In 1987, Bhan was invited to give the presidential address to the Archaeology section of the Indian History Congress, where he came out strongly against the tendency among some archaeologists to identify the Indus Valley Civilisation with the Vedic cultures [REF].
In 1996, he was awarded a senior fellowship by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and a year later, he was appointed as a member of the ICHR council.