Diwan Bahadur Lakshminarayanapuram Krishna Ananthakrishna Iyer (1861–1937) was an anthropologist of British India, who is renowned for his work amongst the hill tribes of the western part of Madras province.

Early life

Ananthakrishna Iyer was born to a Vedic scholar, L. N. Krishna Iyer, in the village of Lakshminarayanapuram near Palghat in the then Malabar district

Malabar District

Malabar District was an administrative district of Madras Presidency in British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad , and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District in the northern part of...

 of the Madras Presidency

Madras Presidency

The Madras Presidency , officially the Presidency of Fort St. George and also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision of British India...

. He was the eldest of four sons and two daughters.

Career

Ananthakrishna Iyer is best known for his books Castes and Tribes of Mysore, and Castes and Tribes of Cochin. Both are pioneering works on the tribes inhabiting the west coast of India.

Works

• Iyer, L. K. Ananthakrishna (1930) The Mysore Tribes and Castes. Mysore: Mysore University Press.
• Iyer, L. K. Ananthakrishna (1912) Tribes and Castes of Cochin.

Sources

• Ajit K. Danda (ed.) (1989) L. K. Ananthakrishna Iyer: 125th Birth Anniversary Tribute. Special Volume of Human Science.