B. Lewis Rice

Benjamin Lewis Rice CIE (17 July 1837 – 10 July 1927), popularly known as B. L. Rice, was a British historian, archaeologist and educationist. He is known for his pioneering work in deciphering inscriptions, especially in Kannada, and in Sanskrit inscriptions in the Kingdom of Mysore and is eulogized as Shasanapitamaha (transl. Grandsire of Epigraphy) or Purathathva Pitamaha (transl. Grandsire of Archaeology) Rice's researches were published as the voluminous Epigraphia Carnatica which contains translations of about 9000 inscriptions he found in the Old Mysore area. Rice also compiled the much acclaimed Mysore Gazetteer which still remains the primary source of information for most places in Mysore and neighbouring Coorg. Rice served with distinction in the Mysore civil service and as first Director of the Mysore State Archaeology Department.