Dr Y Subbarayalu, will distill his decades of research on South Indian and especially Chola history in his talk "Epigraphical Evidence for Maritime Relations of South India and Rajendra Chola's Expeditions".
Dr Gauri Parimoo Krishnan then takes us on a voyage across the Indian Ocean with her talk "The Story of India's Textile Trade from Cairo to Malacca".
Dr Y Subbarayalu is an authority on South Indian Archaeology and Epigraphy, Historical geography, Social and Economic History of medieval South India. He has an MA in Ancient History and Archaeology, an M.Litt and a Ph.D for his thesis on “State in Medieval South India” .
He has taught History, Epigraphy and Archaeology at the Madurai Kamaraj University and the Tamil University, Thanjavur. He was a Visiting Professor for South Indian History, Dept of Oriental History, University of Tokyo and at EPHE, Paris. He has been associated with French Institute of Pondicherry over two decades as Researcher and as Head of the Department of Indology.
He directed Archaeological Excavations at Vallam, Kodumanal and Periyapattinam and was a distinguished member of the Indo-Japanese project for Archaeological Exploration in Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Kampuchea and Sri Lanka to study South India – Southeast Asia trade and cultural contacts
Notable among his books are A Concordance of the Names in the Chola Inscriptions (with Noboru Karashima and Toru Matsui), Palm-leaf Documents of Tiruchirappalli District, A Glossary of Tamil Inscriptions, and South India under the Cholas. Dr. Y Subbarayalu was awarded the Hem Chandra Raychaudhuri Birth Centenary Gold Medal for the year 2014 by The Asiatic Society, Kolkata. He is also the recipient of the first V Venkayya Award for Epigraphy.
Dr Gauri Parimoo Krishnan, is an art historian, independent curator and museum consultant who has dedicated 30 years to the arts and heritage sectors. She has conceptualised and developed the Indian Heritage Centre and South Asia galleries of the Asian Civilisations Museum from their inception to fruition in Singapore. She has curated major international exhibitions of Asian and Indian art. She has taught museum studies and curatorship at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She was the inaugural chief curator of the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya, New Delhi. Dr Krishnan’s research and publications include the Arts of India, the Asian Ramayana, the Buddhist Art of Asia, the Indian Diaspora, and Indian Trade Textiles to Southeast Asia. Gauri is a recipient of the Commendation Medal and Public Administration Medal (Bronze) for her contribution to the arts and heritage sectors in Singapore.