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Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered
Just a century ago, scholars believed that civilization in the Indus Valley began three thousand years ago during the Vedic Age. But in the autumn of 1924, John Marshall made an announcement that rocked the understanding of the ancient world and pushed back the boundaries of Indian history by two thousand years more: the discovery of the civilization at Harappa, located in present-day Sindh and Punjab, Pakistan. A sophisticated culture dating back to 2600 BCE, this ancient city was notable for its well-planned streets and for having the oldest known urban sanitation system.
Based on previously unknown archival materials, Finding Forgotten Cities not only details an archeological discovery on the same scale as Troy, but introduces us to the colorful cast of characters who made it possible and overcome the challenges and travails of this colossal excavation. Nayanjot Lahiri’s fascinating history includes tales of self-taught archaeologists like Charles Masson, the collector who first described an ancient Indus Valley culture, as well as Alexander Cunningham, the archaeological pioneer who first excavated Harappa with diggers Daya Ram Sahni, Rakhaldas Banerji, and Madho Sarup Vats in the 1850s. And, at the center of Lahiri’s story is John Marshall, a Cambridge classicist brought by Lord Curzon to India to lead the Archaeological Survey of India and the man who finally pieced together the truth about this long-forgotten civilization.
Spanning nearly a century, Finding Forgotten Cities presents a powerful narrative history of one of the key sites of the ancient world offers interesting insight into the origins of modern civilization.
Based on previously unknown archival materials, Finding Forgotten Cities not only details an archeological discovery on the same scale as Troy, but introduces us to the colorful cast of characters who made it possible and overcome the challenges and travails of this colossal excavation. Nayanjot Lahiri’s fascinating history includes tales of self-taught archaeologists like Charles Masson, the collector who first described an ancient Indus Valley culture, as well as Alexander Cunningham, the archaeological pioneer who first excavated Harappa with diggers Daya Ram Sahni, Rakhaldas Banerji, and Madho Sarup Vats in the 1850s. And, at the center of Lahiri’s story is John Marshall, a Cambridge classicist brought by Lord Curzon to India to lead the Archaeological Survey of India and the man who finally pieced together the truth about this long-forgotten civilization.
Spanning nearly a century, Finding Forgotten Cities presents a powerful narrative history of one of the key sites of the ancient world offers interesting insight into the origins of modern civilization.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionIndia
410 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2005
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431 people want to read
About the author
Nayanjot Lahiri
20 books37 followersNayanjot Lahiri is a historian and archaeologist of ancient India and a professor of history at Ashoka University. She was previously on the faculty of the department of history at the University of Delhi
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 2, 2020
Exhilarating account of how Harrapa and Mohenjo-Daro were discovered and findings were pieced together to advance the case for the Indus Civilization for the first time in 1924, with ample attention given to all the major characters that played an indispensable part in the story.
From this account, the Britishers that were at the forefront of the Archaelogical Survey of India, especially John Marshall himself, the Director General of the ASI during the discovery and in fact for a good part of the first quarter of the 20th century, seem to emerge as unlikely heroes, but for whose love and passion for the antiquities of India, the beauty and significance of portals to India's past may have been lost to sands of time.
At times thrilling, and at times exuberant, the narrative unfolds like in a novel, with interesting detours into circumstances within which the ASI had to work. I just wished there were more details on some of the people besides Marshall and Rakhaldas Bannerji. Also, modern colour photographs would have helped paint a more vivid picture. Sometimes, the narrative while being pegged in a certain year went forwards and backwards too often, thereby causing me to lose the base year.
Nevertheless, being enamored with the Indus Civilization since my childhood, I finally had the opportunity to be transported back to a time where I could be a fly-on-the-wall even as the ancient cities I was fascinated with were getting uncovered.
Highly recommended for history lovers in general, and Indus Civilization aficionados, in particular.
From this account, the Britishers that were at the forefront of the Archaelogical Survey of India, especially John Marshall himself, the Director General of the ASI during the discovery and in fact for a good part of the first quarter of the 20th century, seem to emerge as unlikely heroes, but for whose love and passion for the antiquities of India, the beauty and significance of portals to India's past may have been lost to sands of time.
At times thrilling, and at times exuberant, the narrative unfolds like in a novel, with interesting detours into circumstances within which the ASI had to work. I just wished there were more details on some of the people besides Marshall and Rakhaldas Bannerji. Also, modern colour photographs would have helped paint a more vivid picture. Sometimes, the narrative while being pegged in a certain year went forwards and backwards too often, thereby causing me to lose the base year.
Nevertheless, being enamored with the Indus Civilization since my childhood, I finally had the opportunity to be transported back to a time where I could be a fly-on-the-wall even as the ancient cities I was fascinated with were getting uncovered.
Highly recommended for history lovers in general, and Indus Civilization aficionados, in particular.
January 11, 2016
Even a school child in India today knows about the first stirrings of his or her own civilization thousands of years on the shores of the Indus River. But how do we learn about the cultural and architectural details of ancient societies? Archeology is not a glamorous course of study for students of any generation, but more books of this genre is sure to kindle interest in many young minds to find out about the past societies, their achievements and how much we have borrowed (inherited, would be a better word) from them. Nayanjot Lahiri tells us about the exciting tale of how the Indus Civilization was discovered through painstaking work from a few dedicated men toiling on a shoestring budget and the culmination of it all in a scholarly article by Sir John Marshall in a prominent London weekly in September 1924. The book covers the background of archeological research in India, the major players it spawned, great cultural changes put forward by a visionary viceroy, Lord Curzon, and how major work came to be put on the shoulders of capable Indian scholars by the turn of the 20th century. Being a professor of Archeology in the History Department of the University of Delhi and having made a thorough research on the annals of the Archeological Survey of India, the book exudes an air of authority about the conscientious work that went behind the discovery of India’s ancient civilization. Coincidentally, this book seems to be a sequel to the immediately earlier work reviewed in this blog – Charles Allen’s Ashoka – the Search for India’s Lost Emperor.
See http://sapientiasemita.blogspot.in for full review
See http://sapientiasemita.blogspot.in for full review
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October 22, 2022good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 26, 2023
Finding Forgotten Cities is really a story of a set of personalities - archaeologists and explorers thanks to whose efforts we now know of the Harappan Civilization. Is this book for everyone? No, not really. It isn't about the Harappans or the discoveries made there. It is really a history of the early 20th century - a history of Marshall, the director General of the ASI and his team who made the discovery. What I especially appreciated was the attention given to the Indian archaeologists who were part of the team and clarity about what the role of an archaeologist was and the constraints within which he (in this case they were all men) had to function.
I was left wishing I knew more about Marshall and the impact he had on our understanding of Indian history... discoveries made under his leadership at the ASI, I think, bolstered the confidence of Indian freedom fighters who were able to now find stories to support their argument that Indians were in fact a people with a strong and rich history quite capable of taking control of their own future.
I was left wishing I knew more about Marshall and the impact he had on our understanding of Indian history... discoveries made under his leadership at the ASI, I think, bolstered the confidence of Indian freedom fighters who were able to now find stories to support their argument that Indians were in fact a people with a strong and rich history quite capable of taking control of their own future.
February 1, 2025
A great book narrating the chain of events leading to the discovery of Indus Valley Civilization. Also provides great insights into the field of archaeology.
January 12, 2014
This is a spellbinding narrative on the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization. From the discovery of the ruins near Harappa by the explorers Burns and Mason followed by Alexander Cunnigham, all of whom found the Buddhist Stupas and found references to the place in Greek history, never once knowing the true archeological treasure beneath, to the pioneering archeologists of ASI - Daya Ram Sahni, Rakhal Das Banerji and Madhu Sarup Vats who excavated the ancient artifacts under the aegis of the ASI's fastidious Director John Marshall, the book covers it all. In an effort to be a comprehensive story, it goes through the establishment of the ASI by Lord Curzon, the tumultuous years of budgetary constraints brought about by the decline of the opium trade in China and the excavation of Harappa during WW1.
The discovery of the ruins at Kalibangan and the life of Luigi Pio Tessitori who discovered them are given in good detail.
It was a wonderful experience to read about these characters who remain footnotes in history, to whom we owe our knowledge and history of the Indus Valley Civilization. Daya Ram Sahni who unearthed the ruins of Harappa. The talented maverick troublemaker Banerji, Vats, who strung Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan as part of one unique civilization and Marshall who finally pieced together all the myraid pieces of this jigsaw to discover one of the most ancient civilizations of the earth all come alive here.
Worth a read for any history buff.
The discovery of the ruins at Kalibangan and the life of Luigi Pio Tessitori who discovered them are given in good detail.
It was a wonderful experience to read about these characters who remain footnotes in history, to whom we owe our knowledge and history of the Indus Valley Civilization. Daya Ram Sahni who unearthed the ruins of Harappa. The talented maverick troublemaker Banerji, Vats, who strung Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Kalibangan as part of one unique civilization and Marshall who finally pieced together all the myraid pieces of this jigsaw to discover one of the most ancient civilizations of the earth all come alive here.
Worth a read for any history buff.
May 1, 2016
A good book which throws a good insight about finding our lost civilisation and how many people missed their chances :)
This is the first historical book I am reading. For me, almost everything mentioned in it was new. And the way author wrote it, made the book easy to read and understand. I am not an history student. But I wanted to know something about Indus civilisation. At first I thought, this book will shed light on me about it. But rather it was about how this civilisation was earthed for the first time in a large scale. It is a book about how this civilisation was found. It mentions many people who came in touch with it's ruins and remains far before John Marshal. A very good book for readers like myself who are new to this field, yet wanted to know something about. The writing style is good. But I felt that the author used words that a common person may find hard to understand without using dictionary. After all this is a work of a professor. So, I assume, that is something accepted.
This is the first historical book I am reading. For me, almost everything mentioned in it was new. And the way author wrote it, made the book easy to read and understand. I am not an history student. But I wanted to know something about Indus civilisation. At first I thought, this book will shed light on me about it. But rather it was about how this civilisation was earthed for the first time in a large scale. It is a book about how this civilisation was found. It mentions many people who came in touch with it's ruins and remains far before John Marshal. A very good book for readers like myself who are new to this field, yet wanted to know something about. The writing style is good. But I felt that the author used words that a common person may find hard to understand without using dictionary. After all this is a work of a professor. So, I assume, that is something accepted.
January 30, 2016
Contrary to popular thinking the strain of high quality historical writing is not nonexistent in India. The 'official' history of the Independence Movement by Tara Chand, for instance is an excellent read. Nayanjyot Lahiri's 'explainer' based approach to deeply researched topics is a refreshing addition to this and shows that Indian writers are getting both ambitious and better at this. She deals with events leading up to the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization in great depth and scholarship. Meticulously researching her topic and the people involved, she waves a compelling story that deserves to be read. In the process, she also provides a great overview of what Archeology is and how the different backgrounds of the people involved can affect the outcomes of the projects they handle. Now that I've read the story of how the IVC was discovered, am extremely encouraged to read her books on the IVC itself and another subject about him hard historical evidence is so little- Ashoka.
January 19, 2013
History of India Archeology: http://www.anureviews.com/finding-for...
August 6, 2013
Got to know quite a few things which were new to me...
the author had give few nice insights about the history of India..
the author had give few nice insights about the history of India..
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews