Benares Illustrated PDF Download

Author: James Prinsep
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788177694000
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
If ever there has been an unsung genius, it is James Prinsep. Born in 1799, he had a short life of only forty years, dying in 1840. And yet, considering his wide variety of interests and his seminal contributions in many of these areas, it can, with some confidence, be stated that he was one of the greatest geniuses born in human history. Thus, he was at the same time a physicist, a chemist, an anthropologist, a geologist, a meteorologist, a numismatist, an epigraphist, a town-planner, a cartographer and an architect and one may not have exhausted the list. Actually, his one achievement, that of deciphering the Brahmi script, through which India and the world came to know of that unique figure in world history Emperor Ashoka would have entitled him to a place among the greats of intellectual history. And when one considers that James deciphered not one, but two ancient scripts Brahmi and Kharoshthi through which was revealed the existence of a whole line of Indo-Scythian kings, one stands in awe of the man. But among all these varied interests, it was Benares, which was his passion. He spent only ten years here, but in this short span, considering his work, one can say that no individual contributed more to this holy and ancient city than James Prinsep. For consider these: he was the first to determine its latitude and longitude, the first to carry out an authentic census; and the first to construct a bridge over the river Karmanasa, a feat which had defied engineers and architects for nearly a century. He was also the person to lay the underground drainage system one that still serves the city. As a family memoir says: to extend the catalogue to a detail of the roads, bridges, drains and other works of every variety of description (in Benares), which were put in hand and completed would fatigue the readera. Amidst all this hectic activity, one can almost picture him sitting on a winter afternoon on one of the ghats, with the river (which he fondly calls our Ganga) flowing quietly by, looking around and then conceiving of this magnificent work Benares Illustrated. As you turn these pages, you not only travel with him from ghat to ghat, but also participate though in a limited way, in the life of the city. One can only marvel at the three dimensional portrayal of the various sites and the play of light and shade in these marvellous sketches. With this edition, one hopes that James will also come to occupy a place among the great artists of his age. This volume is further enhanced by a write-up entitled James Prinsep and Benares by O.P.Kejariwal, Considered an authority on James Prinsep, his write-up is based on material which has not been available previously. The present volume also has nine Appendices comprising articles which Prinsep wrote while in Benares. Included among these is the Benares Directory reproduced here in full and which lists all the important families of Benares in Prinsep's time. Some of the present generation, in all probability, will be able to find their ancestors included in this Directory.