Iravatham Mahadevan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1930-10-02)2 October 1930 |
| Died | 26 November 2018(2018-11-26) (aged 88) Chennai,Tamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation | Civil servant |
Iravatham Mahadevan (2 October 1930 – 26 November 2018)[1] was an Indianepigraphist and civil servant, known for his decipherment ofTamil-Brahmi inscriptions and for his expertise on the epigraphy of theIndus Valley Civilisation.[2]
Iravatham Mahadevan was born on 2 October 1930 inThanjavur district inBritish India into asmarthaTamil Brahmin family.[3] Mahadevan had his schooling in the town ofTiruchirapalli and graduated inChemistry from theVivekananda College, Chennai and law from theMadras Law College. Mahadevan successfully passed theIndian Administrative Service examinations held in 1953 and was allotted to the Madras cadre.[3][4]
Mahadevan worked as an Assistant Collector inCoimbatore district and Sub-Collector atPollachi.[3] In 1958, Mahadevan was transferred toDelhi as Assistant Financial Adviser in India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry serving from 1958 to 1961.[3] In 1961, Mahadevan was posted to Madras as Deputy Secretary in Government of Tamil Nadu's Industries Department and served as Director of Handlooms and Textiles Department from 1962 to 1966.[3] Mahadevan voluntarily retired from the civil service in 1980.[3]
According to an interview given to an e-journalVaralaaru, Mahadevan revealed that he started researching theTamil-Brahmi script following a casual suggestion by Indian historianK. A. Nilakanta Sastri during a meeting in 1961.
There are several caves in Tamil Nadu with inscriptions in the Brahmi script.K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyar says they are in Tamil. It is an unsolved problem. Can you give it a shot?[3]
Earlier, during his stint in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Delhi in 1958–61, Mahadevan had become acquainted with the noted epigraphist and art historianC. Sivaramamurti who was then working as a curator at theIndian Museum next block. Sivaramamurti initiated him into the basics of South Indian epigraphy.[3]
Mahadevan first published his study of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions atPugalur in 1965 following those ofMangulam, the next year.[3] In the same year, Mahadevan presented his paper on Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Madras which was later published as the bookCorpus of the Tamil-Brahmi Inscriptions.[3] After a brief period of research with theIndus script, Mahadevan resumed his work on Tamil-Brahmi in 1992 with active support from the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department. In 2003, he published a revised edition of the 1966 book which has since acquired the status of a classic.[5]
Mahadevan started his research on theIndus script following a brush withW. W. Hunter's book on the Indus Script at India's Central Secretariat Library in Delhi.[3] In 1970, Mahadevan was offered the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship to do his doctoral research on the Indus Script.[3] Mahadevan continued his research even after his fellowship ended and published his first bookIndus Script: Concordance and Tables in 1977.[3] Following a break from 1991 to 2003 to complete his research on Tamil epigraphy, Mahadevan resumed his studies again in 2003.[3]
Gregory Possehl called Mahadevan a "careful, methodical worker, taking care to spell out his assumptions and methods. ... 'Tentative conclusions' and 'working hypotheses' are more his style than set ideas and fait accompli".[6]
Iravatham Mahadevan'sThe Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977) is the only openly available corpus of the Indus Script. He wrote over 40 papers to further the Dravidian hypothesis of the Indus Script and argues for a continuity between the written records of Indus and the oral transmissions from the Rig Veda.He was instrumental in firmly establishing the view of K.V. Subrahmanya Aiyer that the writings found in the caves of Tamil Nadu in a script similar to Brahmi are a variant of Brahmi, which Mahadevan calls Tamil Brahmi, and in ascertaining that the language of the script is indeed Tamil.[7] Mahadevan went on to read the names and titles of several generations of Pandiya and Chera kings in Tamil Brahmi writings,[8] all corroborated in early Tamil literature.[9]
Iravatham Mahadevan was awarded theJawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1970 for his research in Indus script and the National Fellowship of theIndian Council of Historical Research in 1992 for his work on Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions.[10]
In 1998, he was elected the president of the Annual Congress of the Epigraphical Society of India and in 2001 he became the general president of theIndian History Congress. He received thePadma Shri award from the Government of India in 2009 for arts.[11] He was conferred theTolkappiyar award for lifetime achievement in classical Tamil by the Government of India for the year 2009–2010.[12]
He was conferred the Campbell Medal by the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, formerly the Royal Asiatic Society, in November 2014.[13]
A bronze bust of Mahadevan was created by artist G. Chandrasekaran and placed at theRoja Muthiah Research Library.[14]
