About
To conduct archaeological research and to protect, conserve and preserve India's cultural historical monuments, sites and antiquities nationwide.
The Archaeological Survey of India was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham and is the premier organisation for archaeological research and the protection of India's cultural monuments. [Atlas Assessment] Operating under the Ministry of Culture, it maintains and conserves more than three thousand protected monuments, among them many of the country's UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and its custodianship underpins the heritage layer of nearly every historic city on the Atlas.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham, a retired British Army engineer whose interest in Indian history and archaeology developed through his friendship with numismatist James Prinsep. Cunningham had lobbied unsuccessfully for a permanent archaeological body since 1848, having funded many of his own early excavations, before Viceroy Lord Canning finally established the Survey by statute in 1861, appointing Cunningham as the first Archaeological Surveyor. The Survey's operations were suspended for lack of funds between 1865 and 1871, and the post of Director-General was again suspended between 1889 and 1902 during a period of budget cuts known as the 'Buck crisis'. Cunningham's early surveys drew on the travel accounts of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang to identify major ancient sites, including Sarnath, Sanchi, Nalanda and Taxila. Under the Survey's third Director-General, John Marshall, the ASI began establishing its own site museums, starting with Sarnath in 1904, and a dedicated Museums Branch was created in 1946 under Mortimer Wheeler; the ASI now operates around 50 site museums nationwide. Today the ASI functions as a statutory body under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (AMASR Act), also overseeing the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, operating under India's Ministry of Culture and managing more than 3,650 centrally protected monuments and sites through a network of regional circles across the country.
Founding & Leadership
Initiatives & Portfolio
3,650+ centrally protected monuments.
Approx. 50 nationwide, Museums Branch est. 1946.
Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Adopt a Heritage scheme, AFCP.
The ASI's significance is foundational to nearly every heritage-conservation relationship documented elsewhere in this Atlas: it is the primary government authority behind major public-private conservation partnerships, including the Aga Khan Trust for Culture's restoration of Humayun's Tomb, DAG's Drishyakala museum at the Red Fort, the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation's India projects, and the 'Adopt a Heritage' scheme through which Dalmia Bharat Limited took responsibility for Red Fort tourist amenities. As a statutory regulatory body rather than a grant-making foundation, the ASI's role in this Atlas's funding ecosystem is structurally distinct: it is the gatekeeping government authority that other institutions' heritage-conservation work must operate through and be approved by, rather than itself a source of grant funding to cultural organisations.