Dr S.P. Tewari
Memorial Lecture 1995

On Friday 24 February 1995 the first Dr S.P. Tewari Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr K.V. Ramesh, retired Joint Director-General and former Director of Epigraphy of the Archaeological Survey of India at the Assembly Hall of the Central Food Technology Research Institute. The lecture was organized by the Foundation for the promotion of Indigenous Knowledge Based Development (IKDF) at Mysore. The lecture was attended by a large number of eminent Mysore scholars of archaeology, epigraphy and linguistics.
Dr E. Annamalai, Director Central Institute of Indian Languages, who presided over the meeting, drew attention to the multiplicity of Indigenous Knowledge and the variety of languages (Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil among others) in which it is visible not only in India, but also in Southeast Asia.
Dr Ramesh highlighted the importance of the Southeast Asian inscriptions for the understanding of Indian Indigenous Knowledge Systems, the disconnection between the political domain and migration, and the transfer of knowledge of Indian sculpture to artisans of the Southeast Asian countries.
The Indian law of succession was one of the main motives for migration. The junior princes of Indian royal families took many other people with them. The epigraphic evidence for the migration of artisans is found as early as the third century.
Many inscriptions in Southeast Asia, through their consistent mention of the Saka reckoning, which was common only in Karnataka, show links between migrants and this particular area.
The wealth of information on the history of India and her relations with other Asian countries urgently needs to be studied through the inscriptions. With the increased contacts within the Asia region, and the knowledge of the Sanskrit-influenced inscribed languages available only in India, Dr Ramesh, emphasized the need for training Sanskritists in Asian Epigraphy.