Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Indian archaeologist}}
{{Short description|Indian archaeologist (1922–2013)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=November 2018}}
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| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2013|01|03|1922|07|01}}
| death_place  =  
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| nationality  = [[India]]n
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| occupation    = [[archeologist|Archaeologist]]
| occupation    = [[archeologist|Archaeologist]]
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'''Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao''' ({{lang-kn|ಶಿಕಾರಿಪುರ ರಂಗನಾಥ ರಾವ್}}) (1 July 1922 – 3 January 2013), commonly known as Dr. '''S. R. Rao''', was an Indian [[archeologist|archaeologist]] who led teams credited with  discoveries of a number of [[Indus Valley Civilization|Harappan]] sites including the port city [[Lothal]] and [[Bet Dwarka]] in [[Gujarat]].
'''Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao''' (1 July 1922 – 3 January 2013), commonly known as Dr. '''S. R. Rao''', was an Indian [[archeologist|archaeologist]] who led teams credited with  discoveries of a number of [[Indus Valley Civilization|Harappan]] sites, including the port city [[Lothal]] and [[Bet Dwarka]] in [[Gujarat]].


== Biography and career ==
== Biography and career ==
Rao was born on 1 July 1922 into a [[Madhwa Brahmin]] family. He completed his education from [[Mysore University]]. He worked in the Archaeological Department of [[Baroda]] State and subsequently served the [[Archaeological Survey of India]] in various capacities. Rao has led excavations of many important sites such as [[Rangpur, Gujarat|Rangpur]], [[Amreli]], [[Bhagatrav]], [[Dwarka]], [[Hanur]], [[Aihole]], [[Kaveripattinam]] and others. One of his most important works were leading the research and excavations at Lothal, the earliest known port in history and the most important Indus-era site in India. Rao was the recipient of [[Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship]] and a [[doctorate]] of [[literature]] from Mysore University. Rao had supervised excavation of several historic sites across the country in the West and South.
Rao was born into a Madhwa Brahmin family on 1 July 1922. He completed his education from [[Mysore University]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ApuAAAAMAAJ|title=New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology S.R. Rao's 70th Birthday Felicitation Volume · Volume 1|author1=Baiderbettu Upendra Nayak|author2=N. C. Ghosh|year=1992|page=XXI|publisher=Aditya Prakashan|isbn=978-81-85689-12-8 |quote=Shikaripur Ranganatha Rao (S. R. Rao) was born on 1st July, 1920 at Anandapuram in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district in the erstwhile Mysore (now Karnataka) state. His father Shikaripur Hucha Rao, a Madhwa Brahmin, was well educated upto first year in Arts and wanted...}}</ref>
 
He was also associated with conservation of monuments such as [[Taj Mahal]] and forts. Despite officially retiring in 1980 Rao was requested to work for the ASI Director General in leading Indian archaeological projects. It was under Rao's initiative that the [[National Institute Of Oceanography, India|NIO]] opened a marine archaeology research centre in 1981, under the stewardship of then director [[Syed Zahoor Qasim]], which grew into a world recognised body. He was the founder of the Society of Marine Archaeology in India. Rao has been at the forefront of [[Indian archaeology]] for many decades - he was involved in extensive research into India's ancient past, from the sites of the [[Indus Valley Civilization]] to excavations pertaining to the [[Kurukshetra War]].
 
=== Indus script decipherment claim ===
Rao (1992)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/aid/vedicharrapans.html | title=The Vedic Harappans in writing Dr. Koenraad Elst, Remarks in expectation of a decipherment of the Indus script | accessdate=17 January 2013 | author=Elst, Koenraad | author-link=Koenraad Elst }}</ref> claimed to have deciphered the  [[Indus script]]. Postulating  uniformity of the script over the full extent of Indus-era civilization, he compared it to the [[Phoenician Alphabet]], and assigned sound values based on this comparison. His decipherment results in an "[[Indo-Aryan languages|Sanskritic]]" reading, including the numerals ''aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa, sata'' (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 100).


=== Indus script decipherment ===
While mainstream scholarship is generally in agreement with  Rao's approach of comparison, the details of his decipherment have not been accepted, and the script is still generally considered undeciphered. John E. Mitchiner, after dismissing some more fanciful attempts at decipherment, mentions that "a more soundly-based but still greatly subjective and unconvincing attempt to discern an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] basis in the script has been that of Rao".<ref name="Mitchiner1978">{{citation|author=John E. Mitchiner|title=Studies in the Indus Valley Inscriptions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B3IRAAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Oxford & IBH|page=5}}</ref>
While mainstream scholarship is generally in agreement with  Rao's approach of comparison, the details of his decipherment have not been accepted, and the script is still generally considered undeciphered. John E. Mitchiner, after dismissing some more fanciful attempts at decipherment, mentions that "a more soundly-based but still greatly subjective and unconvincing attempt to discern an [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] basis in the script has been that of Rao".<ref name="Mitchiner1978">{{citation|author=John E. Mitchiner|title=Studies in the Indus Valley Inscriptions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B3IRAAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Oxford & IBH|page=5}}</ref>


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=== Identification of Dwarka ===
=== Identification of Dwarka ===


At Kushasthali ([[Bet Dwarka]]), a strip of sand and stone situated {{convert|30|km|0|abbr=on}} north of town of [[Dwarka]], Rao and his team found a wall (560 metres long) visible on the shore itself. Dating of pottery found here gave a date of 1528 BCE based on [[thermoluminescence dating]]<ref name=Rao>S.R.Rao, The Lost City of Dvaraka. National Institute of Oceanography 1999</ref><ref>K.H. Vora et al, "Cultural sequence of Bet Dwarka island based on thermoluminescence dating" 2002 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24106004?seq=1</ref> Further unearthed was a seal{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}. Rao asserted the three-holed triangular stone anchors found in large numbers in Dwarka waters suggested a continuity in evolution of the anchors in Lothal and [[Mohenjodaro]], which had a single hole, and that the Dwarka anchors of late Harappan phase are a couple of centuries older than the identical anchors of late [[Bronze Age]] used in [[Cyprus]] and [[Syria]]. However, later on the NIO dated the stone anchors to be of fourteenth century of Common Era. It also stated that similar such anchors have been found in other old ports of India.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}
At Kushasthali ([[Bet Dwarka]]), a strip of sand and stone situated {{convert|30|km|0|abbr=on}} north of town of [[Dwarka]], Rao and his team found a wall (560 metres long) visible on the shore itself. Dating of pottery found here gave a date of 1528 BCE based on [[thermoluminescence dating]].<ref name=Rao>S.R.Rao, The Lost City of Dvaraka. National Institute of Oceanography 1999</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vora |first1=K. H. |last2=Gaur |first2=A. S. |last3=Price |first3=David |last4=Sundaresh |date=2002 |title=Cultural sequence of Bet Dwarka island based on thermoluminescence dating |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24106004?seq=1 |journal=Current Science |volume=82 |issue=11 |pages=1351–1356 |jstor=24106004 |issn=0011-3891}}</ref>


Rao asserts that the unearthed remains at Dwarka were the historical city that was home to [[Krishna]], believed to be the eighth [[Avatar]] of [[Vishnu]].<ref name=Rao/> According to  the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', Krishna built Dwarka at Kushasthali—a fortress in the sea which is currently in ruins. Then he built another city at the mouth of the [[Gomti River]]. The ''Mahabharata'' also refers to how Krishna wanted every citizen to carry some sort of identity—a mudra.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}} However, his claims were never widely accepted by the scholarly community.
Rao asserts that the unearthed remains at Dwarka were the historical city that was home to [[Krishna]], believed to be the eighth [[Avatar]] of [[Vishnu]].<ref name=Rao/>


==Publications==
==Publications==
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== External links ==
== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20021226135039/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/20/stories/2002112000450200.htm Interview with S. R. Rao at ''The Hindu'']
*{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20021226135039/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2002/11/20/stories/2002112000450200.htm Interview with S. R. Rao at ''The Hindu'']}}
*[http://www.gopala.org/index.php/2005/10/14/preserving_the_underwater_cultural_herit Dr. Rao emphasizes preservation of heritage sites in India]
*[http://www.gopala.org/index.php/2005/10/14/preserving_the_underwater_cultural_herit Dr. Rao emphasizes preservation of heritage sites in India]
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm Indus script]
*[https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/334517.stm Indus script]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060911221255/http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/20/stories/2006022020340300.htm Hindu dated 20 Feb 2006 - S. R. Rao among Vidya Varenya awardees]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060911221255/http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/20/stories/2006022020340300.htm Hindu dated 20 Feb 2006 - S. R. Rao among Vidya Varenya awardees]
*{{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20070509074547/http://sundeepbooks.com/servlet/sugetbiblio?bno=000050 |date=9 May 2007 |title=Google's cache of Sundeep Books biographic write-up }}
*{{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20070509074547/http://sundeepbooks.com/servlet/sugetbiblio?bno=000050 |date=9 May 2007 |title=Google's cache of Sundeep Books biographic write-up }}
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[[Category:Underwater archaeologists]]
[[Category:Underwater archaeologists]]
[[Category:Indigenous Aryanists]]
[[Category:Indigenous Aryanists]]
[[Category:People associated with the Indus Valley Civilisation]]
[[Category:Archaeologists of the Indus Valley civilisation]]
[[Category:Scientists from Karnataka]]
[[Category:Scientists from Karnataka]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows]]
[[Category:Madhva Brahmins]]
[[Category:Archaeologists of South Asia]]

Latest revision as of 12:53, 11 February 2026


Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao
Born
Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao

(1922-07-01)1 July 1922
Anandapuram, Sagar taluk, Shimoga district, erstwhile Mysore State (now Karnataka)
Died3 January 2013(2013-01-03) (aged 90)
OccupationArchaeologist

Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao (1 July 1922 – 3 January 2013), commonly known as Dr. S. R. Rao, was an Indian archaeologist who led teams credited with discoveries of a number of Harappan sites, including the port city Lothal and Bet Dwarka in Gujarat.

Biography and career[edit | edit source]

Rao was born into a Madhwa Brahmin family on 1 July 1922. He completed his education from Mysore University.[1]

Indus script decipherment[edit | edit source]

While mainstream scholarship is generally in agreement with Rao's approach of comparison, the details of his decipherment have not been accepted, and the script is still generally considered undeciphered. John E. Mitchiner, after dismissing some more fanciful attempts at decipherment, mentions that "a more soundly-based but still greatly subjective and unconvincing attempt to discern an Indo-European basis in the script has been that of Rao".[2]

In a 2002 interview with The Hindu, Rao asserted his faith in his decipherment, saying that "Recently we have confirmed that it is definitely an Indo-Aryan language and deciphered. Prof. W. W. De Grummond of Florida State University has written in his article that I have already deciphered it."[3]

Identification of Dwarka[edit | edit source]

At Kushasthali (Bet Dwarka), a strip of sand and stone situated 30 km (19 mi) north of town of Dwarka, Rao and his team found a wall (560 metres long) visible on the shore itself. Dating of pottery found here gave a date of 1528 BCE based on thermoluminescence dating.[4][5]

Rao asserts that the unearthed remains at Dwarka were the historical city that was home to Krishna, believed to be the eighth Avatar of Vishnu.[4]

Publications[edit | edit source]

  • Lothal and the Indus Civilisation, Bombay: Asia Publishing House, ISBN 0-210-22278-6 (1973)
  • Lothal: A Harappan Port Town (1955 - 1962), Vols. I and II, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, no.78, New Delhi, ASIN: B0006E4EAC (1979 and 1985)
  • Lothal, New Delhi: the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India (1985)
  • Dawn and Devolution of the Indus Civilization, ISBN 81-85179-74-3, Delhi: Aditya Prakashan (1991)
  • New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology: S.R. Rao's 70th Birthday Felicitation Volumes, edited by B.U. Nayak and N.C. Ghosh, 2 vols. (1992)
  • New Frontiers of Archaeology, Bombay: Popular Prakashan, ISBN 81-7154-689-7 (1994)
  • The Lost City of Dvaraka, National Institute of Oceanography, ISBN 81-86471-48-0 (1999)
  • Marine Archaeology in India, Delhi: Publications Division, ISBN 81-230-0785-X (2001)

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Baiderbettu Upendra Nayak; N. C. Ghosh (1992). New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology S.R. Rao's 70th Birthday Felicitation Volume · Volume 1. Aditya Prakashan. p. XXI. ISBN 978-81-85689-12-8. Shikaripur Ranganatha Rao (S. R. Rao) was born on 1st July, 1920 at Anandapuram in Sagar taluk of Shimoga district in the erstwhile Mysore (now Karnataka) state. His father Shikaripur Hucha Rao, a Madhwa Brahmin, was well educated upto first year in Arts and wanted...
  2. ↑ John E. Mitchiner (1978), Studies in the Indus Valley Inscriptions, Oxford & IBH, p. 5
  3. ↑ Rao refers to a statement by W. W. De Grummond, of the Department of Classics, Florida State University, that "Dr. Rao's decipherment of the Indus script has met with considerable acceptance and will serve now as a basis for further and continuing study of the language of the ancient Indus Valley civilization." in "Linguistic Affinities of Old Indo-Aryan with Classical Greek and Latin", B.U. Nayak, N.C. Ghosh (eds.) New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology: S.R. Rao's 70th birthday felicitation volume, Aditya Prakashan (1992), pp. 133-139. ISBN 81-85689-12-1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 S.R.Rao, The Lost City of Dvaraka. National Institute of Oceanography 1999
  5. ↑ Vora, K. H.; Gaur, A. S.; Price, David; Sundaresh (2002). "Cultural sequence of Bet Dwarka island based on thermoluminescence dating". Current Science. 82 (11): 1351–1356. ISSN 0011-3891. JSTOR 24106004.

External links[edit | edit source]

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