Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha

On the recommendations of the Central Sanskrit Commission appointed by the Government of India during 1950s, a Central Sanskrit Institute was established at Tirupati in 1961 by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in partial fulfilment of the recommendations, for the preservation and propagation of Traditional Sanskrit learning combining it with the modern methods of research. The Government of India constituted an autonomous registered body called ‘Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha Tirupati Society’ for the administration of the institution. The foundation stone for the Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha was laid by the then Vice-President of India , Dr.S.Radhakrishnan on 4th January, 1962. About forty two acres of land at the foot of the Seven Hills, Tirumala was leased out by the T.T.D. Trust, then headed by Executive Officer, Dr.C.Anna Rao along with a munificient donation of Rs.10 lacs towards construction of buildings.

The Vidyapeetha Society has had a galaxy of successive chairmen who were well known public figures – Sri Patanjali Sastry, former Chief Justice of India being the first, followed by Prof.V.Raghavan, a reputed Indologist and Sri M.Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, former Speaker of Lok Sabha. Dr. B.R. Sharma was the Founder, and also acted as the Director from 1962 to 1970. Later the post of Director was changed into that of Principal. Sri Venkata Raghavacharya, Dr.Mandan Mishra, Dr.R.Karunakaran, Dr. M.D. Balasubramanyam and Prof. N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya served the institution in various capacities. Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha came under the aegis of Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan– an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education in April, 1971. Despite the challenges of the modern world, it has grown from strength to strength as a premier Institution for Sanskrit learning and research in India . During the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1987, Sri P.V.Narasimha Rao, the then Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India announced the decision of the Government to elevate its status to that of a Deemed University.

The Vidyapeetha was declared as a Deemed to be a University on the recommendations of the U.G.C under Section 3 of UGC Act by the Government of India in its Gazette dated 16 - 11- 1987, No. F.9-2/85 U-3. The Deemed University was formally inaugurated by the then President of India Sri R. Venkataraman on 26th August, 1989. The Vidyapeetha started functioning as a Deemed University from the academic year 1991 - 92. Since then we have had eminent Chancellors – M.M.Sri Pattabhirama Sastri,Prof.Ramaranjan Mukherjee, Dr.V.R.Panchamukhi(two terms) and Dr. J.B.Pattnaik and the Vice-Chancellors were Prof.N.S.Ramanuja Tatacharya, Prof.S.B.Raghunathacharya, Prof.D.Prahladachar and Prof. Harekrishna Satapathy. Now Prof. V.Muralidhara Sharma took over as Vice-Chancellor.

The Vidyapeetha is now headed by Shri. Shri. N.Gopalaswami, IAS (Retd., former Chief Election Commissioner of India and Padmabhushan recipient serving as the Chancellor and Prof. V.Muralidhara Sharma as the Vice-Chancellor of the Vidyapeetha.