Nayanjot Lahiri is Professor of History, Ashoka University and academic coordinator of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research there. She has authored and edited over a dozen books, including The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes (1992), Finding Forgotten Cities- How the Indus Civilization was Discovered (2005), Monuments Matter – India’s Archaeological Heritage Since Independence (2017), Time Pieces – A Whistle-Stop Tour of Ancient India (2018) and Searching for Ashoka – Questing a Buddhist King from India to Thailand (2022). She won the Infosys Prize 2013
in the Humanities-Archaeology and was the 2016 awardee of the John F. Richards prize for her book Ashoka in Ancient India (2015).
About the book (Bandhavgarh Beyond Tigers – Human Life in an Ancient Jungle, Westland Books).

In every era, forests have been inhabited by humans, from prehistoric hunter- gatherers to traders and travellers. In this book Nayanjot Lahiri and her collaborators recount that history through the cultural imprints that lie scattered across the hill slopes, swamps and flatlands of the iconic Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh. 

Drawing on extensive field work, studies in archaeology, history and ecology, Bandhavgarh Beyond Tigers explores how human activity has shaped, and been shaped by the hills, forests, rivers and meadows of this remarkable landscape. 

Richly illustrated with more than 500 images, the book offers an unprecedented account of Bandhavgarh and addresses a larger question: how can archaeology be undertaken in India’s forests, and how can the evidence found there be woven into the histories that encompass not just rulers and kingdoms, but the landscapes and communities beyond them? A book of remarkable scope, this work is for anyone interested in the human histories hidden in India’s forests.