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R. Champakalakshmi

Rangachari Champakalakshmi[a] (1932 – 28 January 2024) was an Indian historian and social scientist whose work focused on the study of early and pre-modern South Indian history. She served as a professor in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In addition, Champakalakshmi was president of the Indian History Congress.

R. Champakalakshmi
Champakalakshmi (left) at the Kalakshetra Foundation (2014)
Born1932 (1932)
Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli, Madras Presidency, British India (present-day Tamil Nadu, India)
Died28 January 2024(2024-01-28) (aged 91–92)
Occupation(s)Historian and social scientist
RelativesR. Jayalakshmi (sister)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Madras
Doctoral advisorT. V. Mahalingam
Academic work
DisciplineSouth Indian history
InstitutionsJawaharlal Nehru University

Early life

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Champakalakshmi was born in 1932 to Pattammal (mother) and R. Rangachari (father) in a family from Srirangam in present day Tamil Nadu.[1][2][3] Her father was an advocate.[4][5] Champakalakshmi obtained a doctorate in history from the University of Madras. Her doctoral dissertation under historian T. V. Mahalingam, was on Vaishnava iconography in Tamil Nadu, a topic that she continued to research later into her career.[6]

Career

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Champakalakshmi started her academic career teaching at the University of Madras from 1959 to 1972, after which she joined the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as an associate professor of ancient history, where she continued to teach for the next 25 years, until her retirement in 1997.[6] She started her research studying religion, specifically Jainism and Vaishnava hinduism in ancient South India, and later expanded her research to include trade, economy, and emergence of urban centers in pre-medieval South India.[7] Some of her research was published in a book Vaishnava iconography (1981).[8] As a part of this work, she brought together evidence from Tamil Sangam literature, the Bhakti movement of the Alvars, the Agama traditions, and combined this with extensive fieldwork to bring out the distinct medieval period iconography of the Vaishnavism faith.[9]

Some of her later works studying the social, cultural, and economic history of early and medieval South India were published in Trade, Ideology and Urbanization (1996) and Religion, Tradition and Ideology (2011).[6][10] The latter was a collection of essays discussing the contribution of religious traditions to the social capital in pre-colonial south India.[11][12] She wrote about growth of urban centers under the Pallavas and Cholas including Kumbakonam and Thanjavur in the Cauvery delta region, and Kanchipuram in the Palar valley among other centers.[13][14]

In addition to serving as a professor at the JNU, Champakalakshmi also served as a president of the Indian History Congress.[1][15] She taught many famous students at her time at JNU, including Kesavan Veluthat, Rajan Gurukkal, Manu V. Devadevan, and K. N. Ganesh [ml].[6] She was a script consultant for Bharat Ek Khoj, a 1980s Indian television series based on Jawaharlal Nehru's The Discovery of India.[16] Many of Champakalakshmi's collections are held at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai.[17]

Personal life

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Champakalakshmi's sister R. Jayalakshmi was a carnatic musician and one half of the duo Radha Jayalakshmi with her cousin Radha.[2] Her other sister R. Vanaja was a numismatist with the National Museum of India in New Delhi.[18][19] Champakalakshmi died on 28 January 2024.[7][9]

Select works

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Books and monographs

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  • Champakalakshmi, R. (1981). Vaiṣṇava Iconography in the Tamil Country. Orient Longman. ISBN 978-0-86131-216-0.
  • Champakalakshmi, R. (1996). Trade, Ideology, and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563870-7.
  • Champakalakshmi, R. (2001). Tradition, Dissent and Ideology: Essays in Honour of Romila Thapar. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195654424. OL 9869061M.
  • Champakalakshmi, R.; Kris, Usha (2001). The Hindu Temple. Roli Books. ISBN 978-81-7436-094-6. OL 18662304M.
  • Champakalakshmi, R. (2002). State and Society in Pre-modern South India. Cosmobooks.
  • Champakalakshmi, R. (2011). Religion, Tradition, and Ideology: Pre-colonial South India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-807059-7.

Other works

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Notes

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  1. ^ Though many of the bibliographic sources indicate Champakalakshmi's first name as Radha, her first name is most likely Rangachari (alternately spelled as Rangachary), a patronymic reference to her father's name.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Kerala Council for Historical Research". kchr.ac.in. Archived from the original on 3 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Carnatic singer dead in Chennai". The Hindu. 28 May 2014. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Madras Music Academy – TTK Awards" (PDF).
  4. ^ "S. SESHACHARI Vs. THE SRIRANGAM CO-OPERATIVE BUILDING SOCIETY". www.the-laws.com. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  5. ^ "R RANGACHARI Vs. S SUPPIAH". www.the-laws.com. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d "An Era Called Champakalakshmi". The Wire. Archived from the original on 2 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Historian R. Champakalakshmi no more; former colleagues, students mourn death". The Hindu. 30 January 2024. Archived from the original on 31 January 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  8. ^ Marr, John R. (1985). "R. Champakalakshmi: Vaisnava iconography in the Tamil country. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1981. Rs. 175. [viii], 370 pp". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 48 (1): 160. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00027415. ISSN 1474-0699. S2CID 161959104. Archived from the original on 3 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  9. ^ a b Mahalakshmi, R. (2 February 2024). "R. Champakalakshmi's Abiding Legacy". The Wire. Retrieved 3 February 2024. With the passing of Professor Radha Champakalakshmi on January 28, 2024, we have lost a historian of JNU who helped to not only define historical scholarship in India but also painstakingly trained generations of students, who then went on to enrich their chosen fields.
  10. ^ Comeau, Leah E. (2014). "Review of Religion, Tradition, and Ideology: Pre-colonial South India". International Journal of Hindu Studies. 18 (2): 275–277. ISSN 1022-4556. JSTOR 24713674.
  11. ^ "The Hindu : Front Page : South India's cultural past not confined to one religion: Prof. Champakalakshmi". 28 August 2011. Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. ^ Comeau, Leah E. (2014). "Review of Religion, Tradition, and Ideology: Pre-colonial South India". International Journal of Hindu Studies. 18 (2): 275–277. ISSN 1022-4556. JSTOR 24713674.
  13. ^ Shankar, Pratyush (2023). "Temple Towns of South India". academic.oup.com. pp. 25–60. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199468096.003.0003. ISBN 978-0-19-946809-6. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
  14. ^ Champakalakshmi, R. (1996). Trade, Ideology And Urbanization.
  15. ^ Bandopadhyay, Arun; Champakalakshmi, R. (2009). "Appendix I: Indian History Congress 70 Th Session: Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 70: 1273–1275. ISSN 2249-1937. JSTOR 44147797.
  16. ^ Doordarshan (1988). Bharat Ek Khoj, Contents.
  17. ^ "Roja Muthiah Research Library – Internet Archive: Digital Library". archive.org. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
  18. ^ "The Hindu Images – Vijayanagara Coins Exhibition".
  19. ^ Champakalakshmi, Radha (1996). Trade, Ideology, and Urbanization: South India 300 BC to AD 1300. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-563870-7. Archived from the original on 3 February 2024. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
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