Alois Anton Führer

Alois Anton Führer (26 Nov. 1853, Limburg an der Lahn, Germany – 5 Nov. 1930 Binningen, Switzerland) was a German Indologist who worked for the Archaeological Survey of India. He is known for his archaeological excavations, which he believed proved that Gautama Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal.

Alois Anton Führer was born on 26 November 1853 in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany into a German Catholic family. He studied Roman Catholic theology and Oriental studies at the University of Würzburg, ordinated in 1878 and received 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 (now Mumbai). He left the Catholic Church around 1884 and converted to Anglicanism which cost him his job and he returned to Germany where he applied for new job in museum in Lucknow.

Führer came back to India in 1885 and on his arrival Alfred Comyn Lyall appointed him Curator of the Lucknow Provincial Museum. Führer started work in March and 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. 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. As his Progress Reports show, he was part of the N-W.P. and Oudh Circle of the Archaeological Survey.

In 1896 he received permission from the government of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh and the Government of India to carry out an expedition to Nepal. Führer carried out very successful excavations at Mathura between 1889 and 1891 which improved understaning of the history of Jainism and gained him reputation. Accompanied by the local Nepalese governor, General Khadga Shamsher, Führer discovered Ashoka’s pillar, an inscription on which, together with other evidence, confirmed Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha. This discovery was disputed in a 2008 book by British writer Charles Allen.

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