R Krishnamurthy

In 2015, he was honoured with the Tolkappiyar award by the President of India, for his research work on Tamil.

In 2004, the Madurai Kamaraj University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa).

The Royal Numismatic Society in London honoured Krishnamurthy by electing him a fellow of the society, in 1998.

He was elected General Secretary of the India Newspaper Editors’ Conference in 1991.

Krishnamurthy founded the Tamilnadu Numismatic Society in Chennai, in 1986, and the South Indian Numismatic Society, in 1991. The Royal Numismatic Society in London honoured him by electing him a fellow of the society, in 1998. A recipient of several awards and honours, he presented his research work at several conferences in India and abroad.

Krishnamurthy founded the Tamilnadu Numismatic Society in Chennai, in 1986, and the South Indian Numismatic Society, in 1991.

Krishnamurthy introduced the simplified Tamil script, originally proposed by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy (Thanthai Periyar), in the Tiruchirappalli edition of his newspaper in 1977. In the course of time, several other Tamil dailies and periodicals introduced this script in their publications. In the late 1970’s, the Government of Tamilnadu adopted it in its school textbooks.

Krishnamurthy joined Dinamalar in 1956, which was then headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram. With the reorganisation of states in India, the newspaper shifted its operations to Tirunelveli (in Tamilnadu) in 1957. Eventually, the head office of the newspaper was shifted to Chennai, where he became Editor of the newspaper in 1977.

R. Krishnamurthy (18 January 1933 – 04 March 2021) was a former editor of the Tamil daily Dinamalar and also a renowned Tamil script epigraphist and numismatist in India. The second son of Dinamalar founder, T. V. Ramasubbaiyer, he became editor of Dinamalar in 1977.