Vishnampet R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (16 April 1896 – 24 November 1953) was a historian,

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...

and

Dravidologist Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature, and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of South Asian studies. Early missionaries The 16th to 18th century missionar ...

from the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. He was professor of history and archaeology at the

University of Madras The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigiou ...

and is the author of standard text books on

Indian history According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

Early life

Ramachandra Dikshitar was born in the village of Vishnampettai or Vishnampet in

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

in an orthodox Brahmin family on 16 April 1896. He did his schooling at Sir P S Sivaswami Iyer High School at Thirukkattupalli and earned his bachelor of arts in history with distinction from

St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli (SJC) is a Catholic college in Tamil Nadu, India. It was established in 1844 by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and it is regarded as one of the most prestigious institutions in India. It was affiliated wi ...

in 1920. He completed his master's in history in 1923 along with a diploma in economics and obtained his PhD from Madras University in 1927.

Academic career

Ramachandra Dikshitar joined as a lecturer in history at St.Joseph College, Trichy. In 1928, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology, University of Madras. He was promoted to reader in 1946 and made Professor in 1947. Ramachandra Dikshitar specialized in Indian history in general, and Tamil history, in particular. He was a renowned Sanskrit scholar of his time.

Works

Ramachandra Dikshitar authored a number of books on history. He was the general editor of the Madras University Historical Series. He translated the

Silappathikaram ''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram'' or ''Silappatikaram'', is the e ...

in 1939 and the

Tirukkural The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' ( ta, திருக்குறள், lit=sacred verses), or shortly the ''Kural'' ( ta, குறள்), is a classic Tamil language text consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or Kural (poetic form), kurals, of seven ...

in 1949 into English. Some of his prominent works are: * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Death

Ramachandra Dikshitar died on 24 November 1953.

Legacy

R. Nagaswamy Ramachandran Nagaswamy (10 August 1930 – 23 January 2022) was an Indian historian, archaeologist and epigraphist who was known for his work on temple inscriptions and art history of Tamil Nadu. He was an authority on Chola bronzes. Nagas ...

, former director of archaeology, Government of India, once said of Ramachandra Dikshitar:

Historical methodology

Ramachandra Dikshitar introduced a new methodology in the study of ancient Indian history. His book "Warfare in Ancient India" speaks of the usage of ''vimanas'' in wars in ancient India and claims that the

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

was invented in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

. He believed that the references to the ''vimanas'' were quite real as evidenced by his writings in "Warfare in Ancient India" In his ''Origin and Spread of the Tamils'', Dikshitar includes Australia and

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

among the regions known to the ancient

South Indians The Dravidian peoples, or Dravidians, are an ethnolinguistic and cultural group living in South Asia who predominantly speak any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 250 million native speakers of Dravidian languages. Dravidian spe ...

thereby suggesting that South Indian traders might have at least had a general idea of existence of the Australian continent even before it was discovered by

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

sea-farers of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dikshitar, V. R. 1896 births 1953 deaths Indian Indologists Dravidologists St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni University of Madras faculty Tamil–English translators Scholars from Chennai Translators of the Tirukkural into English 20th-century translators People from Thanjavur district Tirukkural translators