Archaeologist Braj Basi Lal Passed Away

Archaeologist B. B. Lal, who is considered as India’s most senior archaeologist, has passed away on 10^th September 2022.

He was trained by British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler at Taxila in 1944, after which he joined the Archaeological Survey of India and served it as Director-General from 1968 to 1972.
Born in 1921 in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi, Lal worked extensively on archaeological sites associated with the Harappan civilisation and those said to be linked to the epic ‘Mahabharata’ in the 1950s.
He led excavation at Ramjanmabhoomi site and wrote of the ‘pillar-base theory’ and claimed to have found temple-like pillars which would have formed the foundation of the Babri Masjid.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and Padma Vibhushan in 2021.