Prof. Ganapati Subbiah, a well-known expert on art and architecture of South India is presently at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) as a visiting Professor in the School of Social Sciences. He is from Vadakarai village in Tirunelvlei District in the southern part of the Tamil Nadu State. He has been interacting and sharing his knowledge with the students of UoH for the last three months.
Dr. Subbiah’s strength is his extremely approachable nature with the students and this has helped him to strike the right chord with them. The students are very friendly with him and are making the maximum use of his visit in enriching their knowledge on the subject. Dr. Subbiah has a M.A. Degree in early Indian Art History from the Banaras Hindu University (1969). He obtained his first Ph.D. degree in Ancient Indian History from the University of Calcutta (1976) for his thesis on Early Pandya Architecture (c. 600A.D. to 1000 A.D.) in southern Tamil Nadu and he obtained a second Ph.D. Degree in Religious Studies from the McMaster University (1988), Hamilton, Canada for his thesis on Religious Thought as reflected in the Classical Tamil Texts.
Dr. Subbiah began his teaching career at Poompuhar College, which was then affiliated to the University of Madras and as Research Fellow taught courses at Banaras, Calcutta and McMaster Universities. In 1976, he joined as faculty member in the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and, after serving the Institute for well over 36 years, retired as Professor in March this year. In the year 1991, Dr. Subbiah also served for three months as Visiting Professor in the Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu.
Dr. Subbiah has participated and presented papers in a number of national and international conferences both within and outside the Country and has been invited to deliver prestigious Endowment Lectures in the Universities of Madras and Calcutta. He has published his research work in the field of early Indian Art history, Religious and Cultural history. He had been elected President of the Ancient India Section of the West Bengal Itihasa Samsad in 1999 and the Indian History Congress in 2007.
Since retirement, Dr. Subbiah has settled in Chennai.