Noted epigraphist and former IAS officer Iravatham Mahadevan passed away early on Monday. He was 88. He passed away at 4 am at his residence in Chennai. Iravatham is known for deciphering the Tamil-Brahmi scripts and for his research on scripts from the Indus Valley Civilisation. He was also the former editor of Tamil daily Dinamani.
Iravartham was born on October 2, 1930, and completed his schooling from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirapalli. He attended college at Vivekananda College in Chennai and studied law at Madras Law College.
He completed his civil services examination in 1953 and in 1953 and was posted to the Tamil Nadu cadre. He took voluntary retirement from the civil services in the year 1980 to get back to academics.
After a casual suggestion from a fellow historian in the year 1961, Iravartham began to research the Tamil-Brahmi script. His first study on the scripts was published in 1966. Shortly after, Iravarhtham was offered the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship to do a doctoral research on the Indus Script. Iravartham completed the research and awarded the fellowship in 1970.
Even after he received his fellowship, Iravatham continued his research. His research was later published as a book titled The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables in 1977.
After his research on the Indus script, Iravartham went back to his study on the Tamil-Brahmi script and received active help from the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department. A revised edition of his 1966 book on Tamil-Brahmi scripts was published in the year 2003. In 1992, he was honoured with the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Historical Research for his work.
Iravatham was the former editor of the Tamil daily ‘Dinamani’ from 1987 to 1991. He was awarded the Padma Shri in April 2009 for his work in epigraphy.
Iravartham also founded the Vidyasagar Educational Trust for underprivileged children in the year 2010.
A few years ago, on the occasion of New Year’s Day, Iravartham had given out a message to the youth of India. He said, “My message to the young people on this New Year’s day will be: learn to respect and understand your culture and your heritage. When you visit a temple, look at the sculptures, look at the paintings and the inscriptions. When you go to museums, look at the coins, these are the living symbols of a very rich heritage. We may live in the modern age surrounded by computers and cell phones, but we cannot afford to lose our roots which sustain us.”
Source: The News Minute