Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya ( IAST: ; formerly Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya and Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi) is an Indian university and institution of higher learning located in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

, Uttar Pradesh, specializing in the study of

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 ...

and related fields.

History

In 1791, during the

Benares State Benares or Banaras State was a kingdom and later princely state in what is today Uttar Pradesh, India. On 15 October 1948, Benares' last ruler signed the accession to the Indian Union. The state was founded by the local zamindar, Raja Balw ...

, a resident of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, Jonathan Duncan, proposed the establishment of a Sanskrit college for the development and preservation of Sanskrit ''Vangmaya'' (eloquence) to demonstrate British support for Indian education. The initiative was sanctioned by governor general

lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

. The first teacher of the institution was Pandit Kashinath and the governor general sanctioned a budget of 20,000 per annum. The first principal of Government Sanskrit College was

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

, followed by

James R. Ballantyne James Robert Ballantyne (1813–1864) was a Scottish Orientalist. From 1832 to 1845 he was a master at the Scottish Naval and Military Academy in Edinburgh, teaching Persian Hindi and Arabic to prospective officers of the East India Company. Fr ...

, Ralph T. H. Griffith,

George Thibaut George Frederick William Thibaut (March 20, 1848 – 1914) was an Indologist notable for his contributions to the understanding of ancient Indian mathematics and astronomy. Life Thibaut was born in Germany, worked briefly in England, and then in ...

, Arthur Venis, Sir Ganganath Jha and

Gopinath Kaviraj Gopinath Kaviraj (7 September 1887 – 12 June 1976) was an Indian Sanskrit scholar, Indologist and philosopher. First appointed in 1914 a librarian, he was the Principal of Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi from 1923 to 1937. He was also ...

. In 1857, the college began postgraduate teaching. An examination system was adopted in 1880. In 1894, the famous Saraswati Bhavan Granthalaya building was built, where thousands of manuscripts remain preserved today. These manuscripts have been edited by the principal of the college and published in book form. More than 400 books have been published in a series known as ''

Sarasvati Bhavana Granthamala Sārasvati Bhavana Granthamala (previously known as Sarasvati Bhavana Texts) is a series of editions of Sanskrit scholarly texts. The publication of the series began in 1920, on behalf of Sarasvati Bhawan, the Library, Government Sanskrit College, ...

''. In 1958, the efforts of

Sampurnanand Sampurnanand (1 January 1891 – 10 January 1969) was a teacher and politician in Uttar Pradesh, India. He served as the second Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1954 to 1960. If single tenures in the office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief M ...

changed the status of the institution from that of a college to a Sanskrit university. In 1974, the name of the institution was formally changed to Sampurnanand Sanskrit University.

Faculties and departments

Ardhanarishvara at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University

Veda-Vedanga

* Department of Veda * Department of Dharma Shastra * Department of Jyotisha (Astrology) * Department of Vyakarana

Sahitya Sanskriti

In this faculty, there are three departments: * Department of Puranetihasa * Department of Sahitya * Department of Prachina Rajashastra-Arthashastra

Philosophy

* Department of Nyaya-Vaishesika * Department of Vedanta * Department of Mimamsa * Department of Comparative Religion and Philosophy * Department of Sankhya-Yoga-Tantragama

Shraman Vidya

* Department of Baudha Darshana * Department of Jaina Darshana * Department of Prakrita and Jainagama * Department of Pali and Theravada * Department of Sanskrita Vidya

Adhunik Jnan Vijnan

* Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics * Department of Social Sciences * Department of Education * Department of Science (Science, Home Science) * Department of Library Science

Research Institute

When the status of this institution was Sanskrit college, all research activities were carried out by the principal. This includes the work done for

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

s which were kept in the Saraswati Bhavan Granthalaya When the institution became a university, the whole research work was supervised by the director of the Research Institute. The director is the chief editor of the famous book series ''

'' and is also the chief editor of the journal ''

Sārasvatī Suṣamā ''Sārasvatī Suṣamā'' ( sa, सारस्वती सुषमा, lit=Quarterly Sanskrit Research Journal) is a research journal published in Sanskrit. Established in 1942 and published quarterly, the ''Sārasvatī Suṣamā'' has been edi ...

''. The director has to supervise all the research activities in the university. The director is the academic head of the university. Famous grammarian

Vagish Shastri Bhagirath Prasad Tripathi (15 July 1935 – 11 May 2022), better known as Vagish Shastri, was an Indian Sanskrit grammarian, linguist, tantra and yogi. In 2018, Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award Padma Shri for ...

made valuable contribution towards the Sanskrit journal ''Sārasvatī Suṣamā'' and edited numerous books of the ''Sarasvati Bhavana Granthamala'' series.

Baldev Upadhyaya Baldev Upadhyaya (10 October 1899 – 10 August 1999) was a Hindi, Sanskrit scholar, literary historian, essayist and critic. He wrote numerous books, collections of essays and a historical outline of Sanskrit literature. He is noted for discus ...

, ''Kashi ki Panditya Parampara'', Vishwavidyalaya Prakashan, Varanasi, 1983.

Affiliation

More than 1,200 Sanskrit-medium schools and colleges are affiliated with this university. This is the only university in India which enjoys such widespread affiliation throughout the country. The statistics of affiliated colleges are as follows:

References

External links

{{Authority control * Sanskrit universities in India Universities and colleges in Varanasi Universities in Uttar Pradesh Educational institutions established in 1791 1791 establishments in India