OBITUARY: Professor D.N. Jha (1940–2021)

When Dwijendra Narayan Jha (‘DN’ to his friends and admirers) passed away in his sleep on 4 February 2021, Indian history lost one of its most devoted servitors – one deeply immersed in sources and yet as immensely clearheaded.

DN, born in 1940, was fortunate in being a student (at Patna) of Professor R.S. Sharma, whose two early major works, Sudras in Ancient India (1958) and Indian Feudalism (1965), opened a new window on ancient India, where people, not simply rulers and priests, now formed a major object of study. Jha drank from the same cup as many of us then did, though without attaining the degree of his dedication or level of scholarship. He became Professor Sharma’s colleague at the Delhi University from which he retired as Professor in 2005.