The academic community has mourned the loss of eminent historian R. Champakalakshmi, former president of Indian History Congress and professor in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, who died on Monday.
Her colleague and former vice chairperson of Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) K.N. Panikkar viewed the demise as an irretrievable loss to the scholarly world in general and Indian history in particular.
“She had made a long and distinguished contribution to the study and research of ancient south Indian history that is revered both within and outside the country. She was a teacher who devoted considerable time to meticulous research orientation of her students’ work. She shared her enormous fund of knowledge with her students and colleagues,” he reminisced.
Noted historian Romila Thapar, who first met Prof. Champakalakshmi in 1963 during a trip to Chennai, remembered their visits to historical sites “an unforgettable experience”. “She knew so well even the nuances of the textual sources and was very familiar with the art historical data. Her interpretations of what we saw were based on deep knowledge. I learnt much from her and she opened up many new perspectives on south Indian history,” she said.
KSHEC vice chairperson Rajan Gurukkal, who regarded the deceased as his mentor, said Prof. Champakalakshmi was a multidisciplinary expert in archaeology, iconography, ideology, statecraft and trade.
Former Indian History Congress president Kesavan Veluthat said she carried with her the best of both the traditional and modern worlds in historiography. “After her earlier work on Jainism in south India and Vaishnava iconography, she turned her attention to trade, urbanization and other aspects of the economic life of south India in the early and medieval periods. Her work on the ideological processes and state formation, too, are significant.”
Kerala Council for Historical Research chairperson K.N. Ganesh, who was taught by Prof. Champakalakshmi since post graduation, remembered her as a strict research guide who paid close attention to research methodology as well as logical consistency of his arguments. She was also not one to impose her own positions, he recalled.
