Vishnu-Mittre or Vishnu Mittre (17 July 1924 – 6 November 1991) was an Indian
paleobotanist
Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...
who worked at the Birbal Sahni Institute and wrote numerous influential papers and popular books on earth history, particularly with reference to the Indian region. He worked along with archaeologists in pioneering studies of agricultural crops in early human settlements on the Indian Subcontinent.
Biography
Vishnu-Mittre was born in Shorkot, Jhang District of Pakistan. After studying at Rawalpindi, he obtained a BSc from Gordon College in 1944 and became a school teacher in biology at D.A.V. College and later at D.C.Jain College. He then joined the
Benaras Hindu University
Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Re ...
and received an MSc in botany in 1951. He then joined the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany in Lucknow and studied Mesozoic plants. He was deputed to
Emmanuel College, Cambridge University
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...
from where he received a Ph.D. in 1960 after working under Sir
Harry Godwin
Sir Harry Godwin, FRS (9 May 1901 – 12 August 1985) was a prominent English botanist and ecologist of the 20th century. He is considered to be an influential peatland scientist, who coined the phrase "peat archives" in 1981. He had a long ass ...
on Quaternary palynology. He returned to the Birbal Sahni Institute and started a palynology department and served as the deputy director of the institute from 1983 to 1984.
Publications
Vishnu-Mittre wrote numerous papers and also wrote two popular work on earth history and evolution, Evolution of Life ' (1969, coauthored with M.S.Randhawa and others) and Rocks unfold the Past ' (1973). Among his researches were studies of pollen at archaeological sites to gain an understanding on agriculture and the usage of plant materials in the past. Some of his publications include:
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In 1968 Vishnu-Mittre suggested that a sample of carbonised grain dating to 1800 BC from
Hallur
Hallur is an archaeological site located in the Haveri district (which was carved out of Dharwad district), in the Indian state of Karnataka.Kenneth A. R. Kennedy (2000), p272 Hallur, South India's earliest Iron Age site,Robert Bradnock (2000) ...
contained ''
Eleusine
''Eleusine'' is a genus of Asian, African, and South American plants in the grass family,ragi. The samples were re-examined by others in 1979 and the identification was found to be incorrect, in fact the suggestion was that the grain did not even match that of a monocot.