Obituary: South Indianists

[N. Ganesan]

Four important scholars  have passed away during recent months.
Iravatham Mahadevan, I.A.S told me that their contributions
have not been fully felt yet in the Classical Indian studies.
The last important gathering they all were present was the
First Int. Conference on Skanda-Murukan organized by
the Inst. of Asian Studies, Chennai.

1) N. Sethuraman, Director, Raman and Raman Bus Co., Kumbakonam.
His contribution to dating of Chola and Pandya inscriptions
from the panchAngas is immense. A strong believer in Nadi astrology,
he always believed Nagaswamy was the "peruntaccan" (chief architect)
of tanjore big temple.

2) Francoise L'Hernault. Her book on Subrahmanya iconography
has almost 250 photographs. Can a list member provide a
list of publications by her, please?

3) P. L. Samy I.A.S. was retired and living in Pondichery.
His efforts at culling the science data on fauna and flora
is unique. His study on Goddess worship, Murugan etc.,
from Sangam texts remains largely unknown in the West
because most of his brillinat pieces are in Tamil.

4) S. S. Janaki who worked on many Sanskrit texts produced
in the South and taught many students both in India and from
abroad.

I thought of mentioning their sad demise away from us.

Regards,
N. Ganesan


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