Bhagwan Lal Indraji was born in 1839, in Junagadh, and was taught Sanskrit by his father. As a teenager, he frequented Girnar. Colonel Lang, the Political Agent of Kathiawar gave a copy of James Prinsep's paper containing the Pali Brahmi alphabet to Manishankar Jatashankar, a local scholar who shared it with Bhagwan Lal, who made a copy of his own. Using this copy, Bhagwan Lal tried to decipher the Rudradaman I inscription on a Girnar rock, and after asking for further research material from a friend in Bombay, he succeeded in making a new transcript of the Rudradaman inscription. A.K. Forbes, who succeeded Lang as the Political Agent, introduced Bhagwan Lal to Bhau Daji, a Bombay-based scholar of India antiquities.
Bhau Daji commissioned Bhagwan Lal to prepare facsimiles and transcripts of the Girnar inscriptions. In October 1861, Daji invited Bhagwan Lal to Bombay. Daji introduced him to H. Newton, President of the Royal Asiatic Society's Bombay branch. Newton was writing a paper on Western Kshatrapas, and some Kshatrapa coins brought by Bhagwan Lal interested him. Bhagwan Lal also presented his transcripts of Girnar's Rudradaman and Skandagupta inscriptions. Bhau Daji requested Bhagwan Lal to make a new transcript of the Sah inscription.
In 1863, Bhau Daji sent Bhagwan Lal as a draftsman to Ajanta Caves. Bhagwan Lal returned to Bombay with the new transcripts. In Bombay, he spent time making transcripts of the inscriptions recovered from the caves at Nashik, Karli, Bhaja, Bhayandar, Junnar, Pitalkhora and Nanaghat. At Nanaghat, Bhagwan Lal discovered the earliest reliefs of the early Satavahana rulers Satakarni, Queen Nayanika, Vedisiri and other princes.
On 22 December 1863, Bhagwan Lal set out on a tour of British India; his companions included Ardeshir Framji Moos and Cursetji Nusserwanji Cama among others. The group toured South India, North-Western Provinces, Bengal and North India.
In 1864, Bhau Daji sent Bhagwan Lal and Pandurang Gopal Padhye to Jaisalmer, to examine the ancient Jain manuscripts. The two men spent three months there, preparing copies of the literature preserved in the Jain manuscripts at a bhandar (store house). In 1865, Bhagwan Lal went on a year-long expedition to visit Banaras, Bodh Gaya, Barabar, Nagarjuni caves in Bihar, Hathigumpha caves, Dhauli, Jaugada at Orissa and various ancient shrines.
In 1868, Bhagwan Lal conducted another year-long expedition to visitiing ancient Hindu shrines, in order to examine their inscriptions. He first visited Nagpur and Jabalpur, before spending five days in Allahabad. There, he made a transcript of a Samudragupta inscription, and sent it to Bhau Daji. This new transcript revealed new names of the king's contemporaries. Next, Bhagwan Lal visited Banaras, Bhitari, Mathura and Delhi. In Mathura, in 1869, he excavated the Mathura lion capital. He discovered 'Kambojika' (a Gandhara-style life-size statue). He purchased several Bactrian and Scythian coins from the local markets. He also discovered several other sculptures including the famous Vishnu statue, which is now at National Museum (New Delhi).
On 7 March 1871, Bhagwan Lal set out on another journey, financed by the Junagadh princely state. At the insistence of Bhau Daji, Charles James Lyall, Under-Secretary to the Government of India, provided him with a letter. The letter directed the Magistrates of Mathura, Agra, Benares, Farrukhabad, Gorakhpur, Ghazipur and Allahabad to help Bhagwan Lal in his pursuits. He was accompanied by his wife who, at Gwalior, fell seriously ill, and they returned to Bombay via Allahabad in March 1872.
After his wife recovered from illness, Bhagwan Lal again set out an expedition in December 1873. Once again, the princely state of Junagadh agreed to sponsor the journey. This time, Bhagwan Lal visited Nepal, the Indo-Tibet border, Baluchistan and the Yusufzai territory. He also visited the Barabar and Nagarjunni Caves, Gaya, Bodh Gaya, Kashmir and Taxila.
Bhagwan Lal was a pioneer in Ashokan studies. He discovered the archaeological sites at Bairat and Sopara. He excavated Sopara and published an excavation report. He was the first Indian to excavate and publish the report. Most of the inscriptions in Archaeological Survey of Western India Reports volume 4 and 5 were his contributions. He was co-author (with James Burgess) of Inscriptions from the Caves Temples of Western India with descriptive notes. He was the main contributor to Burgess' Ajanta Notes and Rock-cut Temples at Badami in the Deccan.
He also arranged a genealogy of the Kashtriya rulers of India, on the basis of coins. In addition, he prepared detailed records of language, costumes, lifestyle, religion and culture in various regions of India. Bhagwan Lal was an Honorary Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1877, Fellow of Bombay University, 1882, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of Philology, Geography and Ethnology of the Netherlands Hague, 1883, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Leiden University 1884. He died on 16 March 1888, after a prolonged illness.
