Satya Vrat Shastri

Satya Vrat Shastri
Born September 29, 1930 (1930-09-29) (age 81)
Occupation scholar, academic, poet, literary critic
Nationality India
Alma mater Punjab University, Banaras Hindu University
Genres Sanskrit
Notable award(s) 1968: Sahitya Akademi Award
2006: Jnanpith Award
Spouse(s) Prof. Dr. Usha Satyavrat
www.satyavrat-shastri.net

Satya Vrat (or Satyavrat) Shastri (born 29 September 1930) is a highly decorated Sanskrit scholar, writer, grammarian and poet from India. He has written three Mahakavyas, three Khandakavyas, one Prabandhakavyas and one Patrakavya and five works in critical writing in Sanskrit. His important works are Ramakirtimahakavyam, Brahattaram Bharatam, Sribodhisattvacharitam, Vaidika Vyakarana, Sarmanyadesah Sutram Vibhati, and "Discovery of Sanskrit Treasures" in seven volumes.[1]

He is currently an honorary professor at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was the Head of the Department of Sanskrit and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Delhi, where he was the Pandit Manmohan Nath Dar Professor of Sanskrit (1970–1995).

During his career he has won many national and international awards, including, the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit, given by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, in 1968 for his poetry work, Srigurugovindasimhacharitam,[2] then in 2006, he became the first recipient of the Jnanpith award in Sanskrit language (conferred in 2009 by his disciple and Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn).[3][4]

Contents

Education

Prof. Shastri received his early education under his father, a renowned scholar Shri Charu Deva Shastri. Thereafter he moved to Varanasi, where he studied under, Pandit Shuk Deo Jha and Dr. Siddheshwar Varma.

He received his B.A. Hons. and M.A. in Sanskrit from the Punjab University, and his Ph.D from the Banaras Hindu University.[5]

Career

He joined the University of Delhi soon after, where for the next the forty years of his teaching career he has held important positions as the Head of the Department of Sanskrit and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Satya Vrat Shastri was also the Vice-Chancellor of Shri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri, Orissa, and a visiting professor at the Chulalongkorn and Silpakorn Universities in Bangkok, as well as the Northeast Buddhist University, Nongkhai, Thailand, also the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, the Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He also taught Sanskrit to Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn [1977-1979].[6][7][8]

Satya Vrat Shastri has written many important poetic works in Sanskrit, the most important being his rendition from Royal Thai into Sanskrit, of the Thai version of the Ramayana, viz., Sri-rama-kirti-maha-kavyam, upon royal request, and with a Forward written by the Princess of Thailand. His current research projects are the Sanskrit inscriptions and Hindu temples in Thailand, Kalidasa Studies, a critical edition of the Yogavasishtha, the Sanskritic vocabulary of South East Asia, and the Rama story in South East Asia.

In 2009, he became the only Sanskrit poet to have won the (2006) Jnanpith award, for his contributions to the enrichment of the language, and conferred by his former disciple, Princess of Thailand, Maha Chakri Sirindhon.[4][9][10]

Honors and awards

International

National

Academic Writings

Literary writings

References

  1. ^ 41st and 42nd Jnanpith Awards, Official Press release
  2. ^ Sanskrit Awards Sahitya Akademi Award Official listing.
  3. ^ "Sanskrit poet gets Jnanpith award". The Times Of India. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-20/india/28199102_1_jnanpith-award-sanskrit-oldest-language. Retrieved 2011-05-14. 
  4. ^ a b "Sanskrit’s first Jnanpith winner is a ‘poet by instinct’". The Indian Express. Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sanskrits-first-jnanpith-winner-is-a-poet-by-instinct/410480/ 
  5. ^ Brown, Richard. Journey with a Savant. ISBN 0-684-82125-7. 
  6. ^ "Recent News". The Hindu (Chennai, India). November 20, 2005. http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/20/stories/2005112013720300.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-28. 
  7. ^ The Nation Newspaper (August 6, 1998). Professor To A Princess. The Nation (Thailand). 
  8. ^ "Professor Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri was appointed as Visiting Professor of Indian Studies in Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok". http://www.ssc.su.ac.th/sscbackground.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-12. 
  9. ^ "Sanskrit poet conferred Jnanpith award". Press Trust of India. August 20, 2009. http://www.ptinews.com/news/238156_Sanskrit-poet-conferred-Jnanpith-award. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 
  10. ^ "Jnanpith Award presented". Chennai, India: The Hindu. Aug 20, 2009. http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/20/stories/2009082057081100.htm. Retrieved August 20, 2009. 

External links

1965-1985
1986-2000

Sachidananda Rout Roy (1986) · Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar (1987) · C. Narayana Reddy (1988) · Qurratulain Hyder (1989) · V. K. Gokak (1990) · Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1991) · Naresh Mehta (1992) · Sitakant Mahapatra (1993) · U. R. Ananthamurthy (1994) · M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1995) · Mahasweta Devi (1996) · Ali Sardar Jafri (1997) · Girish Karnad (1998) · Nirmal Verma, Gurdial Singh (1999) · Indira Goswami (2000)
2001-present

Rajendra Keshavlal Shah (2001) · Jayakanthan (2002) · Vinda Karandikar (2003) · Rehman Rahi (2004) · Kunwar Narayan (2005) · Ravindra Kelekar, Satya Vrat Shastri (2006) · O. N. V. Kurup (2007) · Akhlaq Mohammed Khan 'Shahryar' (2008) · Chandrashekhara Kambara (2009) ·