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'''Robert Sewell''' (1845–1925){{cncitation needed|date=February 2014}} worked in the civil service of the [[Madras Presidency]] during the period of [[colonial India|colonial rule in India]].<ref name="Stein" /> He was [[Curator|Keeper]] of the Madras Record Office<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume V: Historiography |editor-first=Robin |editor-last=Winks |chapter=India to 1858 |first=Robert E. |last=Frykenberg |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1999 |page=198 |isbn=9780191542411 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=u2G63IrFXpgC&pg=PA198}}</ref> and was tasked with responsibility for documenting ancient inscriptions and remains in the region, As with other British administrators of his type at that period, his purpose was not scholarly but rather to bolster administrative control by constructing a history that placed British rule as a virtue and a necessity rather than something to be denigrated. Portrayal of historic factionalism among local figureheads and dominion by alien despots would, it was thought, enhance the perception that only the British could rescue the country from its past.<ref name="Stein">{{cite book |title=The New Cambridge History of India: Vijayanagara |first=Burton |last=Stein |authorlink=Burton Stein |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |isbn=9780521266932 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OpxeaYQbGDMC&pg=PA3 |pages=3-43–4}}</ref>
Sewell's specialism was the [[Vijayanagara Empire]], about which he authored ''A Forgotten Empire Vijayanagar: A Contribution to the History of India'' (1900). [[Burton Stein]] described this book as Sewell's {{quote|only popular work ... [In which] an outline of the genealogical and chronological evidence on the dynasties of Vijayanagara was briefly presented followed by two long and historically configuring translations of the accounts of two sixteenth-century Portuguese visitors to the city.<ref name="Stein" />}}
Sewell undertook archaeological work, including at the [[Buddhist]] [[stupa]] at [[Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh|Amaravati]], which had already been largely destroyed prior to his arrival. The site had previously been surveyed by [[Colin Mackenzie]] and [[Walter Elliot (Scottish naturalist)|Walter Elliot]]. His record-keeping at that site in 1877 has been criticised for making an already-bad situation worse, adding to the problems that meant it was impossible to correlate the finds made.<ref>{{cite book |title=Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War and the Arts in the British World, 1750-1850 |pages=338-341338–341 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tuW554NdWk8C&pg=PA338 |first=Holger |last=Hoock |publisher=Profile Books |year=2010 |isbn=9781861978592}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE) |first=Akira |last=Shimada |publisher=BRILL |year=2012 |isbn=9789004233263 |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pfUyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |page=90}}</ref>
Sewell was guided by various native speakers of the [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], [[Sanskrit]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Telugu language|Telugu]] languages spoken there. Some of these aides went on to publish research of their own, such as [[S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar]].<ref name="Stein" />
== References ==
{{reflistReflist}}
==External links==
* {{gutenbergGutenberg author |id=Robert+Sewell,+Robert | amename=Robert Sewell}}
* {{Internet Archive author |birth=1845 |death=1925 }}
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=3210 Download book for free or read online]
{{Authority control|VIAF=22515669}}
{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
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