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Karasur Padmabharathi

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Karasur Padmabharathi

இந்தப் பக்கத்தை தமிழில் வாசிக்க: கரசூர் பத்மபாரதி

Carachur Padmabharathi
Karasur Padmabharathi
Narikuravar Inavaraiviyal (Narikuravar People - An Ethnography)

Karasur Padmabharathi (b. 1975) is an anthropologist and folklorist. She has authored books on the Narikuravar people as well as transgender communities, both of which were based on extensive field research.

Birth and Education

Karasur Padmabharathi's given name is C.Padmavathi. She was born in Karasur near Villianur, Puducherry on July 15, 1975 to Kuppusami and Rajeswari. Karasur Padmabharathi completed her schooling in Villianur Kannagi Government Girls Higher Secondary School.

Karasur Padmabharathi has extensive academic qualifications. After completing her bachelor's degree (BA) at Pondicherry University, she got a Master's degree (MA) in Integrated Literature Education in 1999. She did her M.Phil at Pondicherry University in 2000. Karasur Padmabharathi received her Bachelor of Arts in Education (B.Ed) from Immaculate College of Education in 2004 and her Master of Arts in Education (M.Ed) from Annamalai University in 2006. She then obtained her M.Phil in Education from Alagappa University in 2008 and her doctorate in education from the Tamil University, Thanjavur in 2011.

Karasur Padmabharathi completed a certification course on Anthropology and Linguistics in Puducherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture and a diploma course in 2006. She also has a PGDCA in Computer Education.

Academic Research Theses

Karasur Padmabharathi conducted research on the rituals of the people from the Narikuravar community for her Master’s degree. Her thesis was titled 'Narikuravar Sadangu Or Aaivu'. For her M.Phil, she wrote a thesis on contributions of the magazine Kasadathapara in the little magazine movement. For her Master's in Education, Karasur Padmabharathi did research on the textbooks issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu for Class XII students. For her M.Phil in Education, she wrote a thesis titled 'A study of emotional maturity and teaching competency of B.Ed. students'.

Karasur Padmabharathi studied the traditional gynecological medicinal practices of people from Tamil Nadu’s oppressed classes for her doctoral thesis. Her thesis was titled 'Traditional reproductive medicine of oppressed castes'. For her diploma in anthropology, she wrote a thesis titled 'Koothandavar Temple, An Ethnographic Perspective'.

Work

Karasur Padmabharathi worked as a temporary lecturer between 2006 and 2012 at Loyola College. After that, she worked as a Tamil teacher at the Aditya Vidyalaya Higher Secondary School, a private school, from 2013 to 2015. She did not work after 2015.

Personal Life

Karasur Padmabharathi is married.

Thirunangaiyar Samoogavaraiviyal (A Sociological Study of Transgender People)

Awards

  • 2004 Tamil Valarchithurai Viruthu (for her work on ethnography of Narikuravar people)
  • 2013 Writer Su. Samudram Award (awarded by the Progressive Writers Union)
  • 2022 Tamil Wiki - Thooran Award[1]

Research on Narikuravar People

Karasur Padmabharathi's Narikuravar Inavaraiviyal (Narikuravar People - An Ethnography) was published in 2004 by Tamizhini Pathippagam. The book documents an ethnographic study carried out using anthropological methods. Karasur Padmabharathi expanded her thesis on the rituals of the Narikurava people, 'Narikuravar Sadangu Or Aaivu' to write this book. Dr. Baktavatchala Bharathi wrote the foreword. Karasur Padmabharathi conducted extensive field study for this work by staying along with Narikuravars for a period of time.

Research on Transgender People

Karasur Padmabharathi conducted field studies on transgender people and wrote the book Thirunangaiyar Samoogavaraiviyal (A Sociological Study of Transgender People). This book was published by Tamizhini Pathippagam in 2014. This book details the rituals, beliefs and aspects of life that have developed within the transgender community of Tamil Nadu. Karasur Padmabharathi expanded her anthropology degree thesis 'Koothandar thiruvizha, inavaraiviyal nokku' (Koothandar festival, an ethnographic study) to write this book.

Contributions to Tamil Scholarship

In the Tamil world, both books by Karasur Padmabharathi are cited as texts that exemplify how a field study should be conducted and how a research study should be written up. Her research was performed with very little funding. Karasur Padmabharathi's works can be called the first forays into the worlds of the Narikuravar people and transgender people, the finer aspects of whose lives had until then been completely hidden from the world. Karasur Padmabharathi gained the trust of the people she studied by staying with them and engaging in a dialogue with them for a long period of time. For the first time, her studies properly documented the beliefs, fears, rituals and private languages developed by these communities to communicate among themselves, all of which were previously unknown to the outside world. "Despite being one of the finest scholars of Tamil culture and having extensive qualifications to show for herself, that Karasur Padmabharathi did not find a place in the university departments of Tamil Nadu is a major loss to Tamil cultural studies," says A.K. Perumal.

Books

Poetry

  • Ilamai Nadiyil Mudumai Odangal
  • Siragirunthum

Research

  • Narikuravar Inavaraiviyal (Narikuravar People - An Ethnography)
  • Thinunangaiyar Samoogavaraiviyal (A Sociological Study of Transgender People)

References

Notes

Footnotes




✅Finalised Page


First published on: 20-Jun-2022, 00:47:58 IST