Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay, also known as R D Banerji was an eminent Indian Archaeologist & Museum expert. He is mostly known as the discoverer of Mohenjo-daro, the principal site of the Harappa culture.
He was born on 12 April 1885 in Behrampore of Murshidabad District, west bengal. He obtained his M.A. in History from the Calcutta University in 1911.
Bandyopadhyay joined the Indian Museum in Calcutta as an Assistant to the Archaeological Section in 1910.
He joined the Archaeological Survey of India as Assistant Superintendent in 1911, and was promoted to the rank of Superintending Archaeologist of the Western Circle in 1917.
His first major independent professional work was in the fields of palaeography and epigraphy. He won the Jubilee Research Prize of the Calcutta University for The Origin of the Bengali Script published in 1919.
He was the first to study the proto-Bangla script, the original form of Bangla script.
Bandyopadhyay wrote two textbooks for Calcutta University, namely, History of India (1924) and A Junior History of India. (1928).
Banerji took voluntary retirement in 1926. After teaching at the University of Calcutta, he later joined the Banaras Hindu University in 1928 and held the post till his premature death on 23 May 1930.
In a new book, ‘Rakhal Das Banerji :The Forgotten Archaeologist’, author P K Mishra has explored the “blatant theft of the credit for discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization“.
“The first report on the discovery of Mohenjo Daro, submitted by Banerji in 1920, was suppressed by Marshall. So were the subsequent reports and the final one in 1922 which Marshall edited and used as the basis of ‘Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization’ -a monumental volume,“
Banerji carried out a five-season excavation at Mohenjo Daro. “The world knows Marshall discovered the civilization’s ruins.
“Marshall did not know much about Mohenjo Daro till May 1924. He first visited the site only in February 1925. Marshall took direct charge of the excavation from winter 1925-26. By that time, Banerji had done all the work a discoverer should have done.”1w
281. Rakhaldas Banerji – Discoverer of Mohenjo-daro
Even more unfortunate deed done by Marshall was rejection and suppression of thousands of ARTIFACTS found by RDB especially the tradition of Funeral urns which may have very well decoded the timeline of this Ancient find.The ashes are intune with Ancient Hindu traditions where they burn the mortal remains and not believed in afterlife. Must note that burring the favourite things without physcial remains is indicative of just bidding a final end to everything associated with the person & letting one live in Divine light Kingdom or Kingdom of Brahm Prakash..