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Raman received many honors from all over the world for his achievement. In 1928 the Science Society of Rome awarded the Matteucci Medal. In 1929 the British Government knighted him; thereafter Professor Raman came to be known as Professor Sir C..V. Raman. The Royal Society of London awarded the Hughes Medal in 1930.Honorary doctorate degrees were awarded by the Universities of Freiburg (Germany), Glasgow(England), Paris (France), Bombay, Benaras, Dacca, Patna, Mysore and several others.

The highest award a scientist or a writer can get is the Nobel Prize. In 1930, the Swedish Academy of Sciences chose Raman to receive the Nobel Prize for Physics. No Indian and no Asian had received the Nobel Prize for Physics up to that time. At the ceremony for the award, Raman used alcohol to demonstrate the Raman Effect. Later in the evening alcoholic drinks were served at the dinner. But Raman did not touch them. He remained loyal to the Indian traditions.

However minute the results of an experiment, they could not escape the searching eyes of Raman. And his mind retained every detail of what he observed. An incident, which took place at Walter, the seat of Andhra University, may be mentioned. After the discovery of the Raman Effect, spectra of different substances were being studied there. On one of his visits there, Raman found the research workers puzzled at not getting the expected spectral lines. Raman examined the plate containing the spectrum and exclaimed with joy, "There it is, you see!" He immediately got a projector and made the weak spectral lines clearly visible on the white screen.

He came to Bangalore as the Director of the Tata Institute (the Indian Institute of Science) in 1933. The Tata Institute soon became famous for the study of crystals. The diffraction of light (the very slight bending of light around corners) by ultrasonic waves (high frequency sound waves which we cannot hear) in a liquid was elegantly explained by Raman and Nagendranath. This became known as the 'Raman-Nath Theory'.

Raman was an early riser and used to take morning walks regularly. The sight of tall trees against the sky at dawn delighted him. By six in the morning he would be in the chamber where he worked. Up to 9 a.m. he would devote his time to discussion with students who were experimenting and to the study of research papers. At 10 o'clock he would be in the Directors office. He would complete the office work and return to the laboratory. He would be immersed in research till 8.30 p.m. He used to arrange two or three seminars every week. At these seminars all the workers would come together to discuss various problems of their research.

Whenever students showed new results, Raman was delighted. He would guide them to do further work. If they appeared to be depressed he would inspire them to fresh efforts.
A student was once experimenting with an X-ray tube of one-kilowatt power. He learnt that a scientist in England was experi- menting on the same problem with a five-kilowatt X-ray tube, and grew depressed. When Raman, who was on his rounds, came to know of this, he said with a smile, "There is a very simple solution; use a 1 0-kilowatt brain on the problem."

Raman possessed supreme self- confidence and he generated -it in his students also. Raman used to enquire about his students even after they left his Institute. If they had any difficulty he would help them as best he could.

Raman had his own method of judging the merit of a student. Once he set a question concerning the vibrations of theMridangam at the Post-Graduate Examination of the Allahabad University. This was different from the other questions based on textbooks. Only one student answered it and he had spent all the allotted time on this one answer. Raman was pleased with his talent and personally congratulated him.

Once a candidate attended an interview for a research post in the Tata Institute. He had passed in the first class. He was asked, "Are there any scientific problems you would like to work on?" There was no satisfactory answer. Physically also the candidate was weak. Raman advised him, "Research is strange work. Success in it brings limit less joy whereas failure pushes one to deep despair. Joy and despair - both require bodily strength. You should first improve your bodily strength through sports and exercises."

In order to encourage scientific research in India, Raman established the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1934. From that year the science journal 'The Proceedings of the Academy' is being published every month.

The Government of Mysore granted 24 acres of land to promote the activities of the Academy. It was his earnest desire 'to bring into existence a centre of scientific research worthy of our ancient country, where the keenest intellectuals of our land can probe into the mysteries of the Universe'. He fulfilled his wish by establishing a Research Institute atHebbal, Bangalore. He did not seek help from the Government but have away all his property to the Institute. The Executive Committee of the Academy named the centre 'Raman Research Institute'.

In 1948 this great scientist entered on one more active phase of life when he became the Director of the Raman Research Institute. The Institute became the centre of all his activities. A garden and tall eucalyptus trees surrounded it. He used to say, "A Hindu is required to go to the forest in old age, but instead of going to the forest, I made the forest come to me." At the Institute he could concentrate on things that interested him. He was alone with his work and was happy. At the entrance to the Institute was a board bearing the words, "The Institute is not open to visitors. Please do not disturb US."

He did research on sound, light, rocks, gems, birds, insects, butterflies, sea shells, trees, flowers, atmosphere,weather and physiology of vision and hearing. His study covered such different fields of science as Physics, Geology, Biology and Physiology. Among them sound and colors particularly attracted him. Once he even went round shops to select sarees of different color designs.

Raman collected rocks and precious stones. His invaluable collection included hundreds of objects such as sand that melted due to lightning, rock indicating the lava flow during a volcano and diamonds, rubies and sapphires. Many fluorescent minerals (that is,minerals having the property of receiving short invisible rays and sending out long visible rays) were kept in a dark room. There he could create a small twinkling world by switching on the ultra-violet light. Thin layers of some crystals were prepared for study. No color was seen when they were viewed perpendicularly. But the viewer had only to change the angle – and blue, green and yellow colors delighted the eye. After a deep study of diamonds Raman explained many of their characteristics.

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