Panchanan Maheshwari, 1904-1966

Abstract On 18 May 1966, after being afflicted with encephalitis, Panchanan Maheshwari, one of India’s outstanding scientists and one of the world’s leading botanists and students of plant morphology, died. He was 62, up to this point apparently in full physical and intellectual vigour, enjoying the respect of his colleagues and receiving the merited honours which were being bestowed upon him. In the spring of 1966 he was still confidently anticipating more years of productive work. On 14 April 1966 Maheshwari signed the Charter Book of the Royal Society to which he was elected in 1965. On his return to India he became indisposed on 10 May, on the eve of a projected visit to Japan and the U.S.A., and, despite all that medical care could do, he succumbed eight days later. Maheshwari’s loss is not only to the science of botany, to which his whole life was devoted, but also to the cause of science and higher education in India, to which he was equally dedicated. Maheshwari was born on 9 November 1904 in the City of Jaipur, India. Although his father was not a scientist, he nurtured the scientific training and advancement of his son. First destined for a medical career, he was sent to Allahabad where he joined the Ewing Christian College and came under the influence of an American missionary-teacher, Dr Winfield Dudgeon. Unable to pursue his medical studies—it is said because of weak eyesight—he pursued his studies in science at the University of Allahabad, taking successively the degree of Bachelor of Science (1925), Master of Science (1927), and Doctor of Science (1931). It was in this period, and under the general guidance of Dr Dudgeon, who was an able microtechnician trained under Professor C. J. Chamberlain of Chicago, that Maheshwari laid the foundations of his own skill as a microtechnician which, together with his avid interest in plants, was to motivate his career and distinguish his future influence upon his students and colleagues and upon the subject of his choice.