Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha

Rai Bahadur Pandit Gaurishankar Hirachand Ojha (1863–1947) was born in the village of Rohida located in the Sirohi District of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Pandit Ojha was an eminent historian, noted numismatist, trailblazer in Indian paleography, pioneer of historical essays, scholar par excellence of Hindi literature and also a well known archeologist. A prolific author, he wrote several landmark books (in Hindi) on the history of Rajasthan and notable books on other historical subjects. The succeeding generations of historians from Rajasthan referred to Dr. Ojha as Guruvara Mahamahopadhyaya (e.g. Dasharatha Sharma in Early Chauhan Dynasties ). Dr. Ojha regarded Kaviraj Shyamaldas as his guru and worked under him as assistant secretary of the historical department, Udaipur. After Col. James Tod it was Pandit Ojha who popularized the history of Rajasthan in India as well as inEurope.