ISLAMABAD, Jan 26 (APP): Internationally acclaimed archaeologist, historian and linguist Prof Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani was remembered on the occasion of his death anniversary on Friday.
He was regarded as an authority on archaeology, culture, linguistics, Buddhism and Central Asian archaeology and history. Dr Dani was born in Basna, in the district of Raipur in India, on July 20, 1920.
He did his Master’s in 1944 and became the first Muslim graduate of Banaras Hindu University. In 1945, Prof Dani started work as an archaeologist with Sir Mortimer Wheeler and took part in excavations in Taxila and Moenjodaro.
He was subsequently posted at the Department of Archaeology of British India at the Taj Mahal.
After partition, he moved to Dhaka and worked as assistant superintendent of the Department of Archaeology.
At that time, he rectified the Varendra Museum in Rajshahi.
In 1950, he was promoted to the position of superintendent-in-charge of archaeology. For 12 years (1950-62), Prof Dani worked as an associate professor of history at the University of Dhaka and also as a curator at the Dhaka Museum.
During this period, he carried out archaeological research on the Muslim history of Bengal.
He also worked as a research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1958-59). In 1969, he became an Asian Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra. In 1974, he went to the University of Pennsylvania as a visiting scholar.
In 1977, he was a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Prof Dani was awarded honorary fellowships of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (1969), German Archaeological Institute (1981), Ismeo, Rome (1986) and Royal Asiatic Society (1991).
He moved to the University of Peshawar in 1962 as a professor of archaeology and remained there till 1971. He conducted several archaeological explorations and excavations on the Stone Age and Gandhara Civilisation in the Northern Areas and guided the resetting and renovation of Lahore and Peshawar museums.
In 1971, he moved to Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad where he established the Faculty of Social Sciences and served as its dean until his retirement in 1980.
He received an honorary doctorate from Tajikistan University in Dushanbe in 1993. The same year, Prof Dani established the Islamabad Museum. Between 1992 and 1996, he was appointed adviser on archaeology to the Ministry of Culture.
Between 1994 and 1998, he worked as chairman of the National Fund for Cultural Heritage in Islamabad. In 1997, he became an honorary director at the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations.
Dr Dani took part in exclusive excavation works on the pre-Indus Civilisation site of Rehman Dheri in northern Pakistan. He also made a number of discoveries of Gandhara sites in Peshawar and Swat and worked on Indo-Greek sites in Dir.
From 1985 he was involved in research focussing on documentation of ancient rock carvings and inscriptions on remains from the Neolithic age in the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan, along with Harald Hauptmann of Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, University of Heidelberg.
In 1990-91, he led Unesco’s international scientific teams for the Desert Route Expedition of the Silk Road in China and the Steppe Route Expedition of the Silk Road in the former Soviet Union.
He was awarded Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 2000 and Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 1969 in recognition of his meritorious contributions.
He was also awarded Légion d’Honneur by the French government in 1998, Aristotle Silver Medal by Unesco in 1997, Order of Merit by the government of Germany in 1996 and Knight Commander by the government of Italy in 1994.
Dr Dani authored more than 30 books, the latest being the History of Pakistan published in 2008. His other books include Historic City of Taxila, History of Northern Areas, Romance of the Khyber Pass, New Light on Central Asia, Central Asia Today and Human Records on Karakoram Highway.
He co-authored with J.P. Mohen the Volume III of History of Humanity, and with B.A. Litvinksy The Kushano-Sassanian Kingdom.
He was fluent in Bangla, French, Hindi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Seraiki, Sindhi, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu languages.
He was Professor of Emeritus at the Quaid-i-Azam University, a distinction bestowed on him after his retirement as Dean of the Social Sciences Department in recognition of his contributions. He was the founding director of the Taxila Institute of Asian Civilisations of the university since its establishment in 1997 and the founding director of the Islamabad Museum.
During his long career, Prof Dani has held various academic positions and international fellowships and conducted archaeological excavations and research. He received several civil awards in Pakistan and
abroad.
He died on January 26, 2009, and was laid to rest in Islamabad.
