Baini Prashad OBE FRSE (13 March 1894 – 18 January 1969) was an Indian zoologist who specialized chiefly in malacology and ichthyology. He served as the first Indian director of the Zoological Survey of India, succeeding R.B.S. Sewell. He was also a scholar of Persian and took an interest in the history of zoology.
Indian zoologist (1894–1969)
Sunder Lal Hora
FRSE FLS
Director of the Zoological Survey of India
In office May 1947 – December 1955
Preceded by
R.B.S. Sewell
Succeeded by
Sundar Lal Hora
Personal details
Born
13 March, 1894 Kirtarpur, British Punjab
Died
18 January, 1969 (Age 74) Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Occupation
Ichthyologist
Prashad was born at Kirtarpur to Rai Sahib Devi Das, who was an administrative officer in the government in Punjab. His paternal grandfather Rai Sahib Gopal Das had been a commissioner. Prashad studied in Lahore and graduated from the Government College in Lahore in 1913 followed by a MSc in 1914. He worked on a Ph.D. under J. Stephenson, a specialist on annelids and professor of Zoology and was the first person to receive a non-honorary D.Sc. degree from Punjab University in 1918. His research was on the calciferous glands of earthworms.[1] In 1927 he also received a D.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed to the department of fisheries in Calcutta in 1918 during which time he collaborated with T. Southwell on research on the Indian shad Hilsa ilisha and its parasites. Prashad became the third permanent director of the ZSI and the first Indian to hold the position following the retirement of Lieutenant-Colonel Sewell in 1934.[2] In 1942, while Prashad was director, Calcutta was threatened by a Japanese air attack and the specimen collections were shifted to Varanasi, but some of the fish and insect specimens were damaged due to floods during September 1943. Prashad worked on a wide range of taxa including substantial work on the termite fauna of India.[3] Prashad became an advisor to the government of India in 1947 and was succeeded by Sundar Lal Hora as director of the Zoological Survey of India.
Prashad also helped translate The Maathir-Ul-Umarâ, a biography of Timurid rulers from Persian to English.[4]
Prashad was a Stephenson Research Gold Medallist and a recipient of the Joy Gobind Law Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1942 Birthday Honours.[3][5] Prashad is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of Indian gecko, Hemidactylus prashadi.[6]
^Stephenson, J.; Prashad, Baini (2012). "XVII.—The Calciferous Glands of Earthworms" (PDF). Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 52 (2): 455. doi:10.1017/S0080456800012187.
^Prashad, Baini (1933). "The retirement of Lieutenant-Colonell Sewell" (PDF). Records of the Indian Museum. 35 (3): 267–275.
^ abSilas, E.G. (1968). "Obituary: Dr Baini Prashad" (PDF). Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India. 10 (2): 1–4.
^Khan, Nawwâb Şamşam-Ud-Daula Shâh Nawâz (1941). The Maathir-Ul-Umarâ: Biographies Of The Muhammadan And Hindu Officers Of The Timurid Sovereigns Of India From 1500 To About 1780 A.D. (2 volumes). translated by H. Beveridge, B.C.S. (Retired). Revised, Annotated Compiled by Baini Prashad, D.Sc, F.R.A.S.B. New Delhi.
^"Supplement To The London Gazette, 11 June 1942, page 2497" (PDF). The London Gazette. Government of the United Kingdom. 11 June 1942. p. 2497. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Prashad", p. 211).
BainiPrashad OBE FRSE (13 March 1894 – 18 January 1969) was an Indian zoologist who specialized chiefly in malacology and ichthyology. He served as the...
Baini may refer to: Abbate Giuseppe Baini (1775–1844), Italian priest, music critic, conductor, and composer BainiPrashad (1894–1969), Indian zoologist...
translated into English by H. Beveridge, revised, annotated and completed by BainiPrashad, Kolkata: Asiatic Society, 1941, rep. 2003, p. 319-334. Khan, Mutamad...
dog" was originally described as Canis harappensis Prashad, 1936. The Indian zoologist BainiPrashad noted the remains of a dog that was discovered during...
India. The specific name, prashadi, is in honor of Indian zoologist BainiPrashad (1894–1969). H. prashadi is found in India (former Bombay Presidency)...
India, by Niẓām al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Muqīm, Brajendranath De, BainiPrashad Bibliotheca Indica – Page 778, by Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Asiatic...
in 1947 became Superintendent of the Z.S.I. and then Director after BainiPrashad moved to become an advisor to the government. He was elected a Fellow...
of Khandesh, Delhi:Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Delli, p.x Brajendranath De; BainiPrashad (eds.) The Ṭabaqāt-i-Akbarī of K̲h̲wājah Nizāmuddīn Ahmad : a history...
Indostomus was first proposed as a genus in 1929 by the Indian zoologists BainiPrashad and Dev Dev Mukerji when they described Indostomus paradoxus, giving...
the reign of Akbar), vol. 2, trans, Brajendra Nath De. rev. and ed, BainiPrashad, low Price Publications, Delhi, 1992, p, 607. Henry Miers, Elliot (21...
2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS.T168509A6505099.en. Retrieved 1 October 2023. Prashad, B. and Mukerji, D.D. (1929). "The fish of the Indawgyi Lake and the streams...
Work on these areas was carried out by several malacologists including BainiPrashad. The study of fish in India was also initially restricted to that which...
preferring well oxygenated, clear, flowing water. The specific name honours BainiPrashad (1894-1969) who was an Assistant Superintendent at the Zoological Survey...
Felix Ash, Director of Telegraph Stores & Workshops, Alipore, Calcutta. BainiPrashad, DSc, FRSE, FLS, FZS, Director, Zoological Survey of India. Major Reginald...
Press, Inc. p. 24. ISBN 9781932705546. Awrangābādī, Shāhnavāz Khān; Prashad, Baini; Shāhnavāz, ʻAbd al-Ḥayy ibn (1979). The Maāthir-ul-umarā: being biographies...
Maharashtra. p. 28. Awrangābādī, Shāhnavāz Khān; Shāhnavāz, ʻAbd al-Ḥayy ibn; Prashad, Baini (1952). The Maāthir-ul-umarā: being biographies of the Muhammādan and...
M. Hasan. p. 159. OCLC 844529832. Aḥmad, Khwājah Niẓāmuddin (2015). Prashad, Baini (ed.). The Ṭabaqāt-i-Akbarī of Khwājah Niẓāmuddīn Aḥmad: a history of...
Orient Longman. p. 169. ISBN 9788125011491. Awrangābādī, Shāhnavāz Khān; Prashad, Baini; Shāhnavāz, ʻAbd al-Ḥayy ibn (1979). The Maāthir-ul-umarā: being biographies...
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