Renowned archaeologist Braj Basi Lal (commonly referred to as BB Lal) passed away at the ripe age of 101. Born in 1921, Lal went on to serve as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India and the Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.
In a tweet, BJP Minister G Kishan Reddy shared his condolence to the family of the archaeologist. “In the passing of Prof BB Lal Ji, we have lost one of the brightest minds who has contributed significantly towards our archaeological excavations & endeavours and trained archaeologists for over 4 decades,” he wrote.
In the passing of Prof BB Lal Ji, we have lost one of the brightest minds who has contributed significantly towards our archeological excavations & endeavours and trained archeologists for over 4 decades.
— G Kishan Reddy (@kishanreddybjp) September 10, 2022
My thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family.
Om Shanti. pic.twitter.com/sZlvBCMCLq
Lal was the director general of the Archaeological Survey of India between 1968 and 1972, and led the excavation at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya which proved the existence of an ancient temple at the site.
The veteran archaeologist had led a project named Archaeology of Ramayana between 1975 and 1976 to examine certain sites having references in Ramayana. There were nine members in the team out of which five archaeologists namely, Professor Lal, Dr KP Nautiyal, SK Srivastava, RK Chaturvedi and KM Asthana were from Jiwaji University.
Three members namely, Mahdava N Katii, LM Wahal and MS Mani were from the ASI and one member named Hem Raj was from the Department of Archaeology, Uttar Pradesh. According to Professor Lal, a five-site excavation project was carried out at Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringaverapur, Bharadwaj Ashram and Chitrakoot to date the sites associated with Ramayana.
He said that while excavating the area immediately south of the Babri structure, he found pillar bases. He wrote a seven-page preliminary report about the discovery of pillar bases near the Babri structure. However, following the discovery, all technical facilities were withdrawn from the area and the project was halted.
It was not resumed despite repeated requests of Professor Lal and remained suspended for 10-12 years. The final report was never submitted but his preliminary report was published by the Indian Council of Historical Research in 1989 in its volume on Historicity of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
#PresidentKovind confers the Padma Vibhushan on Archaeology legend Prof. Braj Basi Lal at @rashtrapatibhvn #PadmaAwards2021 #PeoplesPadma pic.twitter.com/jB9qQCL8xr
— PIB India (@PIB_India) November 9, 2021
The work of BB Lal in unearthing the remains of an ancient temple under the Babdi structure constituted a major argument in support of Ram Mandir, which eventually led the Supreme Court to rule in favour of the Mandir.
On November 9, 2021, President Ramnath Kovind felicitated Professor BB Lal with Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award. The centenarian was named among the list of awardees earlier in January that year. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan Award in the year 2000.
