Madhusudan Narhar Deshpande (11 November 1920 – 7 August 2008), was an Indian archaeologist, art historian and conservator who served as the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1972 to 1978.
[1][2][3] Deshpande was born into a Deshastha Brahmin family in the village of Rahimatpur in the Satara district of the then Bombay Presidency.
[4] He excavated mostly Buddhist caves in Western and Northern India, namely Ajanta, Ellora, Tabo, Nadsur, Pitalkhora, and Panhalakaji.
[5] He also reported on the Buddhist sites of Bahal and Tekwade in what is today Jalgaon district.
[6] During the 1958-59 season, he conducted excavations at Daimabad, which revealed a Chalcolithic Era settlement.