Birbal Sahni - Education

3 | Higher Education and Training
in Research
P
rof. Ruchiram Sahni was very clear in his mind that his children
should get the best possible education. This was true not only
for his sons but also daughters. All of them went to the UK for
higher education. His daughter Leela was the first graduate from Punjab.
He sent his son Bikramjit to study in Manchester, England. In
fact, one by one, all five brothers followed suit and came to England for
higher studies. Birbal joined Emmanuel College, Cambridge. However,
Birbal’s stay in Cambridge was not without its dramatic moments.
One day, elder brother Bikramjit was surprised to see his younger
brother Birbal had come from Cambridge to his place in Manchester.
Almost in tears, terribly home sick young Birbal told his brother that
he didn’t want to continue at Cambridge. In those days, higher studies
in the UK, which was much
closer than the USA from
India, was anybody’s dream.
But Birbal was not happy and
he wanted to go back to India.
It took some tact and effort on
the part of the elder brother
Bikramjit to convince Birbal
not to quit and to continue his
studies at Cambridge.
Slowly, things changed
and Birbal completed his
Tripos (A final honours
examination for a degree at
| 9
BIRBAL SAHNI : A MAN WHO DID WHAT HE LOVED AND LOVED WHAT HE DID
Cambridge). Then he started working for a doctorate under a leading

botanist Prof. Albert Charles Seward. Prof. Seward was a name to
reckon with in the field of Palaeobotany. This may be termed a defining
moment for Palaeobotany in India.
Actually, even Birbal’s coming to Emmanuel College for studying
Botany had not been a smooth affair. His father wanted him to go
for civil services. However, Birbal had a different plan. He wanted to
Some Fossil Collections of Prof. Birbal Sahni
10 |
Higher Education and Training in Research
pursue research in Botany. Prof Ruchiram ultimately respected young

Birbal’s wish. One may recall how Homi Bhabha also chose research
against his father’s wish, rather than a high management position with a
fat pay cheque in a big company. One must listen to one’s heart.
While working with Prof. Seward at Cambridge, he published two
papers in the ‘New Phytologist’ in the year 1915. The first paper itself
showed his critical thinking and analytical capability. This also perhaps
explains his subsequent success in cracking the riddles posed by fossils
of plants. He studied the fossils collected from Montpellier. In this
first paper, he reported the presence of pollen grains in the ovules of the
Ginkgo plant. He was able to show it in 8 of the 12 specimens that,
the pollen grains did not belong to the Gingko plant. His genius lay in
the fact that he could visualise how foreign pollen grains got deposited
there. The occurrence of these materials of two different origins, viz.
belonging to Ginkgo and the foreign ones, could confuse us if it was not
observed properly. Panchanan Maheshwari, another botanist of repute,
commented in his article on Prof. Sahni - “if a similar example was
found in a fossil state, in all probability, it would have led to conclude
that the pollen grains and ovules belonged to the same species.”
The second paper was published by him the same year in the same
journal. It was based on his study of an interesting fern. Its botanical
name is Nephrolepis valubillis. This fern, collected in Kuala Lumpur, had
very strange anatomy. The stolon of the plants was very long (Stolon is
a horizontal branch from a plant and it has buds at its tip from where
a new plant can grow. Strawberry is one such example). In this case,
the stolon grows to a whooping length of 16 metres. In 1916, in yet
another paper in the same journal, he reported results of the vascular
anatomy of tubers of N. cordifolia. So, one may see that his interest
in and contribution to the study of living plants was also substantial.
However, his love for fossils grew and soon became his passion and he
was able to establish Palaeobotany as an important discipline in India.
He may be indisputably called the ‘Father of Palaeobotany’ in India.
He returned to India in the year 1919 and decided to take up
teaching.
| 11

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3 | Higher Education and Training

Cambridge). Then he started working for a doctorate under a leading

Some Fossil Collections of Prof. Birbal Sahni

pursue research in Botany. Prof Ruchiram ultimately respected young

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