Sindoor, dice, chess pieces, yoga postures — 5,000-year-old Harappan artefacts prove India’s civilisational continuity. Prof. B.B. Lal’s life work finally told.
This tribute lecture, organised across multiple academic institutions, introduces India’s most distinguished archaeologist, Prof. B.B. Lal (born 1921), whose excavations at Hastinapur, Ayodhya, and Kalibangan redrew the map of Indian civilisational history. The talk catalogues the astonishing modernity of Harappan material culture — sindoor, yoga postures, the swastika, chess pieces, shivalingas, namaste gestures — all present 5,000 years ago, undercutting any narrative of discontinuity between ancient and modern India.
The speaker frames a central injustice: the Harappan civilisation was first announced to the world not by its Indian discoverer Daya Ram Sahani but by an Englishman in the Illustrated London News. Prof. Lal’s landmark books — The Saraswati Flows On and The Historicity of the Mahabharata — and his challenge to the Aryan Invasion Theory are presented as among the most important acts of civilisational reclamation in modern Indian intellectual history.
About the Speakers:
Pratishtha Mukherjee is an archaeologist and educator focused on India’s ancient heritage. She holds a Ph.D. in Archaeology from MSU Baroda, specializing in Yakṣa sculptures from the Ganga Valley, and an M.A. in Heritage Management from GGSIPU.She has worked with the Archaeological Survey of India, National Monuments Authority, INTACH, and National Museum, and taught as Visiting Faculty at MSU Baroda. Her research covers early Indian art, iconography, and Indo-Iranian cultural links. A Gold Medallist and IKS Research Grant awardee, she has several publications and lectures to her credit.
Air Vice Marshal Rajesh Lal (Retired), was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in 1968 as a fighter pilot. He fought actively in the 1971 war with Pakistan and headed an operation base during the Kargil war. Being qualified Flying Instructor, Production test pilot, and a graduate of the National Defence College, India, on his retirement, he joined the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Udan Akademi, as its Chief Pilot. He has authored a number of books on Indian History.
Prof. Alok Tripathi is a distinguished archaeologist and the Additional Director-General at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). He leads ASI’s revived Underwater Archaeology Wing and is currently spearheading landmark underwater explorations off Dwarka’s coast and the high-profile Gyanvapi complex survey in Varanasi. In addition to his ASI leadership, Tripathi is Professor and former Head of the History Department at Assam University, Silchar. His work spans field archaeology, heritage management, museology, remote sensing, and collaboration with the Indian Navy. He is recognised nationally and internationally.
