Ships in Ancient Indian Art
There are a good number of ships represented in ancient Indian art, which are valuable evidence, capable of throwing light on ancient Indian shipping and shipbuilding technology. Some of these representations were referred to by scholars here and there, but no complete and systematic study of these ships was carried out.
For the study of the architecture and sculpture of Saivite, Chola temples of South Arcot District
I was able to study 80 temples and their sculptures in South Arcot, thus increasing my knowledge of this subject. I subsequently registered for a PhD degree.
Coromandel Trade
The Visiting Fellowship gave me the opportunity to visit the museums and archives in the UK, including the Victoria and Albert Museum. The award also enabled me to gain more professional expertise and to enrich my knowledge of museology. I prepared a monograph about my experience in the UK and presented research papers to history fora on the Indian objects in the Coromandel- English trade.
Amaravati marbles: Study and Care
The Government Museum, Chennai holds a very significant collection of sculptures, in particular the sculptures from the Buddhist site of Amaravati. I took up the Fellowship in November 2000 in order to see the collection of Amaravati sculptures in the British Museum and to learn about display and conservation techniques. I learned from the British Museum how they had refurbished the Hotung and Asahi Shimbun galleries. The British Museum has conserved all the Amaravati sculptures and then mounted them on steel frames supported by treated rubber cushions.
