Dr. M.H. Krishna (His Life, Work and Contribution to Karnataka Archaeology)

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Dr. Mysore. Hatti. Krishna Iyengar (1892 - 1947), Professor in the Department of History, University of Mysore from 1926 holding additional charge of the Dept. of Archaeology from 1928 and full time Director of Archaeology from 1944, has a distinguished place in the History of Indian Archaeology. His was a brilliant professional career. From the very beginning of his professional career his innate and profound interest in History and Archaeology was displayed in his Kannada works: Hinducharitrasara (1913) along with M. Venkatakrishnayya (popularly known as Tatayya), written prior to his Post-Graduation. The book was prescribed as text-book for High School that had undergone thirteen Reprints. Another book by him was History of Ancient India (co-authored by M. H. Rama Sharma, his brother). The book won the Mysore University Publication Prize in 1919. In this year, he was elected Member of Royal Asiatic Society (M. R. A. S.) and later in 1921 Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society London, indeed a prestigious and coveted honour bestowed upon him. At the instance of his Professor, Dr. Radhakumud Mookerji a celebrated name in the domain of History, heading the Department of History, then, he served the Govt. Dept. of Archaeology as an Assistant in the Special Numismatic Office to prepare a Catalogue of the Coins in the Govt. Museum in 1920-22. The Department was then headed by R. Narasimhachar, an eminent Epigraphist and scholar in both Kannada and Sanskrit. He completed the work to the utmost satisfaction of his professor. Krishna also made best of his time in the Dept. by having frequent and profitable discussions with scholarly staff members in Epigraphy such as Venkannachar, remarkable in the decipherment of various ancient scripts and therefore known as "Akshara Brahma" and in other branches of Archaeology.

In 1922, after the Department of Archaeology was taken over by the University, Dr. Brajendranath Seal, the Vice-Chancellor,, being desirous of giving a new orientation in the study and research in Indian Archaeology and equipping the Department with the latest techniques and methods in its functions, found Krishna promising and eminently suitable for training in these areas in the University of London and sent him for training and research. After completing successfully his training, doctoral research on Dakhan Numismatics earning appreciation from the leading Archaeologists and Historians and visits to many Museums and Universities with Art Collections in Europe he returned in 1926 and was appointed Professor of History in the Maharaja's College and in 1928, exofficio Director of Archaeology and also Officer-in-charge of the Numismatics Office. Thus was systematically built up the personality of a competent archaeologist, strong and determined, in him when he took over the Dept of Archaeology.

From then onwards up to his unfortunate and unexpected death in 1947, he vigorously carried out various archaeological programmes eliciting appreciation from distinguished scholars in Archaeology and History, especially for his highly informative Annual Reports of the Department profusely illustrated; other publications as for instance Hyder Nama, Sukti Sudharnava, a unique work in the kavya literature, Mahisuru Samsthanada Doregala Kaifiyattu etc., Epigraphia Carnatica, vols. XIII, part 1,XIV, XV, Guide books relating Halebidu, Belur, Shravana Belgola and others, research papers 11 in English and 9 in Kannada; 7 works in Kannada such as Karnatakada Purva Charitre, Kannada Naadina Charitre Karnatakada Kalegalu etc., besides presenting several research papers in various Conferences and important scientific archaeological excavations at Chandravalli and Brahmagiri.

I'm delighted to know that the book published in 1985, has come for the second print, rather rare in the domain of archaeological publications with some exceptions. Nowadays, in view of the fact that the general public is becoming more aware of and interested in archaeology, I hope the second print also of the book will soon be exhausted.

Meanwhile I began to realize that during my participation in Seminars and Conferences etc that M. H. Krishna's valuable contributions to Pre, Proto an Early historical archaeology from his excavations at Chandravall and Brahmagiri to South India, are unduly overshadowed and obscured by Wheeler's in the same sites. I have been therefore here and there highlighting certain facts in this regard. As his findings remain precisely true even today not differing from Wheeler's later I think I should elaborate them here.

Among the Directors of the Dept. of Archaeology and Museums, Govt of Karnataka from the time of its establishment up to now, M. H. Krishna, also Professor in the Department of History, University of Mysore, has earned a distinguished place in the History of Archaeolo-gical Researches. Like his predecessors, he has many contributions to his credit. After having practical training in archaeological excavations in Egypt under Cyril Fox and obtaining D. Lit. Degree for his research work, The Deccan numismatics, in the Institute of Archaeology, London, he returned in 1928 to the University of Mysore, Mysore. He was required to assume the ex-officio directorship of the Department of Archaeology in the same year, besides being the Professor in History.

From the very beginning of his serving the Department, he began to improve considerably all the ongoing activities and for the first time started the programme of archaeological excavations first at Chandravalli already known for its archaeological potentialities rightly deserving scientific investigation. He was probably the first in south India in particular to introduce Stratigraphic method, in essence in archaeological excavations Archaeological conservation of the monuments protected by the Department was another major work he took up seriously. Especially his highly informative annual reports of the Department elicited appreciation from the most eminent scholars of his times, national and international, for instance, Prof E A. Gardener, J. Ph. Vogel, Sten Konow, K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, L. D Barnet, F. J. Richards, and Dennis as well as in the well-known journals such as Indian art and letters, The Indian Photo Engraving, Co, Kolkota, The Modem Review, the Journal of the Benares Hindu University, the Hindu, etc. And his important scientific archaeological excavations in Chandravalli as early as 1928 and Brahmagiri (1931 and 1940) in the early 1930s and 1940s preceded by extensive explorations in these sites, provided for the first time a sequence of prehistoric and protohistoric cultures in South India namely: the Microlithic (known from a different site in a nearby village Roppa); the Neolithic; the Iron Age; the Isila (mentioned in the minor rock edict of the emperor Asoka Maurya located in the site in Brahmagiri); the Satavahana cultures as well as the Chalukyan-Hoysala(as-known from surface finds). What is particularly important and significant is the identification of the overlap of the cultures between the Neolithic and the Iron age, the Iron range and the Maurya-Satavahana cultures and of the cxultural corelation of the Iron age levels with the excavated megalithic burials nearby. The results obtained laid the foundation for scientific archaeological investigations in the south for the first time and seemed to anticipate what Wheeler later would find, in his systematic Stratigraphic excavations in the same sites.

On this point let me be more explicit, and there was till recently a very strong impression with regard to the introduction of stratigraphic method in archaeological excavations in India in general: the identification of the settlement of megalith builders for outlining their lifestyle and the chronological range of the culture. Wheeler was looking for a megalithic settlement site with megalithic burials nearby that can be related to datable cultural debris. By then hundreds of megalithic burial sites were discovered throughout length and breadth of South India.