Some time ago, I briefly mentioned the first archaeological society in Delhi, founded by the British Resident Sir Thomas Metcalfe in the 1840s. I wanted to revisit this topic, so I went back through some archival material to explore it further. Today’s post is focused on exactly that: the Delhi Archaeological Society. The image above is a very early photograph of ruins from the Qutub area (Mehrauli) around 1911. Although this is from a private album and not from the same time period, the Qutub area was one of the places where the society was most active, so it felt fitting to include it.
The first meeting of the Delhi Archaeological Society was held on April 5, 1847, and its transactions were published in the Delhi Gazette, a newspaper at the time. The meeting was attended by 17 interested members, with T. Palmer presiding. Thomas Metcalfe was present, but he was only an ordinary member. Among the 'native' members of the society were Nawab Ziauddin Khan of Loharu (Mirza Ghalib’s father-in-law) and Pir Ibrahim Khan, the Native Agent of Bahawalpur. Interestingly, the first meeting wasn’t even focused on Delhi itself; instead, the discussion centered around donations of ‘glazed bricks and tiles’—one of which had part of an inscription brought from Ghuznee by an officer. Metcalfe himself donated ‘coins of Tughlaq and Khalji (?) sovereigns found at Sirsa’. The society was also keen to receive journals from the Literary Society of Madras and the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and it needed funds to start its own publication.
Subsequent meetings in 1847 reveal that Thomas Metcalfe’s son, Theo Metcalfe, became involved in the society, either as a member or by attending its meetings. Theo would later become infamous for his role in retribution against Delhi after the Rebellion of 1857. By this time, the society had grown and was becoming more Delhi-focused. It had 55 ordinary members by April 1848 and was hailed as a "depository of the large amount of antiquarian lore" in the region. The society conducted researches at sites like the Jama Masjid and Firozabad, funded by a man named Mr. Thomasson. His contributions also helped build a collection of numismatic specimens in silver and copper. Although the newspaper trail runs dry after this point, we know that the society eventually carried out excavations at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory.
There are a few key takeaways here: while ‘native’ participation did occur, the society’s agenda was firmly shaped by representatives of the East India Company. Nevertheless, as others have pointed out, the networks fostered by the society led to a rise in Indian scholarship on Delhi’s ancient monuments. The most notable of these contributions was Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Asar-us-Sanadid.
For now, I’ll leave it at that but here is an another treat, a very early image from the same album on Mehrauli/Qutub.
More on Delhi next Friday.
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