Department of Sanskrit

The Sanskrit teaching was started with the inception of MAO College, Aligarh in 1875 at School and College level both. However, regular teaching of Sanskrit began in 1880 with appointment of Pt. Ganesh Chandra on 01.05. 1880 (School level), Ashutosh Bhattachaya (1884), Harihar Sharma (1908), Ramhari Dwivedi (1915), and Mukundahari Dwivedi ( 1920 ) were the Sanskrit teachers till 1920.

In 1920 when MAO College got the shape of Aligarh Muslim University on 01.09. 1920, Pt. Ram Swaroop Shastri was appointed as lecturer & Head Department of Sanskrit. From session 1922-23, M.A. in Sanskrit also was started. Consequently in 1924 the first M.A. Degree in Sanskrit was awarded to Mr. Raghunandan Prasad Sharma. In 1947-48 Hindi was introduced under the Department of Sanskrit. In 1948 Pt. Habibur Rehman Shastri and Pt. G.N. Shukla were appointed as lecturer grade-II. In 1950 Shiv Shankar Sharma joined the Department in same capacity. On January 07, 1953 Dr. H.L. Sharma joined the University as Reader/ Head of Sanskrit- Hindi Department. In 1964 Professor Suryakant was appointed as first Professor/ Head of Sanskrit..

The first Ph.D. Degree in Sanskrit was awarded to Parmanand Shastri in 1958 on his thesis" Development of Sanskrit lyrics Poetry" (written in Hindi). Dr. Raghunath Panday was the first recipient of D. Litt. in Sanskrit. In 1982, Dr. S.P. Singh and Dr. M.M. Agarwal also were awarded D. Litt. Degrees. More than 135 Ph.Ds (approx.) and 35 M. Phil Degrees have been awarded to Scholars.

The Department publishes a Peer-reviewed Annual Research Journal "Prācyaprajňā" which has an ISSN. In Women's College there is separate arrangement for Sanskrit teaching for girls at UG level. There are three Groups approved in P.G. i.e. Sahitya, Veda & Philosophy.