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Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 March 1909 Satara |
| Died | 11 December 2001(2001-12-11) (aged 92) |
| Occupation(s) | vedic scholar, indologist |
Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar (1909–2001) was anIndologist andVedic scholar fromMaharashtra,India. He was born inSatara on 17 March 1909 and died in Pune on 11 December 2001.
Dandekar earned an M.A. inSanskrit in 1931, and an M.A. in Ancient Indian Culture in 1933, both fromBombay University (renamed some years ago as Mumbai University). He joinedFergusson College inPune in 1933 as a professor of Sanskrit and Ancient Indian Culture. In 1936, he went toGermany for further studies and received his doctoral degree fromHeidelberg University in 1938 for his thesisDer Vedish Mensh.
Upon his return from Germany, Dandekar continued to teach at Fergusson College. In 1950, he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit and Head of the Department ofSanskrit andPrakrit Languages at theUniversity of Poona (now called Savitribai Phule Pune University, and before that the University of Pune). He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts during 1959-1965. In 1964, he became the Director of the Center of Advanced Study in Sanskrit at the University of Poona, and served in that capacity until 1974.
In 1939, Dandekar had become the Honorary Secretary of the renownedBhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), and he continued to function in that capacity till 1994, effectively running the Institute for fifty-five years. From 1994 until his death in 2001, he served as the vice-president of the Institute.
Dandekar was closely associated with numerous Indian and international organizations related toIndology, and he served and shaped these organizations in various manners. They included the All India Oriental Conference, the International Congress of Orientalists, the World Sanskrit Conference, the Sanskrit Commission of the Government of India, and the Deccan College. He served as an adviser on Indology atUNESCO.
Along with a large number of other publications, Dandekar published a monumental six-volumeVedic Suchi (Vedic bibliography) in 1946.
Dandekar received many honors and awards, including thePadmabhushan title in 1962 from the President of India,[1] and aSahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2000.
