Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi | |
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| Born | 1893 (1893) |
| Died | 1985 (aged 91–92) |
| Nationality | British India (1893-1947) Indian (1947-1985) |
| Subject | Sanskrit, History |
| Notable awards | Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (1973) Padma Bhushan (1975) |
Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi (1893–1985) was aSanskrit scholar and a prominentIndologist of the 20th century who hailed fromMaharashtra, India. He was an expert of his times on stone and copperinscriptions and thecoinage of ancient India. For his contributions to Indian history he was honoured with the titleMahamahopadhyaya by theBritish Indian Government in 1941. He was also awardedPadma Bhushan in 1975 by thePresident of India.
Dr. Mirashi was born in a middle-class family on 13 March 1893 at Kuwale village inRatnagiri district. After completing his primary and secondary school education atKolhapur (primarily Rajaram High School) he moved toPune. He stood first in order of merit in all school examinations and was awarded a State Scholarship, the Alfred Half-Freeship, The Ghatge Scholarship, and the Sir George Le Grand Jacob Scholarship. He obtained his bachelor's degree (BA) in 1914 and did his Master's (MA) in 1917 in the subject of Sanskrit atDeccan College. He received the Varjeevandas Madhavadas Sanskrit Scholarship for his BA studies, and while he wanted to study mathematics the rules of the scholarship required him to take Sanskrit; this proved to be a turning point in his career. He received the Dakshina Scholarship for his MA studies and stood first in the Language Group. As a result he won the Bhagwandas Purushottamdas Sanskrit Scholarship, the Jhala Vedanta Prize, and the Lawrence Jenkins Scholarship, the last one for studying for his Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree, Subsequently he earned his doctorate (Ph.D.) from theUniversity of Bombay. His dissertation onRelation between the Dharmasutras and the Metrical Smrutis and the Evolution of Hindu Law won the Vishwanath Mandalik Gold Medal and Prize of theUniversity of Bombay.
After his academic career, he shifted toMumbai and worked as Assistant Professor of Sanskrit atElphinstone College while simultaneously studying for his law degree. Subsequently, in 1919, he was appointed to the Sanskrit chair at Morris College inNagpur. He was appointed principal of the same college in 1942. During 1947-1950, he served as the principal ofVidarbha Mahavidyalaya inAmraoti.
In the 1957-1966 period, Mirashi worked as the Honorary Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Head of the Department of Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit, and Head of the Department of Post-Graduate Teaching in Humanities atNagpur University . He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the university.
Professor Mirashi was also one of the earliest proponents of the Vidarbha Sanshodhan Mandal (historical research society based in Nagpur) and for many years served as its Chairman.
Mirashi wrote 30 research works inEnglish,Marathi, andHindi, and more than 275 papers in various Indological journals.
HisInscriptions of the Kalchuri-Chedi Era (1955),Inscriptions of the Vakatakas (1963), andInscriptions of the Silaharas (1977) were published in the renownedCorpus Inscriptionum Indicarum Series of the Archaeological Survey of India. He also worked on the stone inscriptions ofSatvahanas andKshatrapas.
Mirashi's other important works comprise four volumes ofLiterary & Historical Studies in Indology,Kalidasa, andBhavabhuti.
Mirashi received a large number of honours for his research work.
In 1941, the thenViceroy of India,Linlithgow, honoured Mirashi with theMahamahopadhyaya title. In 1966, the then President of India,S. Radhakrishnan, awarded him a Certificate of Honour for proficiency in Sanskrit learning. In 1970, he was nominated as the Honorary Correspondent of the Archaeological Department of the Government of India.
The universities of Saugar and Nagpur conferred him with honorary D. Litt. degrees in 1958 and 1960, respectively. He was elected General President of the Numismatic Society of India (1951), the All India Oriental Conference (1959), and theIndian History Congress (1961). The Numismatic Society of India elected him its Honorary Fellow in 1959, and the Epigraphical Society of India did the same in 1974.
TheSahitya Akademi of India elected Mirashi as a fellow in 1973 and he was awarded thePadma Bhushan in 1975.[1]
Mirashi died on 3 April 1985.
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