author
Robert Sewell
1845–1925
Best known for bringing the lost world of Vijayanagar to a wider audience, this British civil servant turned archival detective helped preserve key records of South Indian history. His work still matters to readers interested in India’s past, inscriptions, and vanished empires.
1 Audiobook
A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India
by Robert Sewell, active 16th century Fernão Nunes, active 16th century Domingos Paes
About the author
Working in the civil service of the Madras Presidency, he later became Keeper of the Madras Record Office, where he was closely involved in documenting inscriptions, monuments, and other historical remains in South India. That practical archival work shaped the books and reference works for which he is remembered.
He is especially associated with A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar), a lively historical study that introduced many readers to the history of the Vijayanagara Empire. He also compiled lists of antiquarian remains and wrote on Indian chronology and epigraphy, helping organize source material that later historians would continue to use.
Born on June 4, 1845, and dying on December 30, 1925, he belonged to a generation of colonial administrators whose official duties overlapped with early historical and archaeological research. Today he is chiefly remembered as a careful recorder of South Indian history, even as modern readers may place his work within the wider context of British rule in India.