Suryanath Upendra Kamath (26 April 1937 – 21 October 2015) was an Indian historian who served as the Chief Editor of the Karnataka State Gazetteer from 1981 to 1995.

Early life

Kamath was born in a

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

-speaking family on 26 April 1937. After studying history and economics at Dharwad University, Kamath joined the Bangalore University as a lecturer and reader in history in 1968. During his graduation in Dharwad University, Kamath came under the influence of historian B. A. Saletore who had written a comprehensive two-volume book on social and political life in the

Vijayanagar Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also known as the Karnata Kingdom, was a late medieval Hindu empire that ruled much of southern India. It was established in 1336 by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I of the Sangama dynasty, belonging to ...

Career

Kamath served as lecturer and reader in history at the

Bangalore University Bangalore University (BU) is a public state university in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The university is a part of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and affiliated by University Gra ...

from 1968 to 1981. In 1981, he was appointed director of the Karnataka State Archives. He served as director of the Karnataka State Archives from 1981 to 1983 and was the Chief Editor of the Karnataka State Gazetteer from 1981 to 1995. He also edited the Karnataka District Gazetteers and since 1977, has been the editor of the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society. He founded the Karnataka Ithihasa Academy along with G. S. Dikshith in 1985. He was also the director of the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Public Library in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. Kamath edited the

quarterly A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

journal of the ''Indian Mythic Society'' from 1977 to his death. He was also a member of the Karnataka Gazetteer Advisory Committee.

Methodology

Kamath's methodology was

Indian nationalist Indian nationalism is an instance of civic nationalism. It is inclusive of all of the people of India, despite their diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. Indian nationalism can trace roots to pre-colonial India, but was f ...

.He has authored many books on the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

. He denied the existence of an

Aryan race The Aryan race is a pseudoscientific historical race concepts, historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people who descend from the Proto-Indo-Europeans as a Race (human categorization), racial grouping. The ter ...

and considered the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...

to be simply an urban version of Vedic civilization.

Works

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Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamath, Suryanath U. 1937 births 20th-century Indian historians Indigenous Aryanists 2015 deaths Academic staff of Bangalore University Scientists from Karnataka