Alexander Cunningham

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For other people named Alexander Cunningham, see Alexander Cunningham (disambiguation).

Sir

Alexander Cunningham

KCIE CSI ADC
Born(1814-01-23)23 January 1814
London, United Kingdom
Died28 November 1893(1893-11-28) (aged 79)
London, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Occupations
  • Engineer
  • Archaeologist
Spouse
Alicia Maria Whish
​
(m. 1840)​
Peter Cunningham (brother)[1]

CSI (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly created position of archaeological surveyor to the government of India; and he founded and organised what later became the Archaeological Survey of India
.

He wrote numerous books and monographs and made extensive collections of artefacts. Some of his collections were lost, but most of the gold and silver coins and a fine group of

Buddhist sculptures and jewellery were bought by the British Museum in 1894. He was also the father of mathematician Allan Cunningham
.

Early life and career

Cunningham (fourth from the right) at an unknown date

Cunningham was born in London in 1814 to the

Bengal Engineers at the age of 19 as a Second Lieutenant and spent the next 28 years in the service of British Government of India. Soon after arriving in India on 9 June 1833, he met James Prinsep. He was in daily communication with Prinsep during 1837 and 1838 and became his intimate friend, confidant and pupil.[3]
Prinsep passed on to him his lifelong interest in Indian archaeology and antiquity.

From 1836 to 1840 he was

Governor-General of India. During this period he visited Kashmir, which was then not well explored. He finds mention by initials in Up the Country by Emily Eden.[1][4]

Military life

Leh Palace, Ladakh. Illustration from Ladak: Physical, Statistical, and Historical

In 1841 Cunningham was made executive engineer to the

Beas river prior to the Battle of Sobraon
.

In 1846, he was made commissioner along with

Treaty of Amritsar, which ceded Kashmir as war indemnity expenses to the British.[7] His early work Essay on the Aryan Order of Architecture (1848) arose from his visits to the temples in Kashmir and his travels in Ladakh during his tenure with the commission. He was also present at the battles of Chillianwala and Gujrat in 1848–49. In 1851, he explored the Buddhist monuments of Central India along with Lieutenant Maisey and wrote an account of these.[8]

In 1856 he was appointed chief engineer of

Major General.[1]

Archaeology

Cunningham had taken a keen interest in antiquities from early on in his career. Following the activities of Jean-Baptiste Ventura (general of Ranjit Singh)—who, inspired by the French explorers in Egypt, had excavated the bases of pillars to discover large stashes of Bactrian and Roman coins—excavations became a regular activity among British antiquarians.[9]

In 1834 he submitted to the

Sankassa and at Sanchi in 1851. In 1854, he published The Bhilsa Topes, a piece of work which attempted to establish the history of Buddhism
based on architectural evidence.

By 1851, he also began to communicate with William Henry Sykes and the East India Company on the value of an archaeological survey. He provided a rationale for providing the necessary funding, arguing that the venture[9]

... would be an undertaking of vast importance to the Indian Government politically, and to the British public religiously. To the first body it would show that India had generally been divided into numerous petty chiefships, which had invariably been the case upon every successful invasion; while, whenever she had been under one ruler, she had always repelled foreign conquest with determined resolution. To the other body it would show that Brahmanism, instead of being an unchanged and unchangeable religion which had subsisted for ages, was of comparatively modern origin, and had been constantly receiving additions and alterations; facts which prove that the establishment of the Christian religion in India must ultimately succeed.[10]

Letter dated 31 January 1862, appointing Cunningham as Surveyor General

Following his retirement from the Royal Engineers in 1861,

Viceroy of India, appointed Cunningham as an archaeological surveyor to the Government of India.[11] He held this position from 1861 to 1865, but it was then terminated through lack of funds.[1]

Most antiquarians of the 19th century who took interest in identifying the major cities mentioned in ancient Indian texts, did so by putting together clues found in classical Graeco-Roman chronicles and the travelogues of travellers to India such as

Shah-dheri convinced him that his hypothesis was correct.[13]

Now as Hwen Thsang, on his return to China, was accompanied by laden elephants, his three days' journey from Takhshasila [

Manikyala tope, twenty-eight monasteries, and nine temples.

— Alexander Cunningham, [14]

After his department was abolished in 1865, Cunningham returned to England and wrote the first part of his Ancient Geography of India (1871), covering the Buddhist period; but failed to complete the second part, covering the Muslim period.

Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum (1877) which included copies of the edicts of Ashoka, The Stupa of Bharhut (1879) and the Book of Indian Eras (1883) which allowed the dating of Indian antiquities. He retired from the Archaeological Survey on 30 September 1885 and returned to London to continue his research and writing.[1]

Numismatic interests

Cunningham assembled a large

Numismatic Chronicle.[17]

Family and personal life

Two of Cunningham's brothers,

Peter, became famous for his Handbook of London (1849).[18]

Cunningham married Alicia Maria Whish, daughter of Martin Whish, B.C.S., on 30 March 1840. The couple had two sons, Lieutenant-Colonel

Allan J. C. Cunningham (1842–1928) of the Bengal and Royal Engineers, and Sir Alexander F. D. Cunningham (1852–1935) of the Indian Civil Service.[1]

Cunningham died on 28 November 1893 at his home in South Kensington and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London. His wife had predeceased him. He was survived by his two sons.[1]

Awards and memorials

Cunningham was awarded the CSI on 20 May 1870 and CIE in 1878. In 1887, he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire.[15]

Publications

Books written by Cunningham include:

Additional works:

  • The World of India’s First Archaeologist: Letters from Alexander Cunningham to J.D.M. Beglar; Oxford University Press: Upinder Singh.
  • Imam, Abu (1963). Sir Alexander Cunningham and the Beginnings of Indian Archeology (Thesis).
    OCLC 966141480
    .

Citations

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6916. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ Buckland 1906, p. 106.
  3. ^ Kejariwal 1999, p. 200.
  4. ^ Vibart 1894, pp. 455–59.
  5. ^ Waller 2004, p. 13.
  6. ^ Strachey 1854, p. 3.
  7. ^ Cunningham 1854b, p. ?.
  8. ^ Cunningham 1854a, p. ?.
  9. ^
    S2CID 163154105
    .
  10. ^ Cunningham 1843, pp. 241–47.
  11. ^ Cunningham 1871c, pp. 1–3.
  12. ^ Cunningham 1848, pp. 13–60.
  13. ^ Singh 2008, p. 265.
  14. ^ Cunningham 1871c, p. 105.
  15. ^ a b Cunningham 1871c, p. ?.
  16. ^ Iman 1966, p. 191.
  17. ^ Mathur 2007, p. 146.
  18. ^ Cunningham 1853, pp. 12–14.

References

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