President Pranab Mukherjee felicitates 92-year-old archaeologist among others

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday honoured archaeologist C Govindarajanar, whose work led to identification of Kannaki Temple in Tamil Nadu, with the Tolkappiyar Award for outstanding contribution in the field of Tamil studies. The award was among the Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil conferred by the President to eminent persons at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday.

"Govindarajanar is an eminent archaeologist who did fieldwork for 17 years in the historically important region from Pumpukar to Vanci which led to the identification of the Kannaki Temple. The award carries a certificate of honour, a memento and a one-time cash prize of Rs five lakh," a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Besides the 92-year-old archaeologist, the President also conferred Kural Pitam Award for 2008-09 to Francois Gros, a French professor who has translated many Tamil classics into French and was Vice President of the International Association of Tamil Research. The award includes a certificate of honour, a memento and a one-time cash prize of Rs five lakh, it said.

The President honoured honoured C Govindarajanar, whose work has led to identification of Kannaki Temple in TN.

"Young Scholar Awards for 2008-09 were also conferred on to A Lakshmi Duttai, Dr S Madhavan, Dr M Ramakrishnan and Dr S Sentamizhpavai for showing excellence in Tamil studies. It includes a certificate of honour, a memento and a one-time cash award of Rs one lakh," the statement said.

Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil are instituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development to give due recognition and honour to distinguished scholars who have made outstanding contribution to classical Tamil language and literature.

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