BUHLER DROWNS HIMSELF AFTER FAKE DISCOVERIES

Alois Anton Furer's Fake Buddha Discoveries

Georg Buhler (1837-1898), the German scholar who translated Manusmriti, drowned in Lake Constance, on 8 April 1898, under mysterious circumstances. He supposedly committed suicide after his pupil Alois Anton Führer's fake archaeological discoveries in India. Buhler had generously endorsed Führer's fake "discoveries", and Fuhrer had plagiarised Buhler's documents.

Lake Constance, where Buhler committed suicide, refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance, Lower Lake Constance, and a connecting stretch of the Rhine called the Lake Rhine. These water bodies lie within the Lake Constance Basin in the Alpine Foreland through which the Rhine flows. The lake is situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. Its shorelines lie in the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, and Schaffhausen, and the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.

Contemporary accounts mostly attributed Buhler's drowning to an accident. An obituary of him by Austrian Indologist Moritz Winternitz, "Georg Buhler in Memoriam" states that "while enjoying alone in a small boat a beautiful evening on the Lake of Constance, he seems to have lost an oar, and in trying to recover it, to have overbalanced himself". But it has been speculated that it was a suicide motivated by Bühler's connections to a scandal involving his former student Alois Anton Führer. (1) Führer (1853 – 1930) was a German Indologist who worked for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). (2) He is known for his archaeological excavations, which he believed proved that Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal. (3) 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. (4)

Buhler

On that fateful day, Buhler was travelling from Vienna to Zurich, to spend the Easter vacation with his wife and son, who were staying there with relatives. He left Vienna on 5 April and broke his journey at Lindau in Lake Constance. According to Winternitz, he was probably tempted by the fine weather and wanted to enjoy roaring before proceeding to Zurich. (5) On the 7th, after rowing with a small hired boat, he returned to the hotel. On the next day, he hired the same boat to take another trip. He was last seen at about 7 pm. The next day the boat was found floating bottom upwards on the lake. Buhler had not informed his wife about the travel, which is suspicious.

T A Phleps, who wrote, Lumbini on Trial: The Untold Story, raised the question of whether it was an accident. (6) British Writer Charles Allen opined that Buhler must have committed suicide considering possible defamation for upholding and publishing forged material, particularly related to the "discovery" of Buddha's birthplace. During the last years of his life, Buhler was connected to Alois Anton Führer, an archaeologist in the Archaeological Survey of India. Führer, who joined the ASI in 1885, "was engaged in plagiarism since 1882, the nature of which not only escaped the notice of many scholars but on the contrary, they considered it as a work of serious scholarship."(7)

Führer was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, into a Catholic family. He studied Roman Catholic theology and Oriental studies at the University of Würzburg, was ordained in 1878 and received his PhD in 1879. His Sanskrit lecturer, Julius Jolly, was associated with the Bombay School of Indology. Probably due to him, he was appointed as a teacher of Sanskrit at St Xavier's Institute in Bombay. (8)

Julius Jolly (1849 – 1932) was a German scholar and translator of Indian law and medicine. Born in Heidelberg, the son of physicist Philipp Johann Gustav von Jolly (1809–1884), Jolly studied comparative linguistics, Sanskrit, and Iranian languages in Berlin and Leipzig.  Jolly became a Professor at the University of Würzburg in 1877, in the fields of comparative linguistics and Sanskrit. In 1882–1883 he visited India as Tagore professor of law, Calcutta, where he gave twelve lectures later published as Outlines of a History of the Hindu Law of Partition, Inheritance and Adoption (1885).

In 1896, Jolly contributed to Grundriss der Indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde (Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research), later revised by Jolly and in 1928 translated by Balakrishna Ghosh, under the title Hindu Law and Custom. In this volume, Jolly discussed family law and heirship, the law of things and obligations, offences and penalties, court procedures, customs and traditions. In 1901 he also contributed a study of Indian medicine, still considered one of the most complete studies of the history of Indian medical literature.

Jolly edited the law books of Vishnu, Narada, and Manu, and translated the first two for the Sacred Books of the East (Vol. 7, The Institutes of Visnu, 1880; and Vol. 33, The Minor Law-Books: Brihaspati, 1889). He retired in 1922, when he became co-editor of the Journal of Indian History, but continued to give lectures in Würzburg till 1928. He published a new critical edition of Kautilya's Arthashastra in collaboration with R. Schmidt in the Panjab Sanskrit Series, 1923–1924.

Following Jolly's footprints, in 1882, Führer was able to publish two lectures about Hindu Law in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (9) The lectures were entirely plagiarized from earlier works: only about one-tenth of the content is his own. (10) Führer left the Catholic Church around 1884 and converted to Anglicanism which cost him his job; he returned to Germany, from where he applied for a new job in the museum in Lucknow in India. (11)

Führer came back to India in 1885 and on his arrival, Alfred Comyn Lyall appointed him Curator of the Lucknow Provincial Museum. Führer 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 Archaeological Survey of India. (12) 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. He was part of the N-W.P. and Oudh Circle of the Archaeological Survey. (13)

In 1886, the turning point came: Führer was instructed by the government of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh and the Government of India to carry out an expedition to Nepal. (14)

But, from 1888, there was severe lobbying aimed at reducing Government expenses and curtailing the budget of the Archaeological Survey of India, a period of about ten years known as the "Buck crisis", after the Liberal Edward Buck. (15) 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. (16) These existential threats to his livelihood may have become "a motive for misbehaviour" on the part of Führer. Buck announced in 1892 that the Archaeological Survey of India would be shut down and all ASI staff would be dismissed by 1895, to generate savings for the Government's budget. (17) The prospect of being fired may have prompted Führer to act recklessly with his discoveries in a desperate attempt to avoid that fate. He may have thought a great discovery within the next three years might be able to turn public opinion and save the funding of the ASI. (18)

So, in 1891, Führer started excavations at the Ramnagar site of Ahichchhatra. (19) The excavations were quite disappointing. (20) 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. (21) German Indologist Heinrich Lüders would later be able to show that the supposed Jain inscriptions were fakes compiled from earlier real inscriptions found in Mathura. (22) 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". (23)

Führer also went to Sanchi during the 1891–1892 season and recovered tens of unpublished donative inscriptions, but these could not have the impact he hoped for. (24) Only a new inscription by King Ashoka achieved sufficient impact on public opinion. (25)

Führer carried out very successful excavations at the Kankali Tila site of Mathura between 1889 and 1891 which improved his understanding of the history of Jainism and gained him a reputation "as the most successful of the professional excavators".(26) Still, Führer's reports continued to be the result of extensive plagiarization, taking especially from the work of his superior Georg Bühler at that time, although this is not clear-cut and may only be the result of intensive cooperation between the two. (27) Führer's reports are also noted for being particularly vague and lacking details. (28)

Fuhrer

In 1912, Lüders 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. (29) Some of the forged inscriptions were direct copies of inscriptions on other objects, previously published in Epigraphia Indica. (30)

Führer was on a survey tour to Burma, in 1893–1894. In 1894, he declared a "'path-breaking discovery" of three ancient Gupta inscriptions he said he found at Pagan and Tagaung in Burma. The "discovery" pushed back the epigraphical knowledge of interactions with India by close to six centuries, generating huge acclaim. (31) He published the "discovery" in his Progress Reports of the Epigraphical Section in the Working Season of 1893–94. He elaborated a 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. (32) Large extracts of his report were reproduced in The Indian Antiquary Vol-xxiv (1895). (33) His "discovery" was taken at face value, and its conclusions were repeated by many scholarly works such as the Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States in 1900, before being adopted by popular works as well: "By the early 1900s, anyone with an interest in the archaeology of Burma had ample opportunity to read about the Gupta inscriptions in Fuhrer's own words". (34)

It was only uncovered many years later that the inscriptions were actually inexistent, a fact revealed openly by Charles Duroiselle in 1921: "This Sanskrit inscription never existed, but was invented in toto by Dr Fuhrer while on a tour in Burma". (35) 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 Hatthipala Jataka. (36) These events marked "a scandalous career of forgery which would some years later, come to an end in Kapilavastu". (37)

The Nigali Sagar pillar (also called the "Nigliva" pillar) of Ashoka, initially discovered by a Nepalese officer on a hunting expedition in 1893, (38) was inspected by Furer in March 1895, and he also "identified" a Brahmi inscription said to be from the time of Ashoka. (39)Besides, Führer made a detailed description of the remains of a monumental "Konagamana stupa" near the Nigali Sagar pillar, (40) which was later discovered to be an imaginative construct. (41) Fuhrer 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. (42) In the following years, inspections of the site showed that there were no such archaeological remains. Every word of Führer's description was false. (43) It was finally understood in 1901 that Führer had copied almost word-for-word this description from a report by Alexander Cunningham about the stupas in Sanchi. (44)

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. (45) Georg Bühler, writing in July 1895 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, continued to advocate for the preservation of the ASI, and expressed that what was needed were "new authentic documents" from the pre-Ashokan period, and they would "only be found underground". (46)

In 1896, accompanied by the regional Nepalese governor, former Commander-In-Chief of the Nepalese Army General Khadga Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana, Führer "discovered" a major inscription on a pillar of Ashoka, an inscription which, together with other evidence, confirmed Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha. (47)The pillar itself had been known for some time already, reported by Khadga Shamsher to Vincent Arthur Smith a few years earlier. (48) 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 metre under the surface. (49) He 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". (50) The authenticity of the "discovery" remained doubtful, (51) and was openly disputed in a 2008 book by British writer Charles Allen. (52)

Fuhrer's report on discoveries in Nepal

Following the "discovery" of the pillar, Führer relied on the accounts of ancient Chinese pilgrims to search for Kapilavastu, which he thought had to be in Tilaurakot. Unable to find anything, he started excavating some structures he said were stupas. In the act of faking pre-Mauryan inscriptions on bricks, he was caught by Vincent Arthur Smith. (53) The inscriptions were bluntly characterized by Smith as "impudent forgeries". (54)

Führer was again involved in a major discovery in January 1898: the reliquaries at Piprahwa. But he arrived only after the discovery was made, and did not have time to tamper with the evidence. (55)

Around the same time, Führer was selling fake relics "authentified" by a nonexistent inscription of Upagupta, the preceptor of Ashoka, to Shin U Ma, an important monk in Burma. (56) 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". (57) 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. (58) The forgery was reported in 1898 to the British North-Western Provinces Government in India by Burmologist and member of the Burma commission Bernard Houghton. An enquiry led to Führer's resignation on 16 September 1898. (59)

Führer had come under suspicion in March 1898 following the reported forgeries of the Buddha's relics. (60) A formal inquiry was launched into his activities, but officials struggled to find a "printable" reason for Führer's dismissal. (61) Führer was officially confronted by Vincent Arthur Smith, who reported the forgeries of the Buddha's relics. (62) Führer was exposed as "a forger and dealer in fake antiquities". (63) 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 [the report] was absolutely false." (64) 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. (65) The false publication of the ancient Burmese inscriptions, the object of an institutional cover-up, would not come to light before 1921, with the revelation of their inexistence made by Charles Duroiselle. (66)

Führer was relieved of his positions, his papers seized and his offices inspected by Smith on 22 September 1898. (67) Führer had written in 1897 a monograph on his discoveries in Nigali Sagar and Lumbini, Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birthplace in the Nepalese tarai, (68)which was withdrawn from circulation by the Government. (69)

Führer was dismissed and returned to Europe with his family. He died on 5 November 1930 in Binningen, Switzerland.

Vincent Arthur Smith, after retirement in 1901, revealed 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". (70) Smith said of Führer's description of the archaeological remains at Nigali Sagar that "every word of it is false", and characterized several of Führer's epigraphic discoveries as "impudent forgeries". (71) However, Smith never challenged the authenticity of the Lumbini pillar inscription and the Nigali Sagar inscription "discovered" by Führer. (72)

Lumbini pillar inscription

These "discoveries", at the time they were made, generated fantastic praise for the work of Führer. (73) According to the New York Post (3 May 1896) the Nigliva discovery "seems to carry the origin of Buddhism much further back". (74) The Liverpool Mercury (29 December 1896) reported 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". (75) The Pall Mall Gazette (18 April 1898) related that the Piprahwa discovery "contains no less a relic than the bones of the Buddha himself". (76)

Führer was replaced as Curator of the Lucknow Museum by Edmund Smith, previously the Province's Architectural Surveyor. (77) The excavations in the Nepal Terai were entrusted to Babu Purna Chandra Mukherji, who published the results of his investigations in 1903 in A Report on a Tour of Exploration of the Antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal, the Region of Kapilavastu, in which Smith included an introduction entitled "Preparatory note" which details several of the forgeries made by Führer. (78)

Führer had an unusual religious career. He served as a Catholic priest, but in 1887 converted to Anglicanism. Following his expulsion from government service in India, Führer made plans to become a Buddhist monk. Quoting the Ceylon Standard, the Journal of the Mahabodhi Society 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 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."(79) These plans seem to have come to nothing because in 1901 Führer re-converted to the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland and worked as a priest from 1906 to 1930. (80) 

The connection that Führer had with Buhler was extraordinary-While working with the ASI, he sent impressions of many inscriptions, supposedly found during the excavation, to Buhler in Vienna, who deciphered and validated them. Huxley sees this as a joint venture of Führer and Buhler. (81) Buhler had no chance to see the originals of any of the inscriptions excavated by Führer. Führer wrote false reports, drawing from Buhler's work of Sanchi and Mathura and inserted it in his Ramanagar account. "This wholesale deception appears to have passed completely unnoticed during this period," Phelps writes, "including apparently by Buhler himself." (82)

Further, Phelps remarks: "Immediately following Führer's exposure in 1898, Buhler drowned in Lake Constance in mysterious circumstances, and since he had enthusiastically endorsed all of Führer's supposed discoveries, one cannot help but wonder whether this tragedy was accidental."

Charles Allen suggests that Führer must have sent from Lucknow copies of his "preliminary brief report on the results of the Nepalese excavations...1897-198" and proof copies of Antiquities of Buddha Sakyamuni's Birthplace in the Nepalese Tarai to Buhler in Vienna. If Buhler had compared the two documents, he would have realised that Führer's "discoveries," which were fully endorsed and lauded in print by Buhler were bogus. (83) Allen ascertains that Buhler had indeed taken his own life after he was led to believe that the Priprahwa inscription was another fraud by Führer. (84)

The re-conversion of Führer proved the design of the missionaries about India. Georg Buhler, who had acknowledged Fuhrer's "discoveries", had also a missionary background- he was the son of a priest, Rev. Johann G. Bühler in Borstel, Hanover. Führer had studied Roman Catholic theology. After re-conversion, he is said to have been the Professor of Indian languages at Basel University, but it seems that he only applied for this post and was rejected. Instead, he worked from 1906 as a pastor in Binningen near Basel.

If the fraud was a joint venture, as Huxley suspected, it would have been a missionary design, to appropriate Buddha.

______________________

1. Charles Allen (2010), The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal, Penguin Books India, pp. 173–176

2. "Fuehrer, Alois Anton (1853-1930)". Indologica - Digitalisate (in German). 21 September 2010

3. Führer, AA (1897). Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's Birth-Place in the Nepalese Tarai. Allahabad: Government Press, North-Western Provinces and Oudh. pp. 1–48.

4. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2015). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. pp. 235–236.

5. Winternitz,  Moritz, Georg Buhler in Memoriam, Indian Antiquary 1898, 27:337-349, quoted in Amruta Chintaman Natu, Georg Buhler's Death: Perception and Possibility, 2019, Centre of Jaina Studies, News Letter, SOAS, University of London, March 2019, Issue 14

6. ibid

7. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 490

8. ibid, 20 (4): 489–502.

9. ibid, 20 (4): 490 

10. ibid

11. 20 (4): 489–502

12. ibid

13. ibid

14. ibid, 492

15. ibid, 496–498

16. ibid, 496–498

17. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 66.

18. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 496–498

19. ibid, "Some years later A. Führer undertook the excavation of a temple without much result." in Possehl, Gregory L. (2003). "Ahichchhatra". Oxford Art Online

20. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 496–498

21. ibid

22. ibid

23. ibid

24. ibid

25. ibid

26. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 494–495.

27. ibid

28. ibid

29. Allen, Charles (2010). The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal. Penguin Books India. p. 242, Lüders, H. (1912). "On Some Brahmi Inscriptions in the Lucknow Provincial Museum". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 44: 153–179.

30. ibid

31. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 499–502.

32. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 59–82.

33. Education Society’s Press, Byculla Bombay (1895). The Indian Antiquary Vol-xxiv(1895). p. 275 "Source of Sanskrit words in Burmese"

34. Harvey, G. E. (2019). History of Burma: From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824 The Beginning of the English Conquest. Routledge. p. 211

35. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 60–61

36. Duroiselle, Charles (1921). A list of inscriptions found in Burma. Rangoon Superintendent, Government Print., Burma. p. ii, note 1.

37. 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 in the order of their dates". Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient. 22: 208

38. In 1893 a Nepalese officer on a hunting expedition found an Asokan pillar near Nigliva, at Nigali Sagar." Falk, Harry (January 1998). The discovery of Lumbinī. p. 9

39. Smith, Vincent A. (1897). "The Birthplace of Gautama Buddha". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 616

40. Führer, Alois Anton (1897). Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai /. Allahabad : Govt. Press, N.W.P. and Oudh. p. 22

41. Thomas, Edward Joseph (2000). The Life of Buddha as Legend and History. Courier Corporation

42. "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 Rijal, Babu Krishna; Mukherji, Poorno Chander (1996). 100 Years of Archaeological Research in Lumbini, Kapilavastu & Devadaha. S.K. International Publishing House. p. 58.

43. Mukherji, P. C.; Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901). A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;. Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India. p. 4

44. Falk, Harry (January 1998). The discovery of Lumbinī. p. 11

45. Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 499–502

46. Bühler, G. (1895). "Some Notes on Past and Future Archœological Explorations in India". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 649–660, Huxley, Andrew (2010). "Dr Führer's Wanderjahre: The Early Career of a Victorian Archaeologist". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 20 (4): 499–502.

47. Weise, Kai (2013). The Sacred Garden of Lumbini: Perceptions of Buddha's birthplace. UNESCO. pp. 63–64

48. ibid

49. ibid

50. Thomas, Edward J. (2013). The Life of Buddha. Routledge. p. 18, note 3

51. Thomas, Edward J. (2002). History of Buddhist Thought. Courier Corporation. p. 155, note 1.

52. Allen, Charles (2008). The Buddha and Dr Führer: an archaeological scandal. London: Haus

53. Dhammika, Shravasti (2008). Middle Land, Middle Way: A Pilgrim's Guide to the Buddha's India. Buddhist Publication Society. p. 41. 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 East and West. Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. 1979. p. 66

54. Mukherji, P. C.; Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901). A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;. Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India. p. 4

55. Ciurtin, Eugen. "Review of Charles ALLEN, The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal [New Delhi: Penguin, 2010]": 542.

56. "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 extent of furnishing as proof fake relics of the Buddha, and a forged inscription of Upagupta, the preceptor of Ashoka..." in Singh, Upinder (2004). The discovery of ancient India: early archaeologists and the beginnings of archaeology. Permanent Black. p. 320. Mukherji, P. C.; Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901). A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;. Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India. p. 4

57. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 72–74

58. ibid, 19 (1): 72–74.

59. ibid  19 (1): 72–76

60. 19 (1): 74–77

61. 19 (1): 76–77

62. ibid

63. Beckwith, Christopher I. (2017). Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia. Princeton University Press. pp. 234–235

64. Willis, Michael (2012). "Dhār, Bhoja and Sarasvatī: from Indology to Political Mythology and Back". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 22 (1): 152.

65. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 76–77

66.  ibid, 19 (1): 76–77. 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 in the order of their dates". Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient. 22: 208

67. Willis, M. (2012). "Dhar, Bhoja and Sarasvati: From Indology to Political Mythology and Back". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 22 (1): 129–53

68. Führer, Alois Anton (1897). Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai. Allahabad : Govt. Press, N.W.P. and Oudh

69. Thomas, Edward Joseph (2000). The Life of Buddha as Legend and History. Courier Corporation. p. 18.

70. Mukherji, P. C.; Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901). A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu;. Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India. p. 4

71. ibid

72. Smith, vincent A. (1914). The Early History Of India Ed. 3rd. p. 169

73. Huxley, Andrew (2011). "Mr Houghton and Dr Führer: a scholarly vendetta and its consequences". South East Asia Research. 19 (1): 65

74. ibid

75. ibid

76. ibid

77. Allen, Charles (2010). The Buddha and Dr Führer: An Archaeological Scandal. Penguin Books India. p. 178

78. ibid

79. Anon, Journal of the Calcutta Mahabodhi Society 10.8-9 (December 1901 and January 1902), p. 1

80. Arx, Urs von (2005). In Marco Jorio, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz vol. 4, Basel: Schwabe

81. Huxley, p 495

82. Phelps, T A, Lumbini on Trial: The Untold Story, 2008. Quoted in Amruta Chintaman Natu, Georg Buhler's Death: Perception and Possibility, 2019, Centre of Jaina Studies, News Letter, SOAS, University of London, March 2019, Issue 14

83. Allen, p 165

84. Allen, 176

© Ramachandran