120th birth anniversary of Dr. C.Minakshi

120th birth anniversary of Dr. C.Minakshi, one of the greatest Historians of India. Born on 12th September, 1905, she was a student of the renowned historian Prof.K.A.Nilakanta Sastri. An authority on Pallava history and a pioneering researcher on this subject, her books `Social and Administrative Life Under the Pallavas’ and the `The Historical Sculptures of the Vaikunthaperumal Temple, Kanchi’ are well known. She had also done a lot of research on the Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram, which was part of her Ph.D. thesis. Numerous were the research articles she wrote on various subjects. Incidentally, she was the first woman to get a Ph.D. from the University of Madras. What an achievement!

Not many know that C.Minakshi was also a performing musician and musicologist. A scrapbook very carefully preserved by the family of her brother Prof.C.Lakshminarayanan, has newspaper clippings announcing her vocal concerts and even the list of songs to be rendered!

Alas, this prodigious scholar did not live to see her 35th birthday. She passed away in 1940 when she was only thirty-four years.