Braj Basi Lal

In News

• Recently, Braj Basi Lal,  the former director general of the Archaeological Survey of India (1968-1972) and a Padma Vibhushan awardee, passed away.

Braj Basi Lal 

• Braj Basi Lal was the lead archaeologist of the Ram Janmabhoomi site.
• He was born in 1921 at Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and resided in New Delhi. 
• He has worked extensively on archaeological sites associated with the Harappan civilisation and the Hindu epic Mahabharata. As a result, discovered a number of Painted Grey Ware sites in the Indo-Gangetic divide and upper Yamuna-Ganga Doab.
• He has also served on several UNESCO committees and is best known for his theory of a temple-like structure underneath the now demolished Babri mosque.
• He was awarded  the Padma Vibhushan in 2021.

Literary works

• He has worked on over 50 books and 150 research papers published in national and international journals.
• Some of his most notable books include, ‘The Saraswati flows on: The continuity of Indian culture’ published in 2002 and ‘Rama, his historicity, mandir and setu: Evidence of Literature, Archaeology and other Sciences’ published in 2008.

Research works

• In  1990, Lal wrote of the ‘pillar-base theory’ on the basis of his excavations in which he claimed to have found temple-like pillars which would have formed the foundation of the Babri Masjid.

Source: IE