https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=A._AiyappanA. Aiyappan - Revision history2026-07-31T16:05:12ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=A._Aiyappan&diff=388970&oldid=prevAjay Kumar at 04:13, 4 July 20232023-07-04T04:13:35Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian anthropologist and museologist}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2013}}<br />
{{Infobox officeholder<br />
| honorific-prefix =<br />
| name = Ayinapalli Aiyappan<br />
| image = A. Aiyappan.jpg<br />
| imagesize = 150px<br />
| office1 = Superintendent of the [[Government Museum, Chennai]] and [[Connemara Public Library]]<br />
| term_start1 = 1940<br />
| term_end1 = 1960<br />
| predecessor1 =[[F. H. Gravely]]<br />
| successor1 = [[S. T. Satyamurthi]]<br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1905|2|5|df=yes}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Pavaratty]], [[Thrissur]]<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|06|28|1905|02|05|df=yes}}<br />
| death_place = [[Pavaratty]], [[Thrissur]]<br />
| party = <br />
| religion = <br />
| alma_mater = [[University of Madras]]<br />
| profession = [[Anthropologist]]<br />
| spouse = <br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Ayinapalli Aiyappan''' (5 February 1905&nbsp;– 28 June 1988) was a [[museologist]] who served as Superintendent of the [[Government Museum, Madras]] from 1940 to 1960.<ref name="cds">{{cite journal |url=http://www.cds.edu/admin/homeFiles/chronicle.pdf |journal=Chronicle |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=January–March 2005 |publisher=Centre for Development Studies |title=Remembering The Founder Chairman: A. Aiyappan |page=2 |first=P. K. Michael |last=Tharakan |accessdate=2011-06-08 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314220722/http://www.cds.edu/admin/homeFiles/chronicle.pdf |archivedate=2012-03-14}}</ref> He was the first Indian to occupy the post. Aiyappan was also an amateur archaeologist who did pioneering excavations on the archaeological site at [[Arikamedu]].<ref name="thehindu_20110701">{{cite news|title=Setting the record straight on the Arikamedu finds|url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-arikamedu-finds/article2151055.ece|date=1 July 2011|first=A.|last=Srivathsan|work=The Hindu}}</ref><br />
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==Life==<br />
Aiyappan was born into the [[Thiyya]] community.<ref name="Osella8">{{cite book |title=Social Mobility In Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict |first1=Filippo |last1=Osella |first2=Caroline |last2=Osella |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780745316932 |page=8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMRw0gTZSJwC&pg=PA8}}</ref> He obtained an MA in economics from the [[University of Madras]] in 1927, and in 1929 he joined the [[Government Museum, Madras]]. He continued to study, taking a PhD in 1937 after being a student of [[Raymond Firth]] at the [[London School of Economics]]. He became head of the museum in 1940 and continued there until 1958, whilst also being a visiting professor at [[Cornell University]] during 1954–1956. He became professor and head of the Department of Anthropology at [[Utkal University]] in 1958, and filled the same role at [[Andhra University]] in 1966–1967. In 1969 he was appointed vice-chancellor of Kerala University, a post in which he stayed for either 18 months or<ref name="cds"/> until 1972,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/04/04/stories/2005040400100300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026025920/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/04/04/stories/2005040400100300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 October 2012 |title=Pioneering Indian museologist |first=S. |last=Muthiah |date=4 April 2005 |newspaper=[[The Hindu]] |accessdate=2011-06-08}}<br />
</ref> dependent on the source selected.<br />
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In 1970 he became a sponsoring founder and first chairman of the [[Centre for Development Studies]].<ref name="cds"/> He was also a sponsoring founder and director{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} of the Tribal Research Bureau of [[Odisha]] (now known as Tribal and Harijan Research and Training Institute),<ref name="cds"/> and director of the Department of Rural Welfare of Odisha.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}<br />
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Aiyappan was involved in the reorganisation of the Odisha Museum as a multipurpose museum with the addition of [[natural history]], mining and geology, and anthropology galleries.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} He was awarded the Saratchandra Roy Gold Medal of the [[Asiatic Society]] in [[Bengal]]. He was also an Honorary Fellow of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]]. He died on 28 June 1988.<ref>Akhilavijnanakosam; D.C.Books; Kottayam</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2014}}<ref>Sahithyakara Directory; Kerala Sahithya Academy, Thrissur</ref>{{full citation needed|date=April 2014}}<br />
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==Works==<br />
*''Iravas and Cultural Change'' (PhD thesis, published in Bulletin of the Madras Museum, 1945){{efn|Originally submitted to the [[London School of Economics]] in 1937 as ''Culture Change in South-Western India''.<ref name="Osella8" />}}<br />
*''Social Revolution in a Kerala Village'' (1965)<br />
*''Nayads of Kerala''<br />
*''The Personality of Kerala''<br />
*''Physical Anthropology of the Nayadis of Malabar''<br />
*''Bharathappazhama'' ( Malayalam)<br />
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==References==<br />
'''Notes'''<br />
{{notelist}}<br />
'''Citations'''<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Aiyappan, A}}<br />
[[Category:1905 births]]<br />
[[Category:1988 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Indian anthropologists]]<br />
[[Category:People from Thrissur district]]<br />
[[Category:Indian museologists]]<br />
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Kerala]]<br />
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Madras]]<br />
[[Category:Scholars from Kerala]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]<br />
[[Category:Indian social sciences writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian anthropologists]]<br />
{{India-academic-bio-stub}}<br />
{{Anthropologist-stub}}</div>Ajay Kumar