding Forgotten Cities. I sent them to my editor and publisher, Rukun Advani, who, after a couple of weeks, sent them back, telling me that a story about the discovery of the Indus Civilisation cannot be recounted in a dry academic way. It should, of course, be completely researched in the way that serious historians work, but it needed to be written in a way that would capture the excitement of the process and the right and wrong turns along the way that the premier explorers of those times took. Having earlier written primarily for academics, I first found this to be an enormously difficult task.  

Eventually, I think if I have managed to write that book and others too, combining research in a form that would be more appealing to general readers of history, some of the credit has to go to Rukun Advani. The idea is to shake off the shackles of the prosaic writing style of academia for a stint in reading good writing, which helps in improving one’s prose style.  

Ashoka was remembered across the centuries. What fascinates you the most about Ashoka's personality? What can one learn from Ashoka in today’s political scenario?  

I found Emperor Ashoka to be an extraordinarily cerebral man, and that is what drew me to him. To be in the company of somebody cerebral in antiquity, that too a ruler who was just so attractive. So, I just wanted to keep prolonging my engagement with him. So, first, it was his words. Then, I went out to search for the places where his words were put down. And then, later, I decided to kind of track down his remembrance—his remembrance here in India but also elsewhere.  

What we can learn from Ashoka in today’s political scenario is that ruling can be about ethics, about caring and compassion for living beings. Fellow feelings and empathy need to be brought back into governance.  

As someone who studies ancient history, can you share stories about people from China, Christianity, or Islam who, like Ashoka, showed a strong commitment to the wellbeing of humanity?  

Emperor Ashoka is sui generis. I have not been able to find another contemporary ruler like him.  

How do you see the landscape of historical research evolving, especially concerning women's contributions? What advice would you give to aspiring women scholars in similar fields?  

There are internationally renowned women historians in India, including Upinder Singh, Seema Alavi, and Tanika Sarkar. As for women in archaeology, do remember that the scholar Debala Mitra served as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India as far back as 1981. Today, there is Shanti Pappu, who has done pioneering work pushing back the frontiers of prehistoric research in India. I do think that we need to be aware of the work of many women in historical and archaeological research.  

Who am I to advise aspiring women scholars! There are so many bright and bold scholars who happen to be women and who do not feel cowed down by bossy male scholars. 

What does women's empowerment mean to you? How do you see this contributing to India’s growth?   

For me, women’s empowerment involves, on the one hand, the interest and ability of women to follow their dreams and aspirations, and on the other, the institutional mechanisms that make this possible. At the level of the family and the state, we still have some way to go before this is realised.  

What advice would you like to give to every woman on this International Women’s Day?  

 Life is too short to be lived according to other people’s rules. Also, follow your passion, because that is what nurtures excellence. That is what makes life enjoyable and worth living. If you want to do something, do it your way. Don’t be cowed down by social expectations.