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A rewarding journey for them

A passion for the past has spurred these women to foray into a field that has largely been dominated by men, says Kausalya Santhanam

Their sights are set on sites. They find ruins rewarding and love digging into the past. Excavating and piecing together evidence to tell us about monuments, cities and civilisations, theirs is an exciting profession. But their job demands they rough it out, defy the detrimental effects of sun and shower and camp out in distant places. Women archaeologists are still few and far between.

Mention "women archaeologist" and almost everyone remembers Dabela Mitra who retired as Director General of Archaeology, ASI, New Delhi, the first woman archaeologist to head the department. Sathyabhama Badhreenath is the first woman to enter the ASI in the Madras Circle (which includes the whole State except Kanyakumari) and the first woman to occupy the post of Superintending Archaeologist. "I got the right breaks at the right time," she says. How did her male colleagues react? "Initially, there was a bit of reservation. But once they knew I meant business, things became okay." The epigraphist's is a research-based approach, she points out. "But mine is multidimensional. It includes administrative work, research, excavation and conservation. I have to deal with the declaration of items being exported (whether they are antique or not), the type of display in the museum, detailed documentation of sculptures in temples... The job has no fixed hours and involves a lot of fieldwork. I was there for the whole season housed in a tent like all the others when work was on at the megalithic site in Adichchanallur... I'm out of my home sometimes for one and a half months."

T. Sreelakshmi and C. R. Gayathri are the other women archaeologists at the ASI. Sreelakshmi who is involved in reorganising the Fort Museum chose archaeology as she felt it was exciting and different. But she says one has to be careful while travelling in lonely places. Her special interest is in art and ancient scripts.

Gayathri finds that being married to someone who has also done archaeology is an advantage, as he understands the work and long hours. She came to the field from teaching and after a stint as research officer at the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Indological Research Centre. Gayathri has been at Dholovira, a Harappan site, and at Saravasta, an early historic site in Uttar Pradesh, during her training at Delhi, and recently at Salyankuppam when the Murugan temple was excavated.

There are women pursuing archaeology in private organisations as well.

Epigraphists

When you talk to these women epigraphists, you feel you are no longer in the precincts of the Madras Museum. You are cycling with them through the verdant villages of Thanjavur, visiting hundreds of temples and recording inscriptions that tell of a 2,300-year history. N. Marxia Gandhi, A. Padmavathy and R. Vasanthakalyani share a passionate love for the past. Close friends, they are pioneers in the field of epigraphy and have been working at the State Department of Archaeology for the past three decades. Marxia came to the area in 1974 followed a year later by Padmavathy and soon after by Vasanthakalyani. "Ask the villagers and even today they will remember the three sari-clad women who toured the area for seven years from 1975," they laugh. The journey resulted in seven volumes covering the inscriptions of Thanjavur district.

"I joined the field at a time when advertisements for the post said, "only male candidates need apply," says Marxia who is now Assistant Superintending Epigraphist. After completing her masters in Tamil literature, she did a one-year diploma course in epigraphy. "The State Department of Archaeology was the only one offering the course apart from the ASI, New Delhi," says Marxia. "Women did not venture into the field for the inscriptions would be found in remote places where there were no transport facilities or travellers' bungalows. We often stayed in gurukal's houses."

"The rural people initially were under the impression we had come to implement family planning measures and would flee on seeing us. Some thought we were circus artistes on cycles and others that we had come to vaccinate them. We have walked, swum and climbed hillocks to find inscriptions in far flung corners," chime in Padmavathy and Vasanthakalyani.

Comprehensive knowledge

"An epigraphist should have knowledge of history, religion, temple arts and architecture, philosophy, iconography, numismatics, Vasthu Sastra and the agamas in order to interpret the inscriptions and place them in context," they say. And in Tamil Nadu, they should be familiar with three scripts — Tamil Brahmi, Vattezhuthu and Grantha.

Very much like the Three Musketeers, they declare, "We three will be there" (when any important discovery in epigraphy is made in the State). They have authored books and papers on the subject.

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