Tamil Nadu designer wins heritage award for digitising ancient inscriptions
Udhaya Shankar received a Rs 50,000 prize for creating a digital platform that makes over 8,500 Tamil inscriptions searchable online.
Tamil Nadu designer Udhaya Shankar has won the THT Prof. S. Swaminathan Heritage Award 2026 for his work in digitising ancient Tamil inscriptions.
According to the Times of India, the recognition included a citation and a cash prize of Rs 50,000.
Shankar developed Udhayam.in, a digital archive that provides access to more than 8,500 inscriptions, including Tamil-Brahmi. The platform allows students, researchers and history enthusiasts to search for inscriptions using details such as dates, dynasties, rulers and geographical locations.
The website features an interactive map, image mapping and word mapping to help users locate the records. Shankar, an engineering graduate and full-time designer, spent years researching to ensure accuracy, including tracing old location names to their present-day districts and taluks.
Shankar's involvement in epigraphy began when he was asked to create a font for Tamil-Brahmi, an early form of the Tamil script. He studied the script using books and photographed stone inscriptions at various locations to standardise the letterforms, eventually releasing the Adinatha Tamil-Brahmi font in 2012.
The project is largely a one-person effort, with Shankar dedicating an average of six hours every day to the work. He stated that maintaining the platform costs nearly Rs 10 lakh annually, with approximately 90 per cent of the expenses funded by him personally.