Overview
- Ratnagar died in Mumbai after a brief illness on Monday, May 25, and had suffered from severe Parkinson’s disease in recent years, according to multiple reports and former colleagues.
- She trained at Deccan College and UCL, taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Historical Studies, retired around 2000, and published landmark works on Harappan trade, urbanism and decline.
- As an expert for the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ayodhya title suit she challenged the Archaeological Survey of India’s 2003 findings by arguing the site’s stratigraphy was disturbed and that pillar bases and other features were not uniquely indicative of a pre-existing Hindu temple.
- Colleagues, former students and historians paid tribute to her rigour as a teacher and public intellectual, saying her work and mentorship will continue to shape Harappan studies and the practice of archaeology in India.
- Her passing highlights ongoing tensions over how archaeology is used in public life and signals that debates over method, evidence and the politicisation of the past will remain central to Indian historiography.