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. Cunningham founded and led the Archaeological Survey of India and played a central role in identifying and documenting major ancient and Buddhist sites. Alexander Cunningham was born in London, England.

In Charles Allen’s The Buddha and the Sahibs, the story brings together Orientalists, soldiers, surveyors and archaeologists including James Prinsep and Alexander Cunningham, whose work helped recover the reign of Ashoka and map major Buddhist centres. Allen treats the process as historical detective work while also showing how colonial institutions made scholarship, collecting and excavation possible.