B. Lewis Rice
Benjamin Lewis Rice (17 July 1837 – 10 July 1927), popularly known as B. L. Rice, was a British historian, archaeologist and educationist. He is known for his pioneering work in deciphering inscriptions, especially in Kannada, and in Sanskrit inscriptions in the Kingdom of Mysore and is eulogized as Shasanapitamaha (transl. Grandsire of Epigraphy) or Purathathva Pitamaha (transl. Grandsire of Archaeology) Rice's researches were published as the voluminous Epigraphia Carnatica which contains translations of about 9000 inscriptions he found in the Old Mysore area.