CHENNAI: A year ago, they decided to erect busts of 52 people who had contributed to society in the public park of Tirunelveli.
Sculptor G Chandrasekaran
(Chandru) was assigned to create the busts of leaders chosen by
Tamil scholar and anthropologist Tho Paramasivan
.
Last month, Paramasivan passed away due to age-related illness. Chandru on Friday finished the bust of Paramasivan, the chief brain behind the drive, which he plans to install first in the park.
It took a week for Chandru to finish the bust of Paramasivan, an inspiration for the awareness drive. The only worry Chandru had was that he had to create the first bust of the person who had prepared the list of the 52 leaders. “Paramasiavan was actively involved in the drive.”
“ Paramasivan died in December. I wanted to give a tribute to him,” said Chandru, former principal of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, who lso sculpted the statues of Gandhi, Ambedkar and Lenin.
Born in 1949, Paramasivan worked as professor at the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and other universities. But his focus was on the cultural and social history of the Tamils. He has written more than 17 books, including the popular “Panpattu Asaivukal”, “Alagar Kovil” and “Ariyappadatha Thamilagam.” Pramasivan’s PhD thesis on Alagar Kovil turned out to be a remarkable study on the temple and its history. “His death created a vacuum. He was a great friend, so his death disturbed me a lot. It took a week for me to complete the bust in fiber casting. It will be installed in the public park in Tirunelveli soon,” said Chandru.
In 2019, Chandru had made a bronze bust of Iravatham Mahadevan (1930-2018), out of his admiration for the epigraphist’s contributions such as the decipherment of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and interpretation of the seals and symbols of the Indus Valley Civilization.