R. Champakalakshmi

Rangachari Champakalakshmi (1932 – 28 January 2024) was an Indian historian and social scientist whose work focused on the study of early and pre-modern South Indian history. She served as a professor in the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). In addition, Champakalakshmi was president of the Indian History Congress.

Early life
Champakalakshmi was born in 1932 to Pattammal (mother) and R. Rangachari (father) in a family from Srirangam in present day Tamil Nadu. Her father was an advocate. Champakalakshmi obtained a doctorate in history from the University of Madras. Her doctoral dissertation under historian T. V. Mahalingam, was on Vaishnava iconography in Tamil Nadu, a topic that she continued to research later into her career.

Career
Champakalakshmi started her academic career teaching at the University of Madras from 1959 to 1972, after which she joined the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as an associate professor of ancient history, where she continued to teach for the next 25 years, until her retirement in 1997. She started her research studying religion, specifically Jainism and Vaishnava hinduism in ancient South India, and later expanded her research to include trade, economy, and emergence of urban centers in pre-medieval South India. Some of her research was published in a book Vaishnava iconography (1981). As a part of this work, she brought together evidence from Tamil Sangam literature, the Bhakti movement of the Alvars, the Agama traditions, and combined this with extensive fieldwork to bring out the distinct medieval period iconography of the Vaishnavism faith.

Some of her later works studying the social, cultural, and economic history of early and medieval South India were published in Trade, Ideology and Urbanization (1996) and Religion, Tradition and Ideology (2011). The latter was a collection of essays discussing the contribution of religious traditions to the social capital in pre-colonial south India. She wrote about growth of urban centers under the Pallavas and Cholas including Kumbakonam and Thanjavur in the Cauvery delta region, and Kanchipuram in the Palar valley among other centers.

In addition to serving as a professor at the JNU, Champakalakshmi also served as a president of the Indian History Congress. She taught many famous students at her time at JNU, including Kesavan Veluthat, Rajan Gurukkal, Manu V. Devadevan, and K. N. Ganesh (historian). She was a script consultant for Bharat Ek Khoj, a 1980s Indian television series based on Jawaharlal Nehru's The Discovery of India. Many of Champakalakshmi's collections are held at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai.

Personal life
Champakalakshmi's sister R. Jayalakshmi was a carnatic musician and one half of the duo Radha Jayalakshmi with her cousin Radha. Her other sister R. Vanaja was a numismatist with the National Museum of India in New Delhi. Champakalakshmi died on 28 January 2024.