In the middle of the 18th century, European colonial powers took control of India. The British administration of the then-Government of India carried out a study of Indian society, culture, language, history, etc. They established the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784, Fort William College in 1800, the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861, the Calcutta Museum in 1814, Serampore College, etc. while conducting this survey work.
These organisations were founded by pioneers including William Jones, Lord Wellesley, Alexander Cunningham, William Carey, John Marshman etc. Indians like Babu Rajedralal Mitra, Purna Chandra Mukhopathaya (PC Mukherjee) etc. also helped to establish these institutes.
Mukherjee was born on 19 June 1849, at Panihati, which is located 10 km from Kolkata. In 1868, he completed his elementary education at the Agarpara Christian School and his middle schooling at the Sodepur English High School. He had a keen interest in studying geography and history. He attempted the BA graduation examination at the University of Calcutta in 1873, but he was unsuccessful.
Mukherjee started his professional career in 1874 in the Audh-Rohilakhand railway department. But after six months, he joined the Lucknow Museum and from there he was sent to the Bombay School of Art where he spent two years. After finishing the course he came back to Lucknow and became interested in archaeology. He prepared a report titled “Pictorial Lucknow: History, People, and Architecture” while working at the Lucknow Museum which was published as a book in 1883. One of the interesting things of the book is his drawings of the Nawabs, castles, and locations of Lucknow.
Mukherjee was involved in archaeological excavation work in Bihar and Orissa from 1891 to 1894. The Bihar Museum’s contents were moved to the Indian Museum in Calcutta by the Government of Bengal in 1891. Some of these sculptures were on exhibit there, while others were kept in the museum’s reserve collection. Mukherjee was deputed as the Indian Museum’s interim archaeologist and given the task of transporting the Broadley collection of antiquated sculptures from Bihar to Calcutta and helping with museum organisation. He was also assigned to another project to do research into the Rajgir and Bargaonarchaeological ruins.
He was given the task of survey work at the Konarak Sun Temple in Orissa in 1897–1898 and also travelled to Patna at the site of the former Pataliputra-Bankipur. He gave items discovered during excavation work in the Pataliputra region between 1896 and 1898 to the Patna Museum. In actuality, materials discovered during excavation work between 1896 and 1898 served as the foundation for the later establishment of the Patna museum. His reports were later published as books in 1892 and 1898 respectively. Mukherjee also engaged in excavation work in the Jain holy site of Kankali Tila near Mathura, Punjab and Taxila region during 1899 to 1902.
But his biggest contribution was discovering the birthplace of Gautam Buddha. Gautam Buddha spent his early life (nearly 30 years) at Kapilavastu. Kapilavastu was located north of the larger Kosala, in the foothills of modern-day Nepal. It’s the town where Sidhartha Gautama was raised and lived as a prince until he renounced worldly life, as written in the Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.
In 1899, the British Government sent him to the Tarai area of Nepal to determine the exact location of Kapilavastu. From March to August of 1899, he continued excavation work in Lumbini. Using epigraphical, literary and physical evidence, Mukherjee determined that Tilaurakot, 16 miles from Lumbini and 21 miles from Pirprahwa, is the real Kapilavastu. The report was also later on published as a book. Mukherjee also excavated the southern side of the Maya Devi Temple of Lumbini and exposed carved brick masonry, of the type found along the western and northern edges.
Besides these, during 1882 to 1901, Mukherjee wrote several articles in The Theosophist Journal regarding Mahavira Jain, Mauryan Empire and different issues regarding Indian archaeology. He also wrote several Bengali articles in the Prabasi Patrika and some other journals some of which aren’t available now.
In the Bengal Circle between 1902 and 1904, the Archaeological Survey of India carried out a survey effort that included Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Shahabad, Gaya, Birbhum, Hoogly, Puri, Khulna, Dacca, and Mymensingh among other places. Despite the fact that Mukherjee was working as a draughtsman at the office, he was chosen to be the pandit of the survey. The principal object of the survey work was to inspect as many ancient remains as possible, in order to ascertain what is really worth preserving, and also which places or areas should be surveyed in a more detailed and systematic way.
He died at the age of 53 on 4 Aug 1903 in Panihati at his ancestral home. Though without the advantage of scientific training, Mukherjee showed himself devoted to his work and possessed of a variety of useful knowledge which was not infrequently turned to good account, said Sir John Marshall in an obituary he wrote for Mukherjee. In brief, Mukherjee was an author, painter, archaeologist, and above all, a passionate nationalist who adored old Indian art and architecture throughout his career. 2024 marks Mukherjee’s 175th Birth Anniversary.
