Alois Anton Führer

383: 708:, who reported the forgeries of the Buddha's relics. Führer was exposed as "a forger and dealer in fake antiquities". Smith also blamed Führer for administrative failures in filing his reports to the Government, and for a false report about his preparations for future publications on his archaeological research: Führer was obliged to admit "that every statement in it was absolutely false." The false inscriptions supposed to authentify the Buddha relics were not mentioned in the investigations, apparently out of fear of casting doubt on the other epigraphical discoveries made by Führer. Similarly, the false publication of the ancient Burmese inscriptions, were the object of an institutional cover-up, which would not come to light before 1921, with the revelation of their inexistence made by 189: 367: 557: 716: 475: 644:. He wrote to the Burmese monk: "Perhaps you have seen from the papers that I succeeded in discovering the Lumbini grove where Lord Buddha was born", noting that "you have unpacked the sacred relics of our Blessed Lord Buddha which are undoubtedly authentic, and which will prove a blessing to those which worship them faithfully". An "authentic tooth relics of the Buddha" sent by Führer in 1896 turned out to have been carved from a piece of ivory, and another sent in 1897 was that of a horse. The forgery was reported in 1898 to the British 40: 466: 242: 423:, which pushed back the epigraphical knowledge of interactions with India by close to six centuries, generating huge acclaim. He elaborated a detailed description of the inscriptions he had supposedly found, without ever producing a drawing or a photographic proof, although he had a draftsman and a photographer with him on the expedition. Large extracts of his report were reproduced in 2369:"Fuhrer's attempt to associate the names of eighteen Sakyas, including Mahanaman, with the structures, on the false claim of writings in pre-Asokan characters, was fortunately foiled in time by V.A. Smith, who paid a surprise visit when the excavation was in progress. The forgery was exposed to the public." in 2767:

Finot, L. (1922). "Review of Report of the Superintendent, Archæological Survey, Burma, for the year ending 31st March 1921; Report of the Superintendent, Archæological Survey, Burma, for the year ending 31st March 1922; A List of Inscriptions found in Burma. Part 1. The List of Inscriptions arranged

1971:

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noted: "Much interest has been excited in Buddhist and other circles at the prospect of Dr Führer coming to Ceylon to join the Buddhist priesthood. The Press notices recently made regarding this gentleman have given rise to grave suspicion. We understand that Dr Führer will have an opportunity given

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In 1901, Vincent Arthur Smith, after retirement, chose to reveal the blunt truth about the Nepalese discoveries and published a stark analysis of Führer's activities, apparently worried that "the reserved language used in previous official documents has been sometimes misinterpreted". In particular,

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identified in the Lucknow Provincial Museum forged inscriptions in Brahmi on artefacts belonging to Führer's excavations at Mathura and Ramnagar, forgeries which he attributed to Führer himself. Some of the forged inscriptions were direct copies of inscriptions on other objects, previously published

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would be shut down and all ASI staff would be dismissed by 1895, in order to generate savings for the Government's budget. The prospect of being fired anyway may have prompted Führer to act recklessly with his discoveries in a desperate attempt to avoid that fate. A great discovery within the next

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stupa" near the Nigali Sagar pillar, which was later discovered to be an imaginative construct. Furher wrote that "On all sides around this interesting monument are ruined monasteries, fallen columns, and broken sculptures", when actually nothing can be found around the pillar. In the following

2386:"As pointed out by Smith, in his preparatory note to Mukharji's Report, the inscriptions were 'impudent forgeries', and Führer had even gone to the extentextent of furnishing as proof fake relics of the Buddha, and a forged inscription of Upagupta, the preceptor of Ashoka..." in 518:

years, inspections of the site showed that there were no such archaeological remains, and that, in respect to Führer's description "every word of it is false". It was finally understood in 1901 that Führer had copied almost word-for-word this description from a report by

282:. In effect, this severely threatened the employment of the employees of the ASI, including Führer, who had just started a family and become a father. These existential threats to his livelihood may have become "a motive for misbehaviour" on the part of Führer. 770:

Führer was replaced as Curator of the Lucknow Museum by Edmund Smith, previously the Province's Architectural Surveyor. The excavations in the Nepal Terai were entrusted to Babu Purna Chandra Mukherji, who published the results of his investigations in 1903 in

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For the time being, the announcement of these great "discoveries" succeeded in bringing the "Buck Crisis" to an end, and the ASI was finally allowed in June 1895 to continue operations, subject to yearly approval based on successful digs every year.

221:. He thus came to hold a double appointment, one as Curator at the museum and the other as Archaeological Surveyor to the North-Western Provinces. As his Progress Reports show, he was part of the N-W.P. and Oudh Circle of the Archaeological Survey. 217:. Führer started work in March and immediately set about improving the museum. Impressed by the changes, Lyall, the Chair of the Museum's Management Committee, wrote to Calcutta asking whether a part-time job for Führer could be found with the 2135:""On all sides around this interesting monument are ruined monasteries, fallen columns, and broken sculptures." This elaborate description was not supported by a single drawing, plan, or photograph. Every word of it is false." in 800:

him of refuting the charges made against him before he is accepted by the leading Buddhists here as an exponent of the religion of Buddha." These plans seem to have come to nothing because in 1901 Führer re-converted to the

538:, continued to advocate for the preservation of the Archaeological Survey of India, and expressed that what was needed were "new authentic documents" from the pre-Ashokan period, and they would "only be found underground". 298:. The excavations were quite disappointing. Pressured by the need to get results, Führer started to report invented discoveries, such as ancient dated inscriptions that never existed, and non-existent Jain inscriptions. 277:

From 1888 severe lobbying aimed at reducing Government expenses started, and at curtailing the budget of the Archaeological Survey of India, a period of about ten years known as the "Buck crisis", after the Liberal

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and gained him a reputation "as the most successful of the professional excavators". Still, Führer's reports continued to be the result of extensive plagiarization, taking especially from the work of his superior

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in 1900, before being adopted by popular works as well: "by the early 1900s, anyone with an interest in the archeology of Burma had ample opportunity to read about the Gupta inscriptions in Fuhrer's own words".

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at that time, although this is not clear-cut and may only be the result of intensive cooperation between the two. Führer's reports are also noted for being particularly vague and lacking details.

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a few year earlier. Führer made his great discovery when he dug the earth around the pillar and reported the discovery of the inscription in a pristine state about one meter under the surface.

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by Dr Fuhrer while on a tour in Burma". Source analysis shows that he imagined the content of these inscriptions by basing himself on older publications and a list of kings from the Indian

624:. Unable to find anything, he started excavating some structures he said were stupas, and was in the process of faking pre-Mauryan inscriptions on bricks, when he was caught in the act by 306:. In 1912 Lüders summarized "As all statements about epigraphical finds that admit of verification have proved to be false, it is very likely that no inscriptions at all have turned up". 502:

pillar (also called "Nigliva" pillar) was initially discovered by a Nepalese officer on a hunting expedition in 1893. In March 1895, Führer inspected the Nigali Sagar pillar, one of the

684:(29 December 1896) reports that the discovery that Lumbini (also called Paderia) was "the actual birthplace of the Buddha ought to bring devout joy to about 627,000,000 people". The 750:

Under official instructions from the Government of India, Führer's resignation was accepted and he was relieved of his positions, his papers seized and his offices inspected by

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that "every word of it is false", and characterized several of Führer's epigraphic discoveries as "impudent forgeries". However Smith never challenged the authenticity of the

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Führer claimed that the locals called the site "Rummindei", which he identified with the legendary "Lumbini", whereas it was found that the site was only called "Rupa-devi".

169:. Retrospectively, the lectures have been shown to be almost entirely plagiarized from earlier works: only about one-tenth of the content has been shown to be his own. 332:

during the 1891–1892 season and recovered tens of unpublished donative inscriptions, but these could not have the impact he hoped for. Only a new inscription by King

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A formal inquiry was launched into his activities, but officials struggled to find a "printable" reason for Führer's dismissal. Führer was officially confronted by

3125: 3140: 696:

Führer's archaeological career ended in disgrace. Führer came under suspicion from March 1898 following the reported forgeries of the Buddha's relics.

382: 134:. Führer's archaeological career ended in disgrace as "a forger and dealer in fake antiquities", and he had to resign from his position in 1898. 599:

as the birthplace of the Buddha. The pillar itself had been known for some time already, as it had already been reported by Khadga Shamsher to

815:

List of Christian tombs and monuments of archaeological or historical interest and their inscriptions in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh

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and member of the Burma commission Bernard Houghton, and started an enquiry which would lead to Führer's resignation on 16 September 1898.

2917: 1073:, see note 18 citing India Office Records, Archaeology and Epigraphy, Proceedings 4-18, File no. 6 of 1898, but however add Part B. 3135: 801: 584: 775:, in which A. Smith included an introduction entitled "Preparatory note" which details several of the forgeries made by Führer. 188: 3145: 3036: 2960: 2809: 2716: 2399: 2354: 2302: 2275: 2248: 2120: 1884: 1631: 1544: 1498: 1326: 814: 302:

would later be able to show that the supposed Jain inscriptions were fakes compiled from earlier real inscriptions found in

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It was only uncovered many years later that the inscriptions were actually inexistent, a fact which was revealed openly by

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Vol-xxiv (1895). His "discovery" was taken at face value, and its conclusions repeated by many scholarly works such as the

822:Śrīharṣacaritamahākāvyam - Bāṇabhaṭṭa's biography of King Harshavardhana of Sthāṇīśvara with Śaṅkara's commentary, Saṅketa 664:, but apparently arrived only after the discovery was made, and apparently did not have time to tamper with the evidence. 831: : a collection of inscriptions supplementary to the Corpus inscriptionum Indicarum, Calcutta: Government printing 366: 154:, was associated with the Bombay School of Indology. Probably due to him, he was appointed as a teacher of Sanskrit at 2327: 1296: 917: 791:. Following his expulsion from government service in India, Führer made plans to become a Buddhist monk. Quoting the 688:(18 April 1898) related that the Piprahwa discovery "contains no less a relic than the bones of the Buddha himself". 588: 447:. These events marked "a scandalous career of forgery which would, some years later, come to an end in Kapilavastu". 672:

These discoveries, at the time they were made, generated fantastic praise for the work of Führer. According to the

609:

The authenticity of the discovery has long been doubted, and was openly disputed in a 2008 book by British writer

2549:"Review of Charles ALLEN, The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal [New Delhi: Penguin, 2010]" 155: 616:

Following the discovery of the pillar, Führer relied on the accounts of ancient Chinese pilgrims to search for

344: 218: 119: 3078:, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 153–179 – via 754:

on 22 September 1898. Führer had written in 1897 a monograph on his discoveries in Nigali Sagar and Lumbini,

2015:"In 1893 a Nepalese officer on a hunting expedition found an Asokan pillar near Nigliva, at Nigali Sagar." 513:

Besides his description of the pillar, Führer made a detailed description of the remains of a monumental "

3130: 3094: 146:, Germany, into a German Catholic family. He studied Roman Catholic theology and Oriental studies at the 3088: 735: 617: 578: 214: 197: 176:

which cost him his job; he returned to Germany, from where he applied for a new job in the museum in

151: 2732:

WILLIS, MICHAEL (2012). "Dhār, Bhoja and Sarasvatī: from Indology to Political Mythology and Back".

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Around the same time, Führer was selling fake relics "authentified" by a nonexistent inscription of

147: 2980:

A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;

2978: 2166:

A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;

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Waddell, L. A.; Wylie, H.; Konstam, E. M. (1897). "The Discovery of the Birthplace of the Buddha".

556: 773:

A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu

1955: 1569:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

1227:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

1151:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

1095:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

987:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

933:

Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist".

645: 230: 2878: 1876:

History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest

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History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest

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History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest

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History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest

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