Small Study and Research Grant (India)

The award gave me a good opportunity to travel and visit many terracotta temples in remote villages in Bengal that remained unknown and undocumented. I have (2001) prepared a popular article and two research papers are ready for publication. I interact usefully with a stream of students and research workers from the Kala Bhavana, Visva Bharati and Burdwan University Bardhaman.

By career I am a biology teacher, and my interest in the field of art is actually extra curricular. However I am trying to co-relate my career with the field of art by doing some studies related to art-conservation. I have conducted some studies on bio-deterioration of objects of cultural value in Kerala where this is (2001) a pioneering attempt. The encouragement and financial support provided by the NTICVA grant was helpful for preparing the background of the present study.

The detailed history of museums has not been attempted much in India, but I had an inkling that such a detailed study may throw considerable light on development of the museum as an institution in our country. I also felt that the Madras Museum, which was in its 15th decade at that time, could be an ideal starting point for such a study because it had been carefully groomed through the years of its existence to attain an eminent position in its field. The first award from the NTICVA to me was meant to carry out such a study of the first gfive decades of the Madras Museum.