Bhubaneswar,December 15: “Study of history is essential for rooting the people and events in their right perspective. Rootless people are often ruthless people,” said Indologist R Balakrishnan on Saturday.

Delivering lecture of Odisha Knowledge Hub Lecture series at the secretariat here today, Balakrishnan said, “History is not just essential, it is inescapable.”

“History “is a narrative”. The historical events happened long before man started writing about those. As such, there is always an element of ‘narration and story-telling’ in the history. Each tribe, each community and each institution has a story to tell which adds to the treasure of history,” he said.

Balakrishnan opined that the oral history and collective memory in different parts of the Indus Valley civilization has not been appropriately built into the literature of history.

les of the icon of Sun God at Konark wearing a horse riders’ high shoes, giraffe in Konark panels, two genetic types of elephants on the walls of Konark, association of the name Chandrabhaga with Konark temple and many other evidence, Balkrishnan hypothesized that Konark was a multi-national product of Odisha. There might have been international events in Kalinga, the old name of Odisha.

Balakrishnan is an Indologist with his focus on Indus Valley Civilization. He follows a multi-disciplinary approach to map the post Indus migrations and trace the carried-forward legacies of Harappan culture.

Because of his scholarly reflections and discoveries on Indus Valley Civilization, he has been awarded Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Periyar Maniammai University. His research papers on Konark; Ancient links between Kalinga and Indonesia; Genesis of Sun worship in Odisha; and Plural foundations of Jagannath Culture have brought many unknown facets Odishan history to world intelligentsia-forum during contemporary times.

Chief Minister Odisha Naveen Patnaik joined the lecture through video conferencing from his office. Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi presented OKH memento to Balakrishnan on this occasion.