Scholar-Diplomat

Panikkar was one of the most colour­ful personalities, quzzical, combative, suggesting the cardinal statesmen of France, and equal to Machiavelli in his knowledge of diplomacy. He was a controversial figure and loved contro­versy. He started his schooling in afflu­ent circumstances but he made pro­gress at a snail’s pace, tasting failure and at one time thinking of suicide. But after some hardening in Madras he joined Christ Church, Oxford, and secu­red a First in History. By then, he was an author, then an examiner for the civil service.