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Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar – Short Biography

 Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar (1875 – 1950) was an acknowledged scholar of ancient Indian history, culture and archeology. His father, Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, belonged to the generation of national leaders such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Gopal Krishna Gokhale. D.R. Bhandarkar completed his B.A. from the Deccan College, Pune in 1896. He wrote an essay on ‘the towns in Maharashtra in the pre-Muslim (pre 1000 CE) period which won him the Bhagwanlal Indraji Prize of Bombay University. Subsequently, he passed his MA examination in 1900 and received the Bhagwandas Purushottamdas Sanskrit Scholarship. He joined the Archaeological Survey of India and in 1911 became the superintendent of the West Circle of the Survey and later the chief of the Archeology Department of the Indian Museum in Kolkata.

Bhandarkar joined the University of Calcutta as professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture in 1917. He worked as co-editor of the journal Indian Antiquary from 1911-1920, and further from 1928-1930. He was the founder-editor of the Research Journal Indian Culture. The University of Calcutta honored him with an honorary doctorate in 1921.

During the visit to India in 1905, king George visited the Elephanta Caves near Bombay (now Mumbai); D R Bhandarkar prepared a guide describing the important features of the caves and their sculpture.

Bhandarkar served as an expert in the Indian Historical Records Commission of the Government of India for a long time. During his tenure at Kolkata (earlier Calcutta), Bhandarkar was intimately connected with many research institutions, such as the Indian Museum, the Bengal Royal Asiatic Society, the Historical Society of the Indian Research Institute, amongst others. In 1938 he was chosen the president of the Indian Historical Congress. His works include – Ashoka Some Aspects of Ancient Hindu Polity, Origin of the Shaka Era and Foreign Elements in the Hindu Population.

Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar passed away in Kolkata on May 30, 1950.