Rai Bahadur Daya Ram Sahni CIE (16 December 1879 – 7 March 1939) was an Indian archaeologist who supervised the excavation of the Indus valley site at Harappa in 1920 to 1921.

A protege of John Marshall, in 1931 Sahni became the first Indian to be appointed Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a position which he served in till 1935.

Daya Ram Sahni hailed from the city of Bhera in Shahpur district, Punjab where he was born on 16 December 1879.

In the 1920 ASI Reports, Daya Ram Sahni describes his explorations starting from 1917 as he had since conducted preliminary investigations at the ancient site near Harappa in Montgomery District.

[10] In 1920, he had also been involved in the exploration and restoration of the ruined temples at Amb and Kafir Kot, while simultaneously recording & translating inscriptions by pre-Islamic kings in the region corresponding to Gandhara.

[15] He also excavated Naliasar and Sambhar during the 1936–1938 season,[16] where he found, among other things, coins from the Moroli Hoard which belonged to the Gupta period.

[17] He also found prehistoric chert artefacts near the Viratnagar site, which influenced many archaeologists in newly independent India.