Tributes Pour in as Archaeologist Shereen Ratnagar Passes Away
New Delhi: Archaeologist and historian Shereen F. Ratnagar, one of India's foremost historical scholars, passed away on May 25. She was 82.
Ratnagar, a former professor of archaeology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was an authority on the Harappan civilisation.
Educated at Pune’s Deccan College and the University College London’s Institute of Archaeology, her books include Understanding Harappa: Civilisation in the Greater Indus Valley (2006), The End of the Great Harappan Tradition (2002), Encounter: The Westerly Trade of the Harappa civilisation (1981), Enquiries into the Political organisation of Harappan Society (Ravish Publishers, 1991), Trading Encounters: From the Euphrates to the Indus in the Bronze Age, (OUP, 2004). She had also written several research papers on the subject.
Ratnagar had also been one of the key voices in divorcing the subcontinent's history from its inaccurate and Hindutva retelling. In 2016, asked by The Wire on her views on the Sangh parivar's tendency to draw similarities between the Rgvedic Age and the Indus Valley civilisation, both in terms of chronology and culture, she had called these, "tiresome old questions."
"One wonders how many proponents of the ‘Harappan civilisation is equal to Rgvedic culture’ theory know the language of the Rgveda," she had said.
Ratnagar retired from JNU in 2000 and had lived in Mumbai since.
Ratnagar was an expert witness for the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ayodhya title suit litigation and had challenged the Archaeological Survey of India's 2003 excavation findings at the disputed site.
Tributes have poured in from readers and fellow scholars on social media.
The passing of Prof. Shireen Ratnagar is an immense loss to Indian archaeology and ancient Indian history. She has left behind a huge body of work that will guide scholars and all those interested to understand the Harappan period as well as several other questions about the…
— S lrfan Habib एस इरफान हबीब عرفان حبئب (@irfhabib) May 26, 2026
Shireen Ratnagar passed away last night. She was a phenomenal teacher & archaeologist.I was lucky to have been taught by her. Only she could walk into a class holding a stone & ask, what is this,& when someone muttered a stone, roar No, it’s a stone tool. Go well, Shireen. pic.twitter.com/l9qAa66BhG
— G.Arunima (@anuarunima1) May 26, 2026
Shireen Ratnagar's work was path breaking. Saluts and more. Scholars and human beings like her are rare special #ShireenRatnagar #Harappa https://t.co/eEtZUXJE7x
— Teesta Setalvad (@TeestaSetalvad) May 26, 2026
Shereen Ratnagar (1944–2026) was a fearless historian who taught us how we understand the Indus Valley Civilization. Clear, critical and deeply grounded in evidence, her work taught us to question easy narratives about the past. We all religiously read Understanding Harappa in DU pic.twitter.com/HgToSEVbHG
— Eshan Sharma (@iameshansharma_) May 26, 2026
This article went live on May twenty-sixth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-eight minutes past twelve at noon.Dr Shireen Ratnagar, eminent archaeologist and fiercely outspoken critic of the right wing rewriting of history passed away in Mumbai this morning.
May she rest in peace. A Wikipedia article on her...https://t.co/jBIHFa5pGy pic.twitter.com/0adkGkjj6q— Ashwin Baindur (@ashwin_baindur) May 26, 2026
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