Last week, I had the honour and pleasure of taking the Global Board of Directors, Compagnie de Saint Gobain, on a tour of Mamallapuram, organised by Saint Gobain India. Though the weather was at its Madras best — not a leaf stirring, humidity beyond description and the sea breeze playing truant — the maintenance of the monuments more than made up for these minor inconveniences. Everything was as it should be and kudos to the Archaeological Survey for what they do. The tour took in the so-called Five Rathas, the Arjuna Penance/Descent of the Ganges, the Govardhana panel, the Shore Temple and the free-standing boulder known as Krishna’s butter ball. All through my commentary, an inner voice kept saying that there was a French connection to the place that I was not speaking about, but, try as I might, I could not recollect what it was. A day later, back in my study, it all came back — I had forgotten to mention G Jouveau-Dubreuil, and his contribution to documenting Pallava antiquities.
Born in Saigon on January 1, 1885, and christened Gabriel, he came to Pondicherry in 1909 to teach Physics and Chemistry at the Colonial College there. But what he is remembered for today is archaeology and his writings on the subject, all of which he took on during a three-decade stay in India, interrupted by army service during the First World War. He went back to Paris at the end of the 1930s and passed away there on July 15, 1945.
