Henry Heras (11 September 1888,
Barcelona,
Spain – 14 December 1955,
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
,
India) was a Spanish
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
priest,
archeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...
and
historian in
India.
Education
Enric Heras de Sicars (later in India he anglicised his Christian name to Henry) was the heir of a well-off rural household from the village of
Canet d'Adri
Canet d'Adri is a village in the province of Girona and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The municipality covers an area of and the population in 2014 was 644.
References
External links
Government data pages
Municipalities i ...
, near
Girona, in
Catalonia. His parents were Ponç Heras and Maria Sicars. The Heras family had been established in the property of Adri since the late thirteenth century, but Enric gave up his rights in order to follow his religious vocation. After becoming a
Jesuit
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, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
in 1904, Heras followed the usual course of Jesuit priestly formation: three years of philosophy in
Tortosa, three years of teaching History in
Orihuela, Alacant, Spain, and the theological course in
Sarrià Sarria or Sarrià may refer to:
*Sarrià, Barcelona, a neighbourhood in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
**Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, the Barcelona district containing Sarrià
** Sarrià Stadium, a former football stadium in Sarrià, Barcelona
**Sarrià (Bar ...
, Barcelona, at the end of which he was ordained a
Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
in 1920.
Historian in India
On arrival in
India (1922) he was appointed to teach history at
St Xavier's College
A multitude of schools and universities have been named after St. Francis Xavier, a Spanish Roman Catholic saint and co-founder of the Society of Jesus. This page lists notable educational institutions named after St. Xavier, arranged by country ...
,
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
. He chose to teach Indian history "because he wanted to study it". This became his favorite subject and field of competence. He wrote a short book on historical methodology, ''The Writing of History'', which became compulsory reading for his students.
He founded the Indian Historical Research Institute (1926), which trained numerous historians and Indologists, including Dr.
George M. Moraes
George Mark Moraes (11 May 1905 – April 1994) was a renowned historian, author, writer and professor from Goa. He has over 29 historical and research works to his name which were published in 74 publications and 542 library holdings. He is ...
, Dr. Liladhar B. Keny, Dr.
B. A. Saletore and others. The institute was later renamed the Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture. The Heras Memorial Lecture is held annually at the Institute.
Proto-historian and archeologist
From 1935 on he turned his attention to the newly excavated archeological sites of
Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men';[Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...]
: he was particularly keen on deciphering the inscriptions of the so-called
Indus Valley civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900& ...
. He wrote numerous articles on the topic, summing up finally his research in what will remain his master piece: ''Studies in Proto-Indo-Mediterranean Culture'' (1953) in which he proposed a solution to the mysterious script of Mohenjo-Daro, and established cultural links between the Indus Valley Civilization, the
Sumerian-
Egyptian civilization and the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Though the deciphering he proposed is not yet fully convincing it is "gaining ever greater acceptance by the specialists".
[ A. L. Basham, ''Indica'', 1978, 2(1).] Although, fellow Jesuits in India, like father George Gispert (i.e. Jordi Gispert-Saüch) have expressed that his paramount work was his book on Vijayanagar.
Other activities and achievements
Heras was also the founder of the Bombay Historical Society and was also actively involved in the Indian Historical Records Commission, Indian History Congress and the International Congress of Historical Sciences. Being totally identified with the culture of the country he chose to become an Indian citizen as soon as possible after the independence of 1947. Among his many students is Dr.
S.V. Sohoni
Dr. Shridhar Vasudev Sohoni (1914–2002) was an eminent scholar of Sanskrit, and a noted antiquarian and numismatist. He was an officer in the Indian Civil Service (British India), and later in his career served as the Chief Secretary of Bihar, ...
, who studied under him in the early twentieth century.
The same admiration for Indian culture led him to encourage Christian artists to adopt Indian forms of art and symbols in order to express Christian themes. In painting he enthused over Angelo Fonseca, Olimpio Coleto Rodrigues, et al. In
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
he was personally involved in drawing up the plans of the
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominat ...
of
Belgaum
Belgaum (ISO: ''Bēḷagāma''; also Belgaon and officially known as Belagavi) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located in its northern part along the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Belagavi ...
. He conducted an exhibition on Indian Christian art for the Holy Year of 1950 in
Rome. He is acknowledged to be the "Father of Christian Indian Art".
Selected works
* ''The Writing of History'', Madras, 1926.
* ''The Aravidu Dynasty of
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bellar ...
'', Madras, 1927.
* ''Beginning of Vijayanagara History'', Bombay, 1929.
* ''The Conversion Policy of the Jesuits in India'', Bombay, 1933.
* ''Studies in Pallava History'', Madras, 1933.
* ''Studies in Proto-Indo-Mediterranean Culture'', 1955.
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Correia-Afonso, J. (ed). ''Henry Heras, the Scholar and his Work'', Bombay, 1976.
* Balaguer, Melchior. Fr Henry Heras (1888–1955), in ''Jesuits in India: in Historical Perspective'', Macao, 1992, pp. 297–300.
External links
Henry Heras & the Indus Valley Seal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heras, Henry
1888 births
1955 deaths
20th-century Spanish Jesuits
20th-century Indian historians
Spanish emigrants to India
20th-century Spanish archaeologists
20th-century Spanish historians
Scientists from Mumbai
20th-century Indian archaeologists