0 evaluări0% au considerat acest document util (0 voturi)
156 vizualizări7 pagini
This document provides a biography of Ahmed Hassan Dani, a prominent Pakistani archaeologist. It discusses his early life and education in British India, as well as his long career in archaeology. Dani held many important roles, including positions with the Archaeological Survey of India and later the Department of Archaeology in Pakistan. He made significant contributions through his excavation and research work, as well as his role in establishing archaeology programs and museums. Dani published extensively and helped popularize the field of archaeology and history in Pakistan over his long and influential career.
This document provides a biography of Ahmed Hassan Dani, a prominent Pakistani archaeologist. It discusses his early life and education in British India, as well as his long career in archaeology. Dani held many important roles, including positions with the Archaeological Survey of India and later the Department of Archaeology in Pakistan. He made significant contributions through his excavation and research work, as well as his role in establishing archaeology programs and museums. Dani published extensively and helped popularize the field of archaeology and history in Pakistan over his long and influential career.
This document provides a biography of Ahmed Hassan Dani, a prominent Pakistani archaeologist. It discusses his early life and education in British India, as well as his long career in archaeology. Dani held many important roles, including positions with the Archaeological Survey of India and later the Department of Archaeology in Pakistan. He made significant contributions through his excavation and research work, as well as his role in establishing archaeology programs and museums. Dani published extensively and helped popularize the field of archaeology and history in Pakistan over his long and influential career.
Source: East and West, Vol. 59, No. 1/4, BON: THE EVERLASTING RELIGION OF TIBET. TIBETAN STUDIES IN HONOUR OF PROFESSOR DAVID L. SNELLGROVE (December 2009), pp. 379-384 Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29757820 . Accessed: 05/10/2014 10:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to East and West. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AHMED HASSAN DANI (1920-2009) Ahmed Hassan Dani, archaeologist, Professor Emeritus at Quaid-e Azam University, Islamabad and Honorary Director of the Taxila Institute for Asian Civilizations, passed away on 26 January 2009 at the age of 88. Time and place do not make a man a witness by right of birth. Witnesses are those who actively mark their eras, or else those through whom an era manifests itself. The biography of A.H. Dani places him in the first group. A.H. Dani was born into a Kashmiri family in Basna, in the state of Chahattisgahr, Central Provinces, British India. His interest in antiquities led him to study Sanskrit at Banaras Hindu University, where he was the first Muslim student to obtain a MA honours degree in 1944. The same or the following year he began training as a field archaeologist at the Taxila School of Archaeology under Mortimer Wheeler; again under the guidance of the great British archaeologist, in 1950 he attended the Mohenjo-daro School. Wheeler's watchful eye had from the outset fallen upon Dani and other young persons, including F.A. Khan, and they began to form the basic nucleus of his reorganization of Archaeological Survey of India, which enabled the British administration to bequeath to the future States a comprehensive and efficient government archaeological service. While F.A. Khan (x) was beginning his career in West Pakistan (in the late 1950s he became the Director General of the Department of Archaeology & Museums of Pakistan), Dani, already an officer of the Archaeological Survey (first posting to the Taj Mahal, Agra) was posted to the East Pakistan in 1947. In 1949 he was promoted Superintendent-in-Charge. These were years of transformation, in which the Department of Archaeology of Pakistan still borrowed its positions, nomenclature and management from the old Archaeological Survey. In this sense, as Dani left the service in the early 1960s, it may be said that if he ever belonged to the structure that would later be known as Department of Archaeology and Museums (DOAM), it was only for a few years, above all in the Dhaka period (1950-1962) when, as well as the university chair, he held the post of Curator of the Dhaka Museum. In 1950 he was appointed Assistant Professor (History) at Dhaka University. In 1955 he received a PhD at the Institute of Archaeology of University College of London. It was precisely in the university that Dani was to find the environment most favourable to the expression of his capacity. In addition to study and research, he also had a genius for organization and dissemination, as well as being an interlocutor open to civil society. His work as a scholar capable of embracing vast areas of history and archaeology and of combining a scientific approach with an interest in popularization, clearly emerges from the long list of his monographies (2): Bibliography of the Muslim Inscriptions of Bengal (1957), {l) See F.A. Khan obituary, this Volume. (2) During the past twenty years his publisher was generally Sang-e Meel of Lahore. [i] 379 This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Prehistory and Protohistory of Eastern India With a Detailed Account of the Neolithic Cultures (1960), Dacca: A Record of Its Changing Fortunes (1962), Indian Palaeography (1963), Alherunis Indica: A Record of the Cultural History of South Asia about AD. 1030 (University of Islamabad, 1973), Indus Civilization: New Perspectives (Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 1981), Thatta: Islamic Architecture (Institute of Islamic History, Culture & Civilization, 1982), Chilas: The City of Nanga Parvat (Dyamar) (1983), The Historic City of Taxila (Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1986), Perspectives of Pakistan. National Institute of Pakistan Studies (Quaid-e-Azam University, 1989), History of Northern Areas of Pakistan (Historical studies, National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, 1989), A Short History of Pakistan, Book One: Pre-Muslim Period (University of Karachi, 3 editions, 1967, 1984, 1992), Peshawar: Historic City of the Frontier (2nd Revised edition, 1995), Human Records on Karakorum Highway (1995), Central Asia Today (1996), New Light on Central Asia (1996), Romance of the Khyber Pass (1997), History of Northern Areas of Pakistan (Up to 2000 AD) (2001), Historic City of Taxila (2001), History of Pakistan: Pakistan through Ages (2007). To the above works must be added the two volumes published by UNESCO of which Dani was the co-editor: History of Humanity, Volume III, From the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century BC (1996) and the first of the six volumes of History of Civilizations of Central Asia (1992). He was an able organizer of museum displays (1947-1949, Verandra Museum, Rajshahi; 1950-1962, Dhaka Museum; 1962-1971: Peshawar Museum, Lahore Museum; 1993: Islamabad Museum). He often held management positions on committees and scholarly societies where, as an important interlocutor, he was able to bring the needs of research closer to civil society. His many posts include: 1950: Secretary General of the Asiatic Society of Pakistan; 1955: President of the National Committee for Museums; 1970: Chairman of the Research Society, University of Peshawar; 1979: President Archaeological and Historical Association of Pakistan; 1992-1996: Advisor on Archaeology to the Ministry of Culture; 1994-1998: Chairman of National Fund for Cultural Heritage; 1978-2007: Director, and later Honorary Director of the Centre for the Study of the Civilizations in Central Asia (from 1997: Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, TIAC). It is apparent from his many publications and scholarly positions that his early career was centered in Dhaka while the later stages were organized from Islamabad. The central phase of his career was spent at Peshawar, to which university Dani was called in 1962. This is probably the explanation of the pause mentioned earlier. It represented Dani's most intense, if not his most fruitful period as a field archaeologist. It coincides with the creation of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Peshawar which, in the short space of a few years was to become the cutting edge of archaeological studies in Pakistan. Here Dani not only lectured: here he succeeded in setting up a school of studies and, together with his pupils, who later became professors in the same Department, he promoted important excavation campaigns in the North West Frontier Province. In 1958, while Dani was still in Dhaka, F.A. Khan, now Director General of DOAM, invited Mortimer Wheeler to resume an old excavation programme at Charsadda (scheduled for 1947) (3). This led to the discovery of part of the ancient city of Pushkalavati. However, (3) See the introduction in M. Wheeler, Ch?rsada. A Metropolis of the NW Frontier, Oxford 1962. 380 [2] This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions this extremely important excavation was not followed through and all we know about the site is contained in the extremely succinct results of the excavation of five trenches (4). In 1963 Dani resumed the project, focusing in particular on the artificial mesa of Shaikhan-dheri, just North of the high ground of Bala-hisar, where Wheeler's excavations had been carried out. The photographs accompanying the report (5) betray the Dani school of field archaeology: it is impossible mistake the military precision of the camp, with the paths marked with chalk on to which carefully aligned tents open - the order learned at the Taxila School of Archaeology under Wheeler's guidance? Also the excavation of Shaikhan-dheri, in which the British archaeologist F.R. Allchin had been invited to participate, was unfortunately interrupted after the second campaign. His working group at the University of Peshawar focused on several different fields, all linked to the major themes of the regional archaeology of the NWFP. The fieldwork reports were published in numerous monographic issues of the journal conceived by Dani for the Department of Archaeology of the University of Peshawar, Ancient Pakistan (6). His working team carried out initial excavations of a rock shelter at Sanghao, between Mardan and Buner, the finds relating to which were initially attributed to the Palaeolithic {Ancient Pakistan, Vol. I, 1964) and then in the early-historic age urban settlement at Shaikhan-dheri (Ancient Pakistan, Vol. II, 1965-66). Dani then gradually moved slightly northward, to the Lower Dir valley, a region adjoining Swat. Here, in the meantime, the IsMEO Archeological Mission led by Giuseppe Tucci had begun (1956) multiple excavation activities. In Dir, in the area around Timargarha, the theme of the protohistorical necropolises was tackled, while in the meantime, the Italians had performed extensive excavations in Swat; in the same area, also a large settlement dating roughly to the same period was excavated at Balambat (Ancient Pakistan, Vol. Ill, 1967). Later, Dani's team concentrated on the excavation of several Buddhist sacred areas (in particular Andhan-dheri and Chatpat), and on the excavation of the multiphase settlement of Damkot (entrusted to Abdur Rahman) (Ancient Pakistan, Vol. IV, 1968-69). After completing his research in the area of Dir, Dani focused his efforts on the Gomal plain, D.I. Khan, (Ancient Pakistan, Vol. V, 1970-71), but the results of the excavation of the pre-Harappan site of Rahman-dheri, the most important of the plain, will be published by F.A. Durrani, who replaced him at the head of the Department of Archaeology, and Farid Khan. Dani's strategy consisted of organizing thematic working campaigns with a grand deployment of forces for the duration of a campaign (generally one season). For instance, the (4) In recent years, the excavations have been resumed within the framework of an Anglo-Pakistani project; see R. Coningham & L Ali, Charsadda. The British-Pakistani Excavations at the Bala Hisar, Oxford 2007. (5) Published in the Journal of the University of Peshawar, Ancient Pakistan, Vol. Ill, 1965. (6) Ancient Pakistan should be considered a journal (or rather a research bulletin), although, because of the monographic nature of nearly all its volumes, initially edited by Dani himself, and then by his successors, is generally considered in Pakistan as a series and cited as such (after a long pause, the last issue, XVI, 2005, dedicated to Farid Khan, came out last year; the new issue (XVII) is in preparation). Prof. Nasim Khan of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Peshawar recently set up a new journal, Gandh?ran Studies, of a miscellaneous rather than monographic nature, dedicated to historical research. Volumes I, II and III have already been published. [3] 381 This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions season of the Buddhist excavations involved the simultaneous excavation of several sites, while another group explored the late-ancient fortified settlements. At the end of each campaign, as we have seen, a prompt excavation report was published in Ancient Pakistan. For the Italian archaeologists working in Swat, three excavation reports are particularly important: the one dedicated to the Shaikhan-dheri excavations (Vol. II), the one on the excavations performed in Dir in protohistoric necropolises (Vol. Ill) and the one dedicated to the excavations carried out in Buddhist sacred areas and late-ancient settlements, again in the Dir area (Vol. IV). These consist of three of the main topics tackled in parallel (although not simultaneously) also by the Italian Mission in Swat under the direction of Domenico Faccenna: the urban settlements (Udegram, Barama, Barikot), the protohistoric necropolises (mainly Katelai and Loebanr), the sacred areas (Butkara I, Panr, Saidu Sharif). Also in other aspects, of the Italian research, such as the documentation of the Buddhist rock sculptures, Dani promoted activities that broadened the scope of the Italians' work, such as the discovery of the Dir sculptures. The interpretations proposed by the two working groups in different occasions diverged but the scientific discussion was although always marked by great mutual respect. Dani was indeed one of the foreign guests invited by IsMEO to Rome in 1982 to the presentation of the Domenico Faccenna's final report on the Butkara I excavations. To acknowledge the profound scientific bonds linking him to IsMEO, the Institute nominated Dani Honorary Member in 1986. In the final phase of Dani's career we find him working in Islamabad, where he set up that splendid institute represented by the present-day TIAC, now directed by Ashraf Khan. In 1967 the University of Islamabad (later the Quaid-i Azam University) was authorized by the Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan to establish a Research Centre for the study of the Civilizations of Central Asia. The guiding spirit behind this idea was actually A.H. Dani, who was later able to dedicate himself to it full time, in particular after retiring from teaching in 1980. The Centre, under Dani's guidance, became a participating member of UNESCO, representing Pakistan in the country's programmes on Central Asia. In UNESCO there was a proposal to expand the scope of the Centre and make a comparative study of the civilizations of the whole of Asia. With the consent of the Government of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam University accepted the proposal in 1997 and thus the name of the Centre was changed to Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations (TIAC) exactly 30 years after its birth and was deemed to be a constituent institute of the Quaid-i-Azam University (7). The flexible structure of the Centre and TIAC enabled Dani to create a dense network of high level relations and exchanges with the principle fellow scholars of the Republics of Central Asia and Russia (still USSR), Afghanistan, China, Mongolia, India and Iran. The activities centering around these relations are reflected in the contributions to the Centre's fine official bullettin, the Journal of Central Asia, the present-day Journal of Asian Civilizations (8), and in the research activities, such as the well-known Silk Route UNESCO Expedition of 1990 1991. The interest in Central Asia also underlines a geopolitical conception on which many (7) Today TIAC is actually also a post-graduate training centre for PhD students. (8) The last issue of the bullettin (Vol. XXXI, nos. 1-2, July and December, 2008), is monographic and it is entirely dedicated to German ethnographic and anthropological research in Northern Pakistan ('Masters of Understanding: German Scholars in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram, 1955-2005'). 382 [4] This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of Dani's historical reconstructions are based. In this conception, both in the past and in the present, the focus of the cultural, strategic and commercial interests of the lands South of the Karakorum-Himalaya, from the Harappan civilization to modern Pakistan, was always Central Asia. This was the direction taken also by Dani's last large-scale archaeological and epigraphical enterprise - the co-direction with Karl Jettmar of the Pak-German Study Group in Karakorum, starting in 1980. The project arose out of an idea and the early research conducted by a Karakorum veteran, K. Jettmar, but found an extraordinary support in Dani (9). To give a concise description of the aims and results of this project is no easy matter. In the ultimate analysis it consists of a work of documentation, study and the publication of tens of thousands of inscriptions (also in Chinese and Hebrew) and engravings (from prehistory to historical and late-ancient times) found along the upper course of the Indus, along the routes linking Kashmir, Tibet, the Pamir area, ancient Gandhara, Swat, and so on. Today these routes are partially followed by the modern Karakorum Highway, the opening of which marked the beginning of Jettmar and Dani's project. Today the project is being continued under the direction of H. Hauptmann and the series of monographic publications in German and Urdu is now quite voluminous (10). In the years of the research in Karakorum, there were less occasions for meetings between Italian archaeologists and Dani. Then, unlike today, Swat and the Upper Indus appeared to be two separate worlds. In spite of this, there were some occasions for contact with the Italian Mission. In those years Umberto Scerrato had begun to work on documenting the wooden mosques of Upper Swat and the Kohistan valleys. Also on this subject Dani did not fail to give his contribution. Another occasion was provided by the important congress organized by Dani's Centre at Gilgit in 1983 (n), attended by practically the entire Italian Mission which travelled to Gilgit directly from Swat. To confirm the strong relationship between Dani and the Italian Mission of IsMEO IsIAO, I recall that Domenico Faccenna, particularly in the last ten years, when his trips to Pakistan became much less frequent and then impossible, whenever we were leaving for Pakistan, never failed to remember us to pay visit to Dani, or to give us written message of greetings, or a book, for Dani. Within the same period of less than six months A.H. Dani, D. Faccenna and F.A. Khan, namely the main figures in this story, have passed away, preceded briefly by others. In short, since 2000, an entire generation has been swept away. The task they have left us is a difficult one, not only in view of the promise made by oriental studies regarding a historical synthesis, also in view of the conditions currently prevailing in the field where the winds of war are still blowing, but precisely because of the loss of such figures that served as a point of reference and comparison. To prevent the field of studies pursued by these Master throughout their (9) See p. 85 in K. Jettmar, Tetroglyphs as Evidence of Religious Configuration' in Journal of Asian Civilizations, 2008, XXXI, l-2.This is an English translation of the Afterword written by Jettmar for the first unabridged English edition of Religionen des Hindukusch. The project of the English edition was then abandoned by the editors (see the Foreword to the same issue of the Journal). (10) The last volume (Band 9) of the series Materialien zur Arch?ologie der Nordgebiete Pakistans (Die Felsbild Station Thalpan IV, by D. Bandini-K?nig) came out in Summer 2009. (n) International Conference on Karakorum Culture, Gilgit 24-30 September 1983, the proceedings of which were published in four issues of the Journal of Central Asia, VII, 1-2, VIII, 1-2. [5] 383 This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions lives (and I specifically add also K. Jettmar and M. Taddei to these brief pages) from falling prey, as a direct result of the exploitation of the present conditions, to rank amateurs and art merchants, to uncertain provenances and private collections, is the task of those who are left, but above all of those who remain faithful to their teachings. Post scriptum In general, this type of short article is concluded by a long list of titles or honours. This has already been seen to by other Journals (12). Here I shall only mention that Professor A.H. Dani was awarded the title of Knight Commander by the Italian government in 1994. Luca M. Olivieri (12) For instance, the obituary published by H. van Skyhawk in the above-mentioned monographic issue of Journal of Asian Civilizations (XXXI, 1-2, pp. 367-69). [6] 384 This content downloaded from 202.41.10.30 on Sun, 5 Oct 2014 10:09:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Buddhist Boundary Markers of Northeast Thailand and Central Laos, 7TH-12TH Centuries Ce: Towards An Understanding of The Archaeological, Religious and Artistic Landscapes of The Khorat Plateau
Dark Psychology & Manipulation: Discover How To Analyze People and Master Human Behaviour Using Emotional Influence Techniques, Body Language Secrets, Covert NLP, Speed Reading, and Hypnosis.