The tradition of Lost-Wax modelling in India goes back to Harappan times and the finest example is the dancing girl – the tradition is still continued in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal
Dr. S. Udayakumar, currently working as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc, Bangalore. He has completed BFA in traditional Bronze sculpture from Govt. College of Architecture and Sculpture, Mamallapuram, M.A in (Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology) from Deccan College Post Graduate Research Institute, Pune. He has completed his Doctoral research topic is “A Study of Iron technology in South-East Rajasthan with special reference to Iswal and Nathara-Ki-Pal”. His research is focused on ancient Indian heritage and especially archaeometallurgy and he has contacted bronze casting workshops for Museums, school and college students all over India. He did his experimental study on ancient iron technology which added to his Doctoral thesis, bone point making technique and pottery making technique. He has attended various excavations and exploration (Farmana in Haryana, Kotada-Bhabli in Gujarat, Teri and Keeladi, in Tamil Nadu). He has published papers in various journals like Heritage, Deccan College Bulletin, Pakistan Heritage, Today India, Centre for Heritage Studies (University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka) and Crucible (Historical Metallurgy Society). He has presented research papers in national and Internationalconferences (Australasian Research Cluster for Archaeological Science, Department of Archaeology, University of Kerala, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Department of Museology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata and International Congress Society of South Asian Archaeology, In Indian Museum, Kolkata etc.) He has delivered lectures on archaeology, ethnography, Indian craft and experimental archaeology in various Institute and university (Sharma Centre for Heritage Education Chennai, Christ University Bangalore, Tamil Nadu Open University Chennai, Vivekananda Institute of Indian Studies Mysuru, North-Eastern Hill University Shillong and Nagaland University, Kohima He has scholarship and fellowship of national and international awards such as (2012 and 2016 Nehru Trust Small Study Research Grant, New Delhi, 2014 ICHR JRF Fellowship, 2015 Received The Tylecote Memorial Fund, Historical Metallurgical Society, U.K, 2017 Akshara Foundation Grant for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Temple Architecture, 2017 Received INTACH Research Scholarship Award, 2018-2019 ICHR Research project grant, 2019 Received The Tylecote Memorial Fund, Historical Metallurgical Society, U.K , 2020 Virtual Fellowship Programme Award from the University of Liverpool, Liverpool and INSA young Historian for Science award 2021 . He has organized a few workshops and Web series of archaeology and heritage talks (Karu: Workshop of traditional bronze casting, NammaBangaluru times and Debating Heritage). Dr Diya Mukherjee is currently working at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. She has conducted her doctoral (in Archaeology) and master’s degree (in Ancient History Culture and Archaeology) from Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune. She has completed her bachelor’s degree (Honours) from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her research interests include archaeo-metallurgy particularly Harappan metallurgy, experimental archaeology as well as ethnoarchaeology. She has participated in various archaeological excavations as a trained archaeologist at sites like Karsola, Rakhigarhi, etc. she had been awarded a UGC fellowship for her doctoral research and had been awarded various grants from prestigious institutes like INTACH Heritage Academy, Coghlan Bequest Grant (from Historical Metallurgical Society, London). She has published her research papers in the journals like Crucible, (from Historical Metallurgical Society, London), History Today (from The Indian Archaeological Society), Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology (from the University of Kerala) and Deccan College Bulletin (from Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune). She has presented papers in many national and international conferences such as International Conference ASTRA Science and Technology: Retrospection and Aspiration held at Deccan College in 2016, Craft’ in the Platinum Jubilee Seminar " Emergence of language, culture and Technologies" held at Sahithya Sansthan, Rajasthan, 2016, International Seminar on Field Archaeology held at University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, 2017, in the International Conference on the Growth and Development of Indian Culture: Historical and Literary Perspectives (Prehistoric Period – 12th century CE) organized by Dr S.R Rao Memorial Foundation for Indian Archaeology, Art and Culture held at Bengaluru, 2018, in INAE Engineering Heritage Metallurgy Study Group Annual Meeting and Workshop on Digital Museum of Metallic Objects held at Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute (Deemed University), Pune, 2018, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, 2019 to state some of the few she had presented her research papers. She has also delivered lectures at Jadavpur University, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, etc.
