Dharamshala: Sampurnanand Sanskrit University celebrated its 220th foundation day in Varaanasi on January 17, 2011. A three-day seminar was organized to commemorate the occasion. Tibet's political and spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama inaugurated the function.
Sampurnanand Sanskrit University vice-chancellor V Kutumb Shastri delivered the keynote address on the importance of Sanskrit learning and contributions of the university.
According to a report by Times of India, under a proposal of Jonathan Duncan, the then resident of East India Company and the approval of Governor General Lord Cornwallis, this institution-- then Government Sanskrit College-- was established in 1791. In 1956 Varanaseya Sanskrit University Act was passed
Objectives of the university:
To establish an international centre for the study of and research in the Sanskrit literature
To co-ordinate the oriental and occidental currents of thoughts while preserving the ancient tradition
To provide for the traditional method of study, teaching etc, of the Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit Languages and the subject connected with them on the ancient India
To study and do researches in the comparative critical study of Indian culture as well as the cultures connected therewith so that is may be co-ordinate, as far as possible, with the human culture
To produce new and talented scholars who are well-versed in the knowledge of traditional Sanskrit and who are fully acquainted with modern thoughts, and are capable of carrying on comparative study on modern lines
To expend, spread and enlarge the Sanskrit language and the Indian culture in all directions
To collect and publish rare Sanskrit books and to revise, edit and publish important Sanskrit manuscripts
