Alexander Cunningham

Alexander Cunningham served as an engineer in the Bengal Army while developing a sustained interest in Indian antiquities, inscriptions and historical geography. He used textual evidence, coins and field observation to identify ancient sites and reconstruct routes described by early travellers.

Cunningham became the first Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India and organised systematic archaeological investigation across the subcontinent. His work on Buddhist monuments and sites helped establish archaeology as an institutional discipline in British India.