Nagaswamy served as curator for art and archaeology in the
Government Museum in Chennai from 1959 to 1963. In 1963, he was appointed assistant special officer for archaeology for Tamil Nadu state and from 1966 to 1988, he headed the newly formed Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department as its first director, serving until his retirement. Nagaswamy made archaeology a popular subject in Tamil Nadu, especially among children through publication of pocket book guides. He was responsible for involving several thousand school and college students in cleaning and preserving nearby historical places and monuments. He also popularized monuments by bringing out popular guides in the form of newspaper, priced at ten paise per copy. He was responsible for protecting several historic monuments like the first-century
Chera inscriptions at
Pugalur, the palace site of the Imperial Cholas at
Gangaikonda Cholapuram, the famous 17th-century
Thirumalai Nayak palace at
Madurai, the 17th-century Danish Fort at
Tranquebar, and the birthplace of poet
Subramania Bharati at
Ettayapuram besides excavating the palace site of
Virapandya Kattabomman at
Panchalankurichi. Nagaswamy was awarded India's third highest civilian honour, the
Padma Bhushan, in 2018.
controversy Nagaswamy's candidature to a committee in CICT
Central Institute of Classical Tamil was objected by ,
Dravida Munetra Kazhagam leader
M. K. Stalin. Though Nagaswamy had clarified that he had not received any communication from the central which is funding CICT entirely. == Personal life ==