Tamil Heritage Trust
At the V Venkayya Epigraphy Award Function on July 26, 2025, Dr
Padigar will receive the Award from the Chief Guest of the occasion, Dr T
S Ravishankar, Director – Epigraphy (Retd), Archaeological Survey of
India, Mysuru.
Dr Padigar will deliver the Award Lecture on "Beyond the Texts: Insights from Early Chalukya Inscriptions”
At 6.00 pm IST on July 26th, 2025 at Arkay Convention Centre, Mylapore, Chennai 600004.
The event can also be viewed live online here.
Dr Shrinivas V Padigar, eminent Kannada epigrapher and historian,
is the Winner of the V Venkayya Epigraphy Award for 2025, an award
instituted by Sunitha Madhavan, great-granddaughter of Shri V Venkayya.
The Award commemorates Rai Bahadur Shri V Venkayya, a pioneering
Epigrapher who was the first Indian Chief Epigraphist to the Government
of India.
The annual V Venkayya Epigraphy Award (VVE Award) aims to recognize
exceptional individual contributions, in any Indian language, towards
the discovery of unrecorded inscriptions, interpretation of inscriptions
from a refreshingly new perspective, dissemination of wealth of
knowledge contained in them by conventional as well as digital medium
and preservation of epigraphic resources for posterity. The recipient
was selected by a jury consisting of experts in epigraphy, history,
archaeology, and heritage.
Dr. Shrinivas V Padigar is a distinguished historian, epigraphist, and
archaeologist whose scholarship has profoundly shaped the understanding
of India’s early historical and cultural narratives, especially the
Kannada region. Currently the Director (Academic and Research) at
The Mythic Society, Bengaluru, he has had an illustrious academic career
spanning over three decades, primarily at Karnatak University, Dharwad,
where he rose to become Professor and Chairman of the Department of
Ancient Indian History and Epigraphy.
A gold medalist and Ph.D. from Karnatak University (1985), Dr. Padigar
has held several prestigious fellowships, including the Infosys
Foundation Karnataka Chair at BORI, Pune, a Senior Academic Fellowship
from the ICHR, and a Charles Wallace Fellowship in the UK. He has also
served as a visiting fellow at institutions like Deccan College and the
University of Edinburgh.
His scholarly contributions are extensive and interdisciplinary,
encompassing epigraphy, art history, archaeology, numismatics, and
religious studies. He has reexamined, edited, and critically
reinterpreted over 400 inscriptions, especially from the Early Chalukya
period. The result was his magnum opus Inscriptions of the Calukyas of
Badami (2010).
His research has shed new light on the Saiva and Vaishnava traditions,
educational institutions, temple architecture, and sculptural
iconography in the Deccan, often drawing on inscriptional and
archaeological evidence.
His other significant publications include Vishnu Cult in Karnataka
(1996), alongside several works in Kannada such as "Puratattvashastra
Parichaya" and numerous edited volumes such as Pratnakirti and New
Facets of Indian Art. His writings explore themes from narrative
sculpture—like the Panchatantra and Jataka depictions—to socio-religious
practices and artisanal histories.
He has supervised 13 doctoral theses, delivered invited lectures across
India, and presided over national academic conferences. In recognition
of his pioneering work, he has received the Rajarshi Dr. Veerendra
Heggade Award (2023) and the Dr. B.R. Gopal Epigraphist’s Award (2016).
With a rare blend of methodological precision and visionary insight, Dr.
Padigar remains a leading voice in the fields of Indian epigraphy and
ancient cultural studies - an enduring influence and a deserving winner
of the V. Venkayya Epigraphy Award, 2025.
Tamil Heritage Trust
tamilheritage.in
tamilheritage.in@gmail.com
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