Dr. Nanditha Krishna is a historian, environmentalist and author based in Chennai. She has a PhD in Ancient Indian Culture from Bombay University. She is currently President of the CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and Founder of its many constituents, including CP Art Centre and CPR Institute of Indological Research (affiliated to the University of Madras) and several educational institutions. She has been a Professor and a Research Guide for the PhD degree of the University of Madras and received a D Litt (honoris causa) from Vidyasagar University, West Bengal.

In 2001, she established the Shakunthala Jagannathan Museum of Folk Art at Kanchipuram. She was responsible for the revival of the painting traditions of the Kurumba tribes and pottery traditions of Kota women. She has restored the Varahishwara Temple in Damal and a 450-year-old building in Kanchipuram. She has been documenting India’s ecological heritage traditions; revived traditional drawing and painting in Mamallapuram; and Tamil folk art forms in schools. In 1990, she was deputed to the Archaeological Survey of India’s restoration of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. She has researched the Khmer temples and reported on the restoration process.

She is the author of several books including Life Lessons from Mahavira; Life Lessons from Adi Shankara (Aleph); The Book of Avatars and Divinities, The Book of Demons, Hinduism and Nature, Sacred Plants of India, and Sacred Animals of India (Penguin); Paintings of the Varadaraja Perumal Temple (CPR Publications); Madras Then, Chennai Now (Roli); Book of Vishnu and Balaji Venkateshwara and Ganesha (Vakils);  Painted Manuscripts of the Sarasvati  Mahal Library (Govt. of Tamilnadu); Mahabalipuram: The Ganga Comes to Tamil Nadu and The Arts and Crafts of Tamilnadu (Mapin); and The Art and Iconography of Vishnu-Narayana (Taraporevala), among others, besides several research papers and popular articles.

She is the winner of several awards including Nari Shakti Puraskar, Stree Ratna and Outstanding Woman of Asia.