MAHAMAHOPADHYAYA, DARSANA KALANIDHI,VIDYAVACASPATI PROFESSOR KUPPUSWAMI SASTRI (1880-1943)
Mm. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri was a Sanskrit Scholar of repute in India during his time and had devoted his life time to study of Sanskrit and Indology. He was a Professor, Editor and Author in Sanskrit Language and of Sanskrit heritage in other languages. He was a well know literary figure of yesteryears in India and abroad after India.
KSRI was established in 1945 as a fitting tribute to him and his contributions to Sanskrit heritage and related Indology.
Hailing from a great family of saintly scholars, Professor Sastri had mastered Vedanta, Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vyakarana and Sahitya even before he was twenty years (20) of age. He combined an all round traditional scholarship both in Sastra and Sahitya with modern scholarship. He contributed largely in many ways to the cause of Sanskrit learning, education and research. A pioneering scholar in Purva Mimamsa, he became the first Principal of the Madras Sanskrit College, the premier college in India that teaches Purva Mimamsa. He had earned the great respect of not only all the traditional and modern researchers but also great statesmen scholars like Rt. Hon’ble V.S.Srinivasa Sastri, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Prof. M. Hiriyanna and others.
Mm. Prof. S. Kuppuswami Sastri – Career details
1906-10 - Principal of the Madras Sanskrit College, Mylapore; Chairman of the Board of
Examiners in Sanskrit in the Madras University.
1910-14 Principal of the Raja’s College of Sanskrit and Tamil Studies, thiruvaiyaru.
1914-36 Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the Presidency College, Madras;
Curator of Madras Govt. Oriental Mss. Library, Madras
1936-40 Honorary Professor of Sanskrit at the Annamalai University, Annamalainagar.
Fashioned the Sanskrit Honours Syllabus, the Siromani course of study on the
traditional lines and the oriental titles in the University of Madras.
Started
- Journal of Oriental Research (1927)
- The Samskrita Academy (1927)
- The Oriental Research Institute at the University of Madras (1926-27)
Delivered series of lectures and continually wrote articles in Research journals.
Edited
- Dhvanyaloka with Locana, Kaumudi and his own Upalocana, Udyota I
- Brahmasiddhi
- Vibhrama Viveka of Mandana Misra
- Vinavasavadatta
- 66 volumes of Descriptive and Triennial Catalogues of the Manuscripts at the
Madras Government Oriental Manuscripts Library.
Authored
- Primer of Indian Logic
- Highways and Byways of Literary Criticism in Sanskrit
- Compromises in the History of Advaitic Thought.
Presided over sections in the All India Oriental Conferences, Indian Philosophical Congress, Kanchipuram Parishads, and the Advaita Sabha of South India.