Dhanapal is not with us now but his memory is so much alive that we cannot believe that he is not with us. My association with him starts from 1972 onwards when I was involved in the spade work of establishing the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum, the first college of its kind in Kerala. He associated with me along with the other great artists like K.K. Hebbar, Prof. Ambedkar, K.G. Subramanyan, Hanumante and N.S. Bendre, in building up the College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum. Later I got the opportunity of associating with him in the General Council of Central Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. He was the one who introduced me to the General Council for the first time. I am proud to say that Dhanapal was my well wisher, advisor and a close friend.
The Fact that Dhanapal was an extra-ordinarily talented sculptor is widely accepted and had proved in many ways. Like Ram Kinkar for Bengal School, Dhanapal was to the contemporary school of South Indian Sculpture. His position is as important as the position of K.C.S. Panicker, the fore-runner of South Indian School of contemporary painting. It is no doubt that Dhanapal would have been a great painter and draughtsman, had he chosen painting. But he opted to be a sculptor. It was K.C.S. Panicker, who persuaded him to choose sculpture. The art world of India would have missed the astonishing career of a sculptor, had Dhanapal not opted for it. I strongly believe that Panicker was far-sighted enough to find out a promising sculptor in Dhanapal and now we can proudly say that Dhanapal is the pioneer of South Indian School of sculpture. While K.C.S. Panicker is the master of painting, Dhanapal is the master of sculpture. The successful story of K.C.S. Panicker would not be completed without mentioning the contributions of Dhanapal and the story of Dhanapal as a successful sculptor.
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