Satyendranath Bose's recognition of the fact that the photons in a cavity radiator are indistinguishable led him to a derivation of the Planck law free from any assumptions of classical electrodynamics. His result, published in 1924, was a significant vindication of the photon concept that Einstein had championed since 1905. It also laid the foundations of quantum statistics, as was freely acknowledged by Einstein and Dirac, among others. Various aspects of Bose's career, including his apparent failure to understand the full implications of his work, may be of interest both to physicists and historians of science.