Study of the origin and spread of Buddhism in Tamil Nadu with special reference to the Chola country
Superintendent, Tamil University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
I felt very happy at the time of receiving the award as my burden was reduced to some extent. For my thesis " Buddhism in the Chola country" I had to cover nearly 100 villages in and around the region. During the fieldwork I was able to photograph nearly 50 granite Buddhas in the area for which the only financial support was the NTICVA grant. I was also able to contact museums inside and outside India to get photographs of Nagapattinam Buddha bronze sculptures. The grant allowed me to carry out and complete this work in a nice manner. I have written five articles relating to this thesis and some of them have appeared in journals.