Professor Thiruvannathapuram Kuppuswami Venkatasubramanian was born in the year 1947 at Ambasamudram in Tirunelveli (Kattabomman) District of Tamil Nadu. He completed his M.A. in History from Presidency College, Madras in 1968 and was awarded the doctorate in History from Madras University in 1979. After having served as an Assistant Professor and Professor under Tamil Nadu Collegiate Education Service at the postgraduate level from 1971–84, he joined the University of Delhi as a Reader in 1984 and became a Professor in 1994.

With a teaching and research experience of more than forty-one years, Professor Venkatasubramanian has made significant contributions to the discipline of history through his continuous endeavour to explore the different facets of south Indian history. He inherited the spirit of academic enquiry and dedication for its accomplishment from his father Professor T.V. Kuppuswami, and continued the tradition of music in his family. It is very rare to find a personality with proficiency in the fields of music and history, as well as a command over administrative knowhow. Professor Venkatasubramanian is one such rare person, and he has proven himself in all these spheres. Besides his affiliation to history, his interests include a wide range from cricket to Carnatic music, and from environment to culture.

Popularly called as TKV by his colleagues and students of Delhi University, Professor Venkatasubramanian was always willing to go an extra mile to help and set things right for them. We had the privilege not only of knowing TKV but also of learning from him the ways to examine and interpret the different facets of historical facts. He, as a devoted educationist and fluent extempore speaker, inspired his students to scale heights in different spheres. I still remember the unique pen with his official seal attached to it that he always carried with him during his tenure as the Head of the History Department, University of Delhi. This idea of Professor Venkatasubramanian helped in avoiding delays in file processing of the documents even if the office staff assigned to stamp the document was on leave, and benefitted more so for those like me depending on the fellowship from the UGC to meet our monthly expenses. As students of history, we learnt to admire his vision of culture including tradition of values and human endeavour for selfrealization, and assertion on human dignity and humanity. The aroma of south Indian coffee very often attracted us to his residence in the NorthCampus of Delhi University, which for many years served as an ideal place for scholastic discussions. He was a father figure to his students and commanded courtesy and attention from them.

During his service in the University of Delhi, he held key positions at the national and international levels. He became the Member Secretary of the Indian Council of Historical Research (1998–9), which was a Cabinet Committee Appointment through the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. During 1999–2002, he served as a member to Advisory Board of the Archaeological Survey of India. He was the Head, Department of History, University of Delhi from the year 2001 to 2004; at the same time, he was also given the charge of the headship of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education and Extension, University of Delhi from 2001 to 2003. During this period, he also functioned as the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences; Chairman, Admission Advisory Committee; Director, Population Education Centre; Convenor, Sub-Committee, Board of Research Studies in Humanities, and a Member of Academic Council and Executive Council, University of Delhi.

He contributed significantly to the University of Delhi during the period 2001–7, when the syllabi at the undergraduate level were being revised. He served as the Coordinator, Discipline Courses for B.A. Programme (2003–5), and Convenor, Indian Art and Indian Music (Application Courses) (2005–7). During the period 2004–9, he was the Chairman, Senior Secondary course in History, National Institute of Open Schooling and External Member, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Between the years 2007 and 2009, he was a member of the Academic Council, Research Council, Joint Committee of UGC, AICTE and Distance Education Council, a Board Member of the School of Performing and Visual Arts, and Convenor of the Course Preparation Committee for Hindustani and Carnatic music at Indira Gandhi National Open University. He also served as the Member, Secondary and Senior Secondary Board for Carnatic Music in National Institute of Open Schooling (2008–10). He has also carried out several assignments for the UGC and helped in the preparation of a model curriculum for History and Archaeology in 2000–1. He has been a member of the Implementation Committees for the Tenth Plan (2003–4) and Eleventh Plan (2008–9). He also carried out a survey for the UGC to evaluate the effectiveness of telephonic counselling in seventeen universities during 2003–4. After his retirement from service in 2012 Professor Venkatasubramanian successfully discharged his responsibility as the Chairman, Governing Body, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi during 2015–16.

He made significant contribution to the Indian History Congress as the Treasurer (1986–9), Joint Secretary and In-charge, Permanent Office (1989–92) and as the Local Secretary (1992). He was also elected as the President for the Ancient India Section of the Indian History Congress, Chennai Session (1996); Cultural History Section of the South Indian History Congress, Gulbarga Session (1996); Historiography Session of the Andhra Pradesh History Congress, Tirupati Session (2003). Besides these, he has also delivered many endowment and public lectures which include a Lecture at the Tirunelveli Session of Tamil Nadu History Congress (1998); Sankara Parvathy Endowment Lectures, Madras University, Chennai (1998); S. Rajendran Endowment Lecture, Loyola College, Chennai (2001); Hari Ram Gupta Memorial Endowment Lecture, Punjab University, Chandigarh (2004); Mamidipudi Venkatrangiah Endowment Lecture, Madras University, Chennai (2004); South India Heritage Lecture, TAG Centre, Chennai (2006); Keynote Address at Anantapur Session of South Indian History Congress (2008).

He has presented papers in many national and international conferences such as the Beijing Forum (2005) organized by Peking University, China; Indology Conference (2006) at Moscow; International conference on Teaching and Learning of World Civilization on the Web (2007) organized jointly by the City University, Hongkong and Peking University, China and the meeting of EurIndia Project (2007) at Paris. He was also the Principal Investigator in the EurIndia Project (2002–7). He is associated with the Academic Staff Colleges of many universities including JNU, AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia. He also has membership of the Professional Bodies including the Indian History Congress, South Indian History Congress, Tamil Nadu History Congress, Indian Music Congress, Urban History Association of India, Place Name Society, Epigraphical Society of India, World Archaeological Congress, South Indian Numismatic Society and South Asia Studies (Chicago University).

He is an accomplished mṛdaṅgaṁ player and had the privilege of accompanying veterans of Carnatic music like Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Alathur Srinivasa Iyer, D.K. Jayaraman, Dr M. Balamurali Krishna, Ramnad Krishnan, T.M. Thyagrajan Flute Ramani, Dr Prapancham Sita Ram, T.R. Subramanyam, T.K. Govinda Rao, T.N. Seshagopalan and many others. He is a graded artist of All India Radio and Doordarshan, and an empanelled artist of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). He has also served as the Joint Secretary of the Indian Music Congress (1989–95). He is connected with many organizations in Delhi and Chennai which promote fine arts. In the field of Carnatic music, he is known as Dr T.K.V.S. Mani. Very recently, he organized and coordinated a two-day Music Festival ‘Talavadyotsava 2013’ (30–1 March 2013) at Delhi Tamil Sangam to felicitate his guru Dr T.K. Murthy, the famous mridangist, for eighty years of his service to the field of music. He also produced a seventeen-hour video on Tāla for Sangeet Natak Akademi in 2013. Professor Venkatasubramanian is proficient in Tamil, Malayalam, Sanskrit and Hindi besides English. He has visited Egypt, UAE, USA, Canada, China, Russia and many European countries.

This collection of essays in honour of Professor T.K. Venkatasubramanian relate very much to his academic interest in south Indian history. His interest in various facets of south Indian history is reflected in his writings on different subjects, some of which include: Political Change and Agrarian Tradition in South India, 1600–1801 (1986); Environment and Urbanisation in Early Tamilakam (1988); Evolution of Political Society in South India (1993); and Music as History in Tamilnadu (2010). He also co-authored Rhythm in Historical Cognition (1993) and Negotiating India’s Past, Essays in Memory of Partha Sarthi Gupta (2003). He penned the Prefatory Introduction for the Town Planning in Early South India (1987), Marriage and Worship in Early Societies (1988) and Telephonic Counselling in University System (2005). His ‘Naga Origin of Pallavas of Kanchi’ (Indian History Congress, 1977); ‘Pattern of Economy of Early Tamils’ (Indian History Congress, 1980); ‘Chiefdom to State: Reflections on Kaveri Delta Social Formations’ (Indian History Congress, Chennai, 1996); ‘Bhakti Ideology vis-à-vis Hymn of Saivite Nayanmars’ (Indian History Congress, 1999); ‘Maratta Tanjore in the Lyrics of Thyagaraja (circa AD 1763-1850)’ (Andhra Pradesh History Congress, 2003); ‘Knowledge and Society: Understanding Historical Transitions’ (South Indian History Congress, Anantapur, 2008); and ‘Interdisciplinarity, Music, History and the Tamils’ (Sangeet Natak, vol. XLIV, no. 4, 2010) are also noteworthy. His Music as History in Tamilnadu, 2010, takes note of the historical changes linked with the development of music. This interdisciplinary approach reflects an amalgamation of perspective to view a phenomenon in its historical context, while considering practical experience.

His ‘Chiefdom to State: Reflections on Kaveri Delta Social Formations’, presented as the Presidential Address to the Ancient India Section at the Chennai Session of the Indian History Congress (1996), reflects his grasp over literary works, epigraphic data and archeological evidences to outline the process of state formation in early Tami¡lakam. In ‘Knowledge and Society: Understanding Historical Transitions’ presented at the Anantapur Session of the South Indian History Congress (2008), Professor Venkatasubramanian emphasized the role of a historian to demonstrate how knowledge was generated in different times and spaces and influenced other cultural zones. He further adds that as information has become the critical raw material for all social processes and social organizations, a historian cannot afford to ignore the implications of the information age for the development of human civilization. His interdisciplinary perspective is very evident in his attempt to explore Carnatic music as a classical art in Tamilnadu through a historical approach in the monograph Music as History in Tamilnadu (2010). He views the musical past as part of the cultural production of the period, which can be linked with historical developments. Professor Venkatasubramanian’s Prefatory Introduction to the new edition (1987) of Town Planning in Early South India by C.P. Venkatarama Ayyar (1916), one of the earliest modern work on urban studies in the Indian subcontinent, is noteworthy. His knowledge of the different physiocultural zones, political and economic geography comes very clear. His works, nevertheless, captures the interaction between various disciplines. Thus, this garland of essays is a great tribute to Professor T.K. Venkatasubramanian’s academic and cultural pursuits.