Ramaprasad Chanda

Ramaprasad Chanda (15 August 1873 – 28 May 1942) was an Indian anthropologist, historian and archaeologist from Bengal. A pioneer in his field in South Asia, Chanda's lasting legacy is the Varendra Research Museum, he established in Rajshahi (located in present-day Bangladesh), a leading institute for research on the history of Bengal. He was the first head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Calcutta from 1920- 1921. He was also a professional archaeologist and worked in the Archaeological Survey of India. Chanda was one of the founders the Indian Anthropological Institute and was its president during 1938–1942. He represented India in the first International Congress of Anthropology held in London in 1934. He had done original research on the somatic characters of Indian populations by using ancient Indian literature and challenged Herbert Hope Risley's theory of Indian races. Riley was the first Census Commissioner of India.

Biography Chanda was born on August 15, 1873, in present-day Bangladesh. After completing his Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1896 from Scottish Church College in Kolkata, he faced financial difficulties while working as a private tutor. He published Gaudarajamala in 1912, the first scientific history of Bengal based on epigraphic evidence.

Chanda's work attracted the attention of John Marshall, Director General of the Archeological Survey of India, leading to a two-year assignment with the Archaeological Survey of India in 1917. He conducted research, exploration, and excavation across India during his ASI tenure.

Dhyana Yoga Chanda's research suggested that philosophical religions in India, including Upanishads, Buddhism, and Jainism, predate the Aryan influence and are rooted in the Indus Valley.

While his theories lacked conclusive evidence, they gained support from Jainist and Buddhist communities. The origin of yoga remains debated, with some scholars acknowledging Chanda's hypothesis but emphasizing the need for further evidence.

Archaeologist Gregory Possehl, who spent over forty years exploring many Indus sites and mentioned Chanda’s observation about the famous priest-king image, noted,

“There are several other yogi images in the corpus of mature Harappan materials... This presents an interesting possibility. Some of the Harappans were devoted to ritual discipline and concentration, this was one of the preoccupations of at least some of their gods.”

Research

Chanda's work focused on the collection and analysis of objective data, such as inscriptions, in order to construct a scientific' history of the region. He emphasized the importance of archaeology as a specialized discipline and promoted the need for Western methods and techniques in systematic and scientific work.

Chanda's Gaudarajamala is considered to be the first scientific history of the region, and he carefully omitted classical legends and mythical characters whose presence could not be proven by hard evidence.

Chanda's work on the characteristics of Indian sculptures starting in the Gupta Period in the fourth century CE, it was covered his 1920 lecture titled Medieval Sculpture in Eastern India. It was the reason that Chanda proposed the fact that a head of a statue found in Mohenjo-Daro with the same contemplative expression that was first Sculptured in the statues of the Gupta period.

Chanda organized one of the first Indus exhibitions in the Indian Museum in Kolkata in 1924. He gained firsthand knowledge of the various relics that were classified and exhibited. He was singularly struck by a head of the male statue from Mohenjo-Daro with half-closed eyes concentrated on the tip of the nose. He concluded that it was portrayed in an attitude of yoga. This happened before the discovery of the well-known Pasupathi seal which portrayed a divine figure. According to Marshall, the deity in the seal was seated in a typical attitude of yoga. Chanda's initial assertions were further reinforced by the discovery of more seals depicting, not only of deities in the sitting positions, but also in standing positions.

Chanda published two monographs of his research on the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). The first, published in 1926, titled Indus Valley in the Vedic Period, was the earliest attempt to explain the possible collapse of India's first civilization. He also mentioned that the depiction of the attitude of yoga in Indus seals was not accidental. Chanda detected signs of the practice of proto-Buddhism and Jainism in the antiquity.

In 1934 Chanda embarked on a project to collect and investigate original documents bearing on the life of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, a Bengali social and religious reformer, often called the Father of the Indian Renaissance. Chanda collaborated with J. N. Mazumdar to produce a voluminous work on the life of the Raja that shed new light on his early life and activities. Published in 1938, the book was Chanda’s last major work.

Proposed theories In January 1934, Chanda attended the 21st Indian Science Congress, held in Bombay, as president of Anthropological Section. His address explored the concept of Sramanism, which revolves around the doctrine of renunciation and is associated with the mendicant and ascetic orders. He traced the origins of Sramanism back to pre-Vedic, pre-Aryan peoples and their practitioners of magic, suggesting that the practice of asceticism can be linked to the initiatory period of seclusion and abstinence observed by shamans. Chanda, along with N.N. Bhattacharya, represented the evolutionary trend in the study of Indic goddesses. They examined Sanskritic texts to establish connections between goddess traditions in India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Chanda's work emphasized the names of goddesses to establish India's place in a broader group of societies.

Chanda opposed Risley's theory of the mongolo-dravidian origin of the Bengalis. He proposed that the Bengalis were derived from the homo alpinus type, a brachycephalic population with Aryan or Indo-European speech in the prehistoric period. Furthermore, Chanda's address highlighted the significant role played by the Durga-Kali cult in Bengal, noting that it has traditionally held sway over the renunciation practices of Sramanism.

Chanda initially proposed the Aryan invasion theory to explain the decline of the Indus civilization. However, he later revised his hypothesis, envisioning a symbiotic relationship between immigrants and native populations, paving the way for the concept of a mixed Hindu civilization.

Publications

Books Gaudarajmala, Rajshahi: Varendra Research Society (1912) Indo Aryan Races, Rajshahi: Varendra Research Society (1916 Medieval Indian Sculpture in the British Museum (1936) Letters and Documents Relating to the Life of Raja Rammohan Roy (1938) Itihase bangal Gour-bibaran

Journals