A. B. Walawalkar (27 December 1897 – 23 December 1970) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

railway engineer,

epigraphist Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

, and historian. He is regarded as the founder of

Konkan Railway The Konkan Railway (abbreviated KR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India with its headquarters at CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Konkan Railway line from Roha to Thokur is operated and maintained by Konkan Railway co ...

. Born on 27 December 1897, he was from the village of Walawal in

Kudal Kudal is a census town in Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, India. It is situated on River Karli in southwest Maharashtara. Kudal is the fourth largest town in Sindhudurg after Sawantwadi, Malvan and Kankavli. As of 2011, the population is 16, ...

Taluka of

Sindhudurg District Sindhudurg district (Marathi pronunciation: in̪d̪ʱud̪uɾɡə is an administrative district of the Konkan division in India, which was carved out of the erstwhile Ratnagiri district. The district headquarters are located at Oros. The d ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. He belongs to Naik Maratha Samaj of Sindhudurg.

Career

Railway engineering

Shri Arjun Balwant Walawalkar joined Central India Railway (presently Western Railway) in its Engineering Drawing Department in 1922. In 1952 he published a booklet on

Project. He delivered seminars and wrote many articles in local and national newspapers about this project. Many people criticized Walawalkar, believing the project was not useful.

Indian epigraphy and history

Besides his public career, he was an eminent epigraphist. He studied the Brahmi epigraphy in ancient India. He tried to decipher the

Indus script The Indus script, also known as the Harappan script and the Indus Valley script, is a corpus of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Most inscriptions containing these symbols are extremely short, making it difficult to judge whe ...

. He suggested a theory of development of the Indian epigraphic system according to the Maheshwara Sutras. He also proposed that the Indus script is akin to the Assyrian cuneiform & both have developed from an ancient Indic script, which he called 'Pre-Ashokan Brahmi'. He also studied medieval inscriptions in South Konkan & proposed new theories about the history and origin of the Sawant rulers of

Sawantwadi Sawantwadi is a city located in Sawantwadi taluka, Sawantwadi Taluka, in the state of Maharashtra in Konkan region which is in the mid-western coast of India. It is a prominent town in the vicinity of Moti Lake and is well known for its woo ...

. He theorized that Mang Sawant described in an inscription at Mathgaon (located in

Vengurla Vengurla is a town in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra, India just north of Goa. It is surrounded by a semicircular range of hills with lush green foliage mainly of cashew, mango, coconut, and different kinds of berry trees. The hills of Dabh ...

Taluka), was an earlier ruler of Kudal region and ancestor of the Kshatriya Sawant family, who migrated to South Konkan after the fall of the Shilaharas.मठगांवचा शिलालेख आणि कुडाळ प्रांताचा प्राचीन इतिहास - अ. ब. वालावलकर, १९३२. (in Marathi)

References

External links

* http://www.irfca.org/articles/vikas/stamps.html * https://openlibrary.org/works/OL6050237W/Pre-Asokan_Brahmi * http://colnect.com/hi/stamps/stamp/161724-ABWalawalkar {{DEFAULTSORT:Walawalkar, A. B. 1897 births 1970 deaths Indian people in rail transport Writers from Maharashtra Indian epigraphers Marathi people