“Kailash Nath Dikshit (b.1936) is an eminent archaeologist, author and editor of numerous works on India’s civilization, and the organizer and director of many archaeological expeditions. He did his MA in Ancient Indian History and Archaeology from Lucknow University and Post-Graduate Diploma in Archaeology from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Dikshit joined ASI in 1957 and became its Joint Director General by serving in different positions from 1957 to 1994. He has travelled extensively and has been bestowed with many coveted national and international awards. He is still organizing the archaeological activities for the Indian Archaeological Society (IAS) in different parts of the country. He excavated many sites including Ujjain, Kalibangan, Bairat, Amkheri, Bargaon, Allahapur and Chiclim (Goa). Along the dried bed of Saraswati River, he investigated Nohar, Sothi and Sherpura. He also directed the project on ‘’Archaeology of Ramayana Sites’’ in collaboration with Professor B.B. Lal of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, and excavated Ayodhya, Shringverpur, Bhardwaj Ashram, Pariar and Chitrakoot. He also directed excavations at Hulas. He was awarded DAAD fellowship (1965-67). He has visited museums in Berlin, Paris, London, Cambridge, Rome and Cairo. Under Cultural Exchange Programme and International Conferences, he also visited Turkey (1983) and USSR (1984), Sri Lanka (1987), Paris (1989), Luanda, Angola (1990) for the reorganization of Armed Forces Museum. As visiting fellow, he has been to Kansai University, Japan (1991) and Ulanbator (Mangolia) (1993) for providing a report on the conservation of Buddhist monasteries. After his retirement in 1994, he directed the Kampilya excavation (2000-01) with Ca Foscari University, Venice and delivered lectures at Venice and Padova (2001). He visited Canada (2007) to attend the ICOMOS Conference. He attended the International Conference on Archaeology in Islamabad, Pakistan (2012), and was in Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa (2012) to conceptualize the image of Mahatama Gandhi at Pietermaritzburg Railway Station. He visited Kenya (2017) and Ethiopia for International Conference at Kisumu. In 2019, he visited Colombo (Sri Lanka) to attend the International Conference on Archaeology, History and Heritage, and also delivered a public lecture at University of Kelaniya (Colombo). He was bestowed with following National Awards: Allahabad Museum conferred Life Time Achievement Award as the best Archaeologist 2018. M.S. University, Baroda, honoured him for his contribution to South Asian Archaeology (2012). He was awarded Dr. Vishnu Sridhar Wakankar Rashtriya Samman, Bhopal (2010-11). He was conferred Member of General Assembly, ICCR (2016-19), Central Advisory Board of Archaeology (ASI) (2014- ), Committee on National Museum Institute (2019 -22). Dikshit has to his credit more than 150 research papers, reviewed more than 60 books, edited a number of books and journals including Archaeological Perspectives of India since Independence, Neolithic-Chalcolithic Cultures of Eastern India, co-edited Megalithic Cultures of South India, and has been editing Puratattva and History Today. He was honoured with DLitt by Deccan College. “