Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi (1893–1985) was a
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
scholar and a prominent
Indologist
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies.
The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...
of the 20th century who hailed from
Maharashtra
Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
, India. He was an expert of his times on stone and copper
inscription
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
s and the
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
age of ancient India. For his contributions to Indian history he was honoured with the title ''
Mahamahopadhyaya
Mahamahopadhyaya (Sanskrit: महामहोपाध्याय) is an honorific title given to prestigious scholars by the Government of India. Prior to 1947, the title was bestowed by the British Raj, and before them, by the kings of ancient ...
'' by the
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
n Government in 1941. He was also awarded
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
in 1975 by the
President of India
The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...
.
Early life
Dr. Mirashi was born in a middle-class family on 13 March 1893 at Kuwale village in
Ratnagiri
Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for ...
district. After completing his primary and secondary school education at
Kolhapur
Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarter of the Kolhapur district. In, around 2 C.E. Kolapur's name was 'Kuntal'.
Kolhapur is kn ...
(primarily Rajaram High School) he moved to
Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
. He stood first in order of merit in all school examinations and was awarded a State Scholarship, the Alfred Half-Freeship, The Ghatge Scholarship, and the Sir George Le Grand Jacob Scholarship. He obtained his bachelor's degree (BA) in 1914 and did his Master's (MA) in 1917 in the subject of Sanskrit at
Deccan College. He received the Varjeevandas Madhavadas Sanskrit Scholarship for his BA studies, and while he wanted to study mathematics the rules of the scholarship required him to take Sanskrit; this proved to be a turning point in his career. He received the Dakshina Scholarship for his MA studies and stood first in the Language Group. As a result he won the Bhagwandas Purushottamdas Sanskrit Scholarship, the Jhala Vedanta Prize, and the Lawrence Jenkins Scholarship, the last one for studying for his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree, Subsequently he earned his doctorate (Ph.D.) from the
University of Bombay
The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...
. His dissertation on ''Relation between the Dharmasutras and the Metrical Smrutis and the Evolution of Hindu Law'' won the Vishwanath Mandalik Gold Medal and Prize of the
University of Bombay
The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai.
The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...
.
Career
After his academic career, he shifted to
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
and worked as Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at
Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...
while simultaneously studying for his law degree. Subsequently, in 1919, he was appointed to the Sanskrit chair at Morris College in
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
. He was appointed principal of the same college in 1942. During 1947-1950, he served as the principal of
Vidarbha
Vidarbha (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, id̪əɾbʱə is a geographical region in the east of the Indian state of Maharashtra and a Proposed states and union territories of India#Maharashtra, proposed state of central India, comprising th ...
Mahavidyalaya in
Amraoti.
In the 1957-1966 period, Mirashi worked as the Honorary Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit, and Head of the Department of Post-Graduate Teaching in Humanities at
Nagpur University
Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), formerly Nagpur University, is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It is one of India's oldest universities, as well as th ...
. He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the university.
Professor Mirashi was also one of the earliest proponents of the Vidarbha Sanshodhan Mandal (historical research society based in Nagpur) and for many years served as its Chairman.
Authorship
Mirashi wrote 30 research works in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
, and
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, and more than 275 papers in various Indological journals.
His ''Inscriptions of the Kalchuri-Chedi Era'' (1955), ''Inscriptions of the Vakatakas'' (1963), and ''Inscriptions of the Silaharas'' (1977) were published in the renowned ''Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Series'' of the Archaeological Survey of India. He also worked on the stone inscriptions of ''Satvahanas'' and ''Kshatrapas''.
Mirashi's other important works comprise four volumes of ''Literary & Historical Studies in Indology'', ''
Kalidasa
Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...
'', and ''
Bhavabhuti
Bhavabhūti (Devanagari: भवभूति) was an 8th-century scholar of India noted for his plays and poetry, written in Sanskrit. His plays are considered the equal of the works of Kalidasa. Bhavabhuti was born in Padmapura, Vidarbha, in Gond ...
''.
Honours
Mirashi received a large number of honours for his research work.
In 1941, the then
Viceroy of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 19 ...
,
Linlithgow
Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...
, honoured Mirashi with the ''Mahamahopadhyaya'' title. In 1966, the then President of India,
S. Radhakrishnan, awarded him a Certificate of Honour for proficiency in Sanskrit learning. In 1970, he was nominated as the Honorary Correspondent of the Archaeological Department of the Government of India.
The universities of Saugar and Nagpur conferred him with honorary D. Litt. degrees in 1958 and 1960, respectively. He was elected General President of the Numismatic Society of India (1951), the All India Oriental Conference (1959), and the
Indian History Congress Indian History Congress is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians with over 35,000 members. It was established in 1935. The name of any new applicant for membership needs to be proposed and seconded by existing Ordinary or L ...
(1961). The Numismatic Society of India elected him its Honorary Fellow in 1959, and the Epigraphical Society of India did the same in 1974.
The
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...
of India elected Mirashi as a fellow in 1973 and he was awarded the
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
in 1975.
Mirashi died on 3 April 1985.
See also
*
Vakataka dynasty
The Vakataka dynasty () was an ancient Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-3rd century CE. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the ...
*
Ajanta Caves
The Ajanta Caves are approximately thirty rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments dating from the second century BCE to about 480 CE in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra state in India. The caves include paintings and rock-cut sculptures des ...
*
Tirodi copper plates The Tiroḍī copper plates are an epigraphic record of the Vākāṭaka dynasty, documenting a land donation to a brāhmaṇa in the reign king Pravarasena II in the fifth century CE. They were acquired by T. A. Wellsted at Tirodi in District Bal ...
*
Indology
Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the History of India, history and Culture of India, cultures, Languages of South Asia, languages, and Indian literature, literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a ...
*
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is a literary honour in India bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.Quote: "In his acceptance speech when India's National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) in 1997 conferred its h ...
*
Padma Bhushan Awards (1970-1979)
References
*Prachin Bharatiya Itihasachi Sadhane (
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
) by Dr. Shobhana Gokhale
*Shilahar Rajvanshacha Itihas ani Koriv Lekh (Marathi) by Dr. V.V.Mirashi
Books by Dr.V.V.Mirashi*Dr. Mirashi Felicitation Volume. Vidarbha Sanshodhan Mandal, Nagpur, 1965. (https://books.google.com/books/about/Mahamahopadhyaya_Dr_V_V_Mirashi_Felicita.html?id=prCHHwAACAAJ)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirashi, Vasudev Vishnu
Marathi-language writers
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship
1893 births
1985 deaths
Indian epigraphers
Indian Sanskrit scholars
20th-century Indian historians