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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
The Rev. Dr A.A. Führer lived to the age of seventy-seven. Herein is examined his first forty years. Trained as an Oriental Linguist, Führer eventually found employment as a field archaeologist. Three years after his appointment, the Archaeological Survey of India entered the worst crisis of its existence. Führer reacted in ways incompatible with scholarly integrity. It remains to be seen whether he committed further transgressions and or forgeries during his final thirty-seven years.
1 Singh, Upinder, The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology (Delhi, 2004), p. 321Google Scholar.
2 Leoshko, Janice, Sacred Traces: British explorations of Buddhism in South Asia (Aldershot, 2003), p. 57Google Scholar.
3 Allen, Charles, The Buddha and the Sahibs (London, 2002), p. 277Google Scholar.
4 Rapson, E.J., ‘Obituary of Peter Peterson’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1899), pp. 917–919CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Georg Bühler (1837–1898) studied at Göttingen University, then carried out freelance research in London with the hope of landing a job in British India. In 1863 he obtained a position teaching at Elphinstone College Bombay. He had great success collecting Sanskrit manuscripts for the Government. After seven years he switched from teaching to a full-time post as Inspector of Education. He died suddenly in an alpine lake.
6 Führer, A. A., Vasishta dharmasastra (Bombay, 1883)Google Scholar.
7 Reinhold Rost (1822–1896) studied at Jena. He moved to London to carry out research, supporting himself as Oriental Teacher at St Augustine's College, Canterbury. In 1863 he combined his Canterbury job with being Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, switching in 1869 to become India Office Librarian. He specialised in Southeast Asia, though he was too fastidious to publish much of what he knew. He detested anyone who popularised Indological research.
8 Führer, A. A., ‘Manusara dhammathat, the only one existing Buddhist Law Book, compared with the Brahminical Manu dharmasastra’, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 15 (1882), pp. 329–338 and pp. 371–382Google Scholar.
9 These five sources were Sangermano, Vincento, The Burmese Empire, (Vatican City, 1833)Google Scholar; Low, James, ‘On the Laws of the Mu'ung Thai’ Journal of the Indian Archipelago 1 (1847), pp. 321–429Google Scholar; Rost, Reinhold, ‘Über den Manusara’ Indische Studien 1 (1850), pp. 315–320Google Scholar; Horace Browne, Preface to Manuwunnana dhammathat (Rangoon, 1878); Horace Browne, Preface to Manusara Shwe Myin dhammathat (Rangoon, 1879).
10 Führer 1882, pp. 333–335; = Browne 1879, pp. 2–3; Rost 1850, p. 316 and Sangermano 1833, pp. 223–224.
11 On land, Führer 1882, p. 372; = Low 1847, pp. 336–337. On inheritance, Führer 1882, pp. 372–373 = Low 1847, pp. 344–345. On marriage, Führer 1882, pp. 373–374 = Low 1847, pp. 346–349. On inheritance by monks and ministers, Führer 1882, pp. 375–376 = Low 1847, pp. 351–352, 354–355. On contract, Führer 1882, pp. 377–378 = Low 1847, p. 393. On elopement, Führer 1882, p. 378 = Low 184, p. 424. On rape, Führer 1882, p. 378 = Low 1847, p. 425. On slavery, Führer 1882, p. 377 = Low 1847, p. 386. On pledge, Führer 1882, p. 378 = Low 1847, p. 391.
12 Führer 1882, p. 376 = Low 1847, p. 351.
13 Huxley, Andrew, ‘Legal transplants as historical data – Exemplum Birmanicum’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2009), pp. 167–182CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 Jardine, John, Notes on Buddhist Law Part VIII, Preface (Rangoon, 1883), pp. 2–3Google Scholar; Forchhammer, Em, The Jardine Prize: An Essay (Rangoon, 1885), pp. 2–3Google Scholar; Jolly, Julius, Tagore Law Lectures of 1883 (Calcutta, 1885), pp. 44, 46, 292Google Scholar; Rhys Davids, ‘Two books on Buddhist Law’, The Academy No. 671 (1885), p. 190. Though Jardine and Forchhammer knew Browne's Prefaces very well, they made no public reference to the plagiarisms.
15 Browne 1878, p.2 = Führer 1882, p. 330.
16 Letters from Rost to Subhuti, 16 August 1877; 26 April 1878, 29 April 1881 and 14 March 1884 in Guruge, Ananda W.P., From the Living Fountains of Buddhism: Sri Lankan Support to Pioneering Western Orientalists (Colombo, 1984), pp. 47, 49, 58, 72Google Scholar.
17 In Thacker's Indian Directory (Calcutta, 1895) he appears as “A.A. Führer, M.D, Ph.D., Curator of Lucknow Museum . . .” If he did graduate in medicine as well as in theology and orientalism, it can only have been between 1882 and 1885. However, he did not mention any medical studies when applying in 1885 to be Curator of Lucknow Museum. (Minutes of Managing Committee of NWPO Museum, I: Minute of 18 May 1885.). Unless a typesetter or intermediary informant made a mistake, the likelihood is that Führer's medical qualification was self-awarded.
18 Letter from Chief Secretary, North-West Provinces & Oudh, to Secretary for Archaeology and Epigraphy, Calcutta, 20 July 1885. In Arch. & Epig Pros 4–18, file number 6 of 1898, October 1898. All archival references are to the India Office Library collection in the British Library, London.
19 Führer, A., The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur (Calcutta, 1889), p. 68Google Scholar.
20 ‘Mystery of the “missing” inscription’, accessed 16 April 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/18499.cms. The Times of India, 12 June 2003.
21 A. Führer, ‘On three grants of Govinda Chandra Deva of Kanauj in the 12th century’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 1887, p. 159; A. Führer, ‘The Kudarkhot inscriptions of Takhsadatta’, ibid p. 251. He joined the Philological Committee, and the History and Archaeological Committee, ibid, pp. 93–94.
22 Anon [probably Burgess, James], Academy 3 March 1888, reprinted in American Journal of Archaeology, 4 (1888), p. 78Google Scholar.
23 The President, ‘Annual Report’, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1889), p. 74.
24 For details of the First Tour see Führer, A., The Sharqui Architecture of Jaunpur (Calcutta, 1889)Google Scholar. For the Second and Third Tours see the references infra to Academy and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
25 Führer, A., Monumental Antiquities of the North-western Provinces and Oudh (Allahabad, 1891)Google Scholar; Smith, V.A., General Index to the Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India (Calcutta, 1887)Google Scholar.
26 James Burgess, Academy, 9 April 1887, p. 97.
27 James Burgess, ‘Letter to the Editor’, Academy, 4 June 1887, p. 131.
28 Führer, The Sharqui Architecture of Jaunpur, p. 71. Such a dig, Führer added, ‘ought to be gone about in a scientific method.’ Given that he was a trained linguist who had evolved his own archaeological methodology, ‘scientific’ probably connoted an excavation lasting longer than a week.
29 Anon [probably Burgess, James], ‘Archaeological Survey Reports’, Athenaeum, 23 June 1888, reprinted in American Journal of Archaeology, 4 (1888), p. 475Google Scholar.
30 Bühler, G., ‘Dr. A. Führer's Abstract Report from 1st October 1887 to Jan.31 1888’, Vienna Oriental Journal, 2 (1888), p. 270Google Scholar.
31 Folkert, Kendall W., ‘Jain Religious Life at Ancient Mathura: The Heritage of Late Victorian Interpretation’, in Mathura: The Cultural Heritage, ed. Srinivasan, Doris Meth (New Delhi, 1989), p. 106Google Scholar.
32 Barth, A., ‘Découvertes Récentes de M. le Dr. Führer au Népal’, Journal des Savants (1897), p. 68Google Scholar, translating “depuis plusieurs années le guidait dans ses explorations et en avait regulièrement interprété et publié les principaux résultats”.
33 Bühler, G., Academy, 1 June 1889, reprinted, American Journal of Archaeology 5 (1889), p. 482Google Scholar.
34 Bühler, G., Academy, 19 April 1890, reprinted, American Journal of Archaeology 6 (1890), p. 176Google Scholar.
35 Bühler, G., Academy, 7 February 1891, reprinted, American Journal of Archaeology, 7 (1891), p. 114Google Scholar.
36 Bühler, G., Academy, 18 April 1891, reprinted, American Journal of Archaeology 7 (1891), p. 117Google Scholar.
37 Accessions to the Lucknow Museum for March 1890 and March 1891. In Minutes of NWPO Provincial Museum Management Committee.
38 G. Bühler 1890, pp. 321–322 = Führer 1890–91, pp. 1–2; Progress Report; Bühler 1891, Academy, pp. 117–119, = Führer 1890–91, Academy, p.17; Progress Report, Bühler 1891, pp. 176–177, Kleine Mittheilungen = Führer 1890–91, Progress Report 17. See also: Bühler 1890, pp. 327–328 = (edited down) Führer 1890–91, Progress Report 15; Bühler 1890, pp. 328–329 = Führer 1890–91. Progress Report, 16; Progress Report, Bühler 1890, pp. 330–331 = Führer 1890–91, Progress Report 16–17.
39 Burgess, James, ‘Introduction’, in Führer, A. and Smith, Ed., The Sharqi Architecture of Jaunpur, (Calcutta, 1889)Google Scholar, p. iv. Cf James Burgess, ‘Sketch of Archaeological Research in India during Half a Century’, Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1905) Centenary Memorial Volume, p. 146. By 1905 Burgess knew a great deal that was damaging to Führer's reputation. With considerable restraint he merely wrote that Führer was an “educated officer”. He may have meant this as a statement of the process Führer had undergone, rather than as an evaluation of its result.
40 Singh, The Discovery of Ancient India, 2004, p. xvii.
41 Edward Charles Buck (1838–1916) was educated at Oakham school and Clare College Cambridge. He joined the ICS in 1862. As Secretary for Revenue and Agriculture in 1882 he experimented with crop improvements, built embankments, and cut out a layer of bureaucracy from the Land Revenue system. His opponents (“bullet-headed metallic-souled bureaucrats of the type so well-known in India”) thought his schemes impractical. A romantic of the old school, Buck's favourite occupation was “to plunge with a native hunter into a Himalayan forest, which he would penetrate before the dawn of day”. H.E.M.J., ‘The late Sir Edward Charles Buck’, Journal of Indian Art, 17 (1916), p. 74Google Scholar.
42 Anonymous, ‘Review of Jeypore Architecture’, Pioneer, 12 March 1891, p. 342.
43 On the Buck crisis see: Wood, W.G., A Short History of the Archaeological Department in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, (Calcutta, 1900)Google Scholar; Marshall, J.H., ‘Introduction’ in ASI Annual Report Number One, for 1902–3, ed. Marshall (Calcutta, 1904). pp. 1–13Google Scholar.
44 These annual Progress Reports of the Epigraphical Section of the Archaeological Survey, N.-W.P. and Oudh Circle are the primary source for Führer's career between 1891 and 1898. Cited as ‘Führer's 1892–93:20 Progress Report’.
45 Lucknow Museum Accessions list, March 1892, p. 1.
46 Führer 1892–93:28, Progress Report. On the unprovenanced inscription see: Lüders, Heinrich, ‘On some Brahmi Inscriptions in the Lucknow Provincial Museum’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1912), p. 167Google Scholar.
47 Führer 1892–93:2, Progress Report, cf with Führer, Monumental Antiquities, 1891, p. 27.
48 Führer 1891–92:3, Progress Report; Lüders, ‘on some Brahmi Inscriptions’, 1912, pp. 162–163.
49 Bühler 1892:II, pt x, p 91, Epigraphia Indica = Führer 1892, pp. 3–5, Progress Report. Lüders 1912, p. 167 explains how this plagiarism was committed.
50 Lüders, ‘on some Brahmi Inscriptions’, 1912, p. 167.
51 Führer 1892–93:28, Progress Report.
52 T.S. Burt and J. Prinsep, ‘More danams from the Sanchi tope near Bhilsa, taken in impression by Capt. T.S. Burt, Engineers. Translated by Jas. Prinsep’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1838), pp.562–566; Cunningham, Alexander, Bhilsa Topes, (London, 1854)Google Scholar, Plate XIX.
53 ‘The most serious loss is that of Sir A. Cunningham's No.177 which . . . contains a second version of Ashoka's so-called Kosambi edict,’: G. Bühler, ‘Votive inscriptions from the Sanchi Stupas’, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II (1894), p. 87. James Burgess, the Editor, added a footnote suggesting that it might “possibly have been overlooked by Dr Führer in his hurried visit”.
54 G. Bühler, ‘Further Inscriptions from Sanchi’, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. II (1894), p. 366.
55 Führer 1892–93:29, Progress Report.
56 The contentious word is not mage / magga (‘road’), but samage / samagga (‘being united’). Samagga is a Vinaya technicality meaning a non-schismatic community that lives together within agreed monastic boundaries. See V i 104.
57 Lieutenant-Governor's Resolution on the NWPO Progress Reports for 1892–93, 11 August 1893.
58 Scott, George, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States (Rangoon, 1900), Part I, Vol. II, p. 176Google Scholar.
59 Anon [Forchhammer], List of Objects of Antiquarian and Archaeological Interest in British Burma (Rangoon, 1884); Forchhammer, E., The Jardine Prize Essay (Rangoon, 1885)Google Scholar; Forchhammer, E., Pagan I. The Kyaukku Temple, (Rangoon, 1891)Google Scholar.
60 Forchhammer 1891:11–15.
61 Führer, Pagan I, The Kyaukku Temple, pp. 11.
62 Richard Temple, Editorial footnote to: Houghton, B., ‘A Rejoinder’, Indian Antiquary, Vol. 23 (1894), p. 167Google Scholar.
63 Führer 1893–94:20, Progress Report.
64 Duroiselle, Charles, Report of the Archaeological Survey, Burma, for the year ending 31st March 1921 (Rangoon, 1921), p. 21Google Scholar.
65 Duroiselle, Charles, A list of inscriptions found in Burma. Part I (Rangoon, 1921), p. iiGoogle Scholar.
66 Louis Finot, ‘Chronique’, Bulletin d'École Français d'Extrême Orient, Vol. 22 (1922), pp. 208–209, translating “C'est la trop fameux Dr. Führer . . .” and “. . . dans cette scandaleuse carrière de fausseur qui devait, quelques années plus tard, trouver son term à Kapilavastu”.
67 H. Burney, ‘Discovery of Buddhist Images with Deva-nagari Inscriptions at Tagaung, the ancient capital of the Burmese Empire’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1836), pp. 157–164; Hatthipala Jataka (#509 of the Pali Collection). The samodhana to this birth-story states that the father of the four children Hatthipala, Gopala, Assapala and Ajapala, was reborn in the Buddha's lifetime as Mahakassapa, his chief disciple. Perhaps it was this that prompted Führer to equip Tagaung with a monastery named after Mahakassapa.
68 Bühler, G., ‘Some Notes on Past and Future Archaeological Explorations in India’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1895), pp. 660, 656Google Scholar.
69 G. Bühler to G.A. Griersson of the Philological Section, 9 November 1894. Griersson forwarded it to Calcutta; Revenue and Agriculture Pros. No. 1–5, File 6 of July 1895.
