Tamil Heritage Trust
11 Aug 2026
At the V Venkayya Epigraphy Award Function, Dr Somasundara Rao will receive the Award from the Chief Guest of the occasion, Justice Prabha Sridevan (Retired).
Dr Somasundara Rao will also deliver the Award Lecture on "Dating Methods in the Inscriptions of Andhra Pradesh: A Review"
At 6.00 pm IST, 29 August 2026 at Arkay Convention Centre, Mylapore, Chennai 600004.
The event can also be viewed live online
The annual V Venkayya Epigraphy Award (VVE Award) aims to recognise
exceptional individual contributions, in any Indian language, towards
the discovery of unrecorded inscriptions, interpretation of inscriptions
from a refreshingly new perspective, dissemination of the wealth of
knowledge contained in them by conventional as well as digital media,
and preservation of epigraphic resources for posterity.
The recipient was selected by a jury consisting of experts in epigraphy, history, archaeology, and heritage.
Dr C. Somasundara Rao is a distinguished historian and
epigraphist whose career has been devoted principally to the study of
Andhra history, epigraphy, palaeography and numismatics. Born in 1940,
he completed his M.A. (Hons.) with a thesis on the History of
Vijayanagara after A.D. 1565, and later earned his PhD in 1977 on
Gautamiputra Satakarni and his Times. He served in the Department of
History & Archaeology at Andhra University from 1963, becoming a
Professor in 1985 and continuing as a Guest Faculty member until 2002.
A significant aspect of his contribution is his work in making Andhra
epigraphy accessible to students and non-specialists. His Inscriptions
of Andhra Pradesh (2014 and 2024) traces the evolution of Telugu script
from Brahmi through the Telugu-Kannada tradition, supported by
palaeographical tables, photographs and dated inscriptional examples.
The second edition adds extensive treatment of medieval chronograms and
nearly 700 examples of numeral terminology and their corresponding Saka
dates. The book has consequently become both a teaching aid and a
practical reference for researchers.
He has also made important contributions to the editing and
interpretation of primary inscriptional sources. He edited South Indian
Inscriptions, Volume XLII (2020), comprising records collected by the
Archaeological Survey of India during 1954–57, spanning the Mauryan to
the Vijayanagara period. He has also edited numerous previously
unpublished copperplate grants of the Eastern Gangas, the Chalukyas of
Vengi, the Kakatiyas, and the Kona Haihayas. His other major books
include Studies in Andhra History and Culture (2019), which brings
together his presidential addresses and research on Andhra history,
epigraphy and numismatics.
Among his noteworthy research contributions are the identification of
villages mentioned in the Soraikkavur plates of Sangama Virupaksha, new
interpretations of the Khandavalli plates of the Kakatiyas and Kona
Haihaya, and his analysis of the Satavahana chronology, a longstanding
problem in South Indian history. He has also challenged traditional
assumptions concerning the Ashtadiggajas of Krishnadevaraya's court,
using inscriptional evidence to reassess their chronology. His study of
the Khandavalli inscriptions highlighted the unusual Daya-gaja-Kesari
legend and the distinctive Vaishnavite imagery on the Kona Haihaya seal.
Dr Rao's academic leadership has been equally notable: he has served as
General President of the Epigraphical Society of India, the South Indian
Numismatic Society, the Andhra Pradesh History Congress, and the South
Indian History Congress, and has also presided over the Ancient India
Section of the Indian History Congress. He has guided seven PhD and
eleven M.Phil. scholars, and received the C.H. Biddulph Medal (1991) and
the Mallampalli Somasekhara Sarma Memorial Award (2014). His enduring
legacy lies not merely in publications, but in preserving, interpreting
and popularising the inscriptional record of Andhra for future
generations, thus a deserving winner of the V Venkayya Epigraphy Award
2026.
Tamil Heritage Trust
tamilheritage.in
tamilheritage.in@gmail.com
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