Iravatham Mahadevan, leading scholar on Indus Valley and Brahmi scripts, passes away at 88

Iravatham Mahadevan (88), the distinguished scholar of the Tamil Brahmi script passed away in Chennai on 26 November after a brief illness. He was known the world over for his contribution to the study of India’s ancient writing systems. A recipient of the Padma Shri award, Mahadevan has authored The Indus Script - Texts, Concordance and Tables, a compilation of texts published in 1977 with a grant from the Indian Council of Historical Research and published by the Archaeological Survey of India. It is descriptive of the script employed during the Indus Valley Civilisation. [caption id=“attachment_5619221” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Iravatham Mahadevan was a well-known scholar of epigraphy. Image via Twitter[/caption] The epigraphy scholar also wrote Early Tamil Epigraphy which was first published by the Harvard University and Cre-A in 2003. A former member of the Indian Administrative Services, Mahadevan has served in various positions in the Central and the Tamil Nadu government along with dedicating his time to the study of ancient languages and their scripts. He also established the Indus Research Centre at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai. Mahadevan is survived by his son Sridhar Mahadevan and two grandchildren, Vandana Vidyasagar and Vinay Vidyasagar.