Departments of Ancient History and Archaeology

In the year 1950, the then Maharaja of Mysore Sri Jayachamaraja Wodeyar created an endowment chair in Indology and appointed Prof.H.N.Raghavendra Char, the retired Professor of Philosophy and also the ‘Dharmaadhikari’ of the Mysore Professor and Head of the Department of Indology.

In the year 1952, Professor K.A.Neelakanta Sastry was invited as head of the department and the ex-officio Director of Archaeology of Mysore State, served uptoMarch 1956 and Dr.M.Sheshadri, Professor of History, succeeded him. In the year 1958, a fullfledged independent Department was formed.

The under-graduate and post-graduate departments of Indology combined at Maharaja’s College since their inception upto the year 1963. A separate department at Manasagangotri with other P.G.Departments our department also shifted to the new campus.

In the year 1968, to bring the uniformity with the sister departments, the name of the department was changed from the Department of Indology to Department of Ancient History and Archeology.

This department is the only department of Archaeology in South India, which has been doing archaeological excavation regularly. Appreciating our work the UGC sanctioned technical posts like antiquity Assistant, Draftsman, Photographer and they all have been utilized all these years of excavation work.

The Department has conducted excavation at Talakad, Krishnapura and Rajaghatta. The results of this excavation have already attracted the attention of the scholars in archaeology. Thus, we have made a deep impact in the circles of archaeology in India by our excavation.

Our Department has been maintaining good and active interaction with auxiliary departments like Anthropology, Geology etc., both at the University level and at the Governmental level. The collaboration with Archaeological Survey of India, Anthropological Survey of India, Geological Survey of India and other institutions has been continued whenever necessary.