Locating an Antiquarian Initiative in a Late 19<sup>th</sup> Century Colonial Landscape: Rivett-Carnac and the Cultural Imagining of the Indian Sub-Continent

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5334/bha-610

Abstract

In this paper I seek to understand antiquarian practices in a colonial context in the Indian sub-continent with reference to J.H. Rivett-Carnac who was a member of the Bengal Civil Service. Covering varied subjects like ‘ancient cup marks on rocks,’ spindle whorls, votive seals or a solitary Buddha figure, Rivett-Carnac’s writings reflect an imagining of a native landscape with wide-ranging connections in myths, symbolisms and material cultures which cross-cut geographical borders. I show how an epistemology of comparative archaeology was formed through the ways in which he compared evidence recorded from different parts of India to those documented in Great Britain and northern Europe. This was held together by ideas of tribal/racial migrations. I am arguing that a distinctive form of antiquarianism was unfolding in an ambiguous, interstitial space which deconstructs any neat binaries between the colonizer and the colonized. Recent researches have argued for many antiquarianisms which this paper upholds. With his obsession of cup marks Rivett-Carnac built a new set of interconnections in late 19th century Britain where the Antiquity of man was the pivot around which debates and theories circulated. In the colony, we see some of his predecessors concerned with the megalithic tombs scattered in different parts of central and southern India. Rivett-Carnac’s methodology was less rigorous and ‘scientific’ as compared to his peers or predecessors. His obsession with cup marks followed him—as he states in his autobiography—throughout his life.

Author Biography

Bishnupriya Basak, University of Calcutta

Dr. Bishnupriya Basak, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, joined the department in 2002. She completed her Ph.D. in prehistoric archaeology from Deccan College, Pune in 1998. Her specialization is in prehistory, and she also works on issues of heritage and history of archaeology, archaeological theory and early history and archaeology of South East Asia. She has been a recipient of many grants and awards, chiefly, a post-doctoral Visiting Fellowship in the UK, awarded by the Nehru Trust for Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2001), a short-term award from the Maison de l’Orient Mediterraneen Jean Pouilloux, Lyon, France(2001), the UK Travel Award from the Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum (2009), a short-term grant from Fondation maison des sciences de l’ homme (FMSH), Paris (2009) and a research grant from Society of Antiquaries of London (2015). She has been doing intensive research in prehistory of the Ayodhya hills, Purulia located in the western upland Bengal, which has received international acclaim. She has more than 30 published papers to her credit in various peer-reviewed journals like Studies in History, Public Archaeology, Man and Environment and also in many edited volumes She has authored New Directions in Hunter-Gatherer Studies and co-edited Prehistoric Research in the Subcontinent: A Reappraisal and New Directions. She has successfully completed three research projects in areas of her interest, including a British Academy project entitled ‘Surveying the Empire’, with Prof. Keith Lilley of Queens University, Belfast. She currently has a project on ‘Tracking ancient migration routes and cultural connections in Northeastern India’ under the UGC-UPE 2 scheme of India Looking East of the University of Calcutta. She was Honorary lecturer, Institute of Archaeology London, for four years--2010-14. She was a Visiting professor at Queen's University Belfast, belfast for 1 year, 2016-2017. She has also reviewed papers for peer-reviewed journals like ‘Quaternary International’ and was a regular reviewer of research grants awarded by the Indian Council of Historical research (ICHR). She has participated in many national and international conferences in Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Ireland, Vietnam and Cambodia, chairing a few academic sessions on these occasions.

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Published

2020-01-06

Issue

Vol. 30 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Research Paper: Asia/Pacific

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