P.B. Desai

Pandurangrao Bhimrao Desai 1910 - 1974 is a renouned epigraphist and historian and archaeologist.

Early years

Desai was born in Gurmitkal village Gulbarga District on 24th of December in 1910. Panduranga was the youngest among five sons and faced some early hardships due to the loss of his father when he was still young. Coming from a economically backword area which came under the domains of the Nizam of Hyderabad, he was fortunate to get formal education in his early years. He was a polyglot, being well versed in Kannada, Marathi and Urdu, Telugu besides English. His Masters degree was in Sanskrit but had to discontinue studies due to personal hardships. His ability to speak different languages and his innate ability to decipher ancient epigraphs made him a scholar very early.

Curiosity in history

During his days as an young man, he developed an interest in collecting ancient Kannada inscriptions and epigraphs. He started his work at Kuknur, now located in Koppal district in north Karnataka. He collected over 200 Kannada inscriptions from here. In medievel times, Kuknur had been a great center of learning and many monuments built by the Rashtrakutas and Kalyani Chalukyas are found here, including the famous navalinga temples. He also undertook the study of temple architecture, sculptures and memorial stones.

Further studies

Desai restarted his education again and got a B.A. degree from Karnatak college Dharwad in 1935 and an M.A. degree from Bombay University. His first book History of Vijayanagar empire 1936 established him as a historian of repute. In his book Desai asserts that the founders of Vijayanagar Empire never belonged to the Telugu region and the story of their captivity and conversion to Islam by the Sultan of Delhi is false. He further asserts that epigraphal evidence proves that the area around Hampi was the home of the Sangama brothers, the founding kings of the empire.

Epigraphist

He joined the Department of Archeology, of Government of India in 1939 and deciphered over a thousand inscriptions from Mumbai-Karnataka region as well as Tamil and Telugu inscriptions. Desai went on to become Head of Department, Ancient Indian Historry and Culture, Karnatak University.

Contributions

As an epigraphist, his knowledge and command over several south Indian languages as well as Sanskrit made his analysis unquestionable and he made many a contribution to local journals as well as international journals like Epigraphia Indica. Some of his famous works are,

History of Vijayanagar empire
Corpus of Kannada inscriptions from Hyderabad
Jainism in South India and some Jaina Inscriptions
Basaveshvara and his times
Shasanaparichaya
History of Ancient India in Kannada

As an archaeologist and historian , his lasting contributions are

Discovery of Buddhist centers in Karnataka
Works on Shakti cult
Panduranga of Pandharpur and history of place names

He brought out glory of Karnataka beyond the region and the country and created awareness, through several literary works. He was a prolific writer in Kannada.

Desai wrote thirty books in Kannada, ten books in English, one in Marathi and published four hundred and twenty articles in English and Kannada.

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