User:ShaLeb/sandbox

Venkatacharya, Tuppil (1924-2015)
Tuppil Venkatacharya (January 1, 1924- June 9, 2015) was a renowned Sanskrit scholar, and Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. His areas of expertise are Paninian grammar, aesthetic theory and Visistadvaita philosophy. He was a descendant of the revered Sri Vaisnava saint/scholar Tuppil Vedantadesika and was born in Tirupati, India.

He studied with a number of well-known traditional Sanskrit pundits in Tirupati and then in Calcutta, India under the guidance of Prof. Satkari Mookerji. He obtained the degrees of BA and BOL, MA and Vyakarana Siromani. In 1996, in recognition of his important contributions to the field of Sanskrit studies, he was conferred the honorary degree of D.Litt. (Vacaspati) by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati.

In 1961, on the recommendation of Prof. V. Raghavan, he conducted research at the Istituto per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO) and the Sapienza University of Rome. He was invited to Rome by Prof. Giuseppe Tucci, one of the world’s leading Indologists and Tibetologists. Venkatacharya worked with Raniero Gnoli on publishing a critical edition of the Buddhist Gilgit Manuscript of the Sangabedhavastu.

He married Vijaya Kalathur, also from Tirupati, in October 1961, just prior to moving to Rome. Vijaya passed away in 2007.

In 1964 the Venkatacharyas moved to Toronto, on the invitation of Prof. A. K Warder, a leading Sanskrit and Buddhist scholar. Warder invited him to the University of Toronto to help establish the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, this department was one of the leaders in the study and research of Sanskrit language and literature. The department had the second largest concentration of Sanskrit scholars in North America, second only to Harvard University. In 1981 Venkatacharya joined the Department of Linguistics and the Centre for South Asian Studies, both at the University of Toronto, where he remained till his retirement.

Throughout his career, spanning more than 50 years, Venkatacharya focused his research on publishing commentaries of long forgotten palm leaf manuscripts. He published 14 books, and countless scholarly papers during his long tenure. He supervised numerous undergraduate and graduate students from around the world, including those from India, Japan, Russia and Thailand, as well as from across North America.

For over a decade he provided free Sanskrit classes in his home on weekends, and even after his retirement from the University gave numerous public lectures and discourses on a variety of subjects. After his retirement, he became Principal of the Hindu Institute of Learning in Toronto, further sharing his deep passion for Sanskrit language and literature with a broad base of students.

Some of his notable works include: the Dasarapuka of Dhananjaya; the Rasarnavasudhakara of Simhabhupala; the Udara Raghava of Sakalya Malla; the Sriharicarita Mahakavya by Srihari Padmanabhasastri; and the Sahityakantakoddhara. After retiring in 1991 from actively teaching and supervising students, he published a very popular translation and exposition on the famous Sri Venkateswara Suprabhatam (1999); as well as on the sacred creation hymn, the Purusa Suktam (2004). Upon his retirement, he donated his collection of rare palm leaf manuscripts to the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at the University of Toronto. As per his wishes, his extensive library of Sanskrit books and monographs was donated to the Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto, after his death. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the fall of 2010 and passed away in June 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

In 2017, the University of Toronto established the Tuppil Venkatacharya Trust. The Venkatacharya Trust honours the legacy of Professor Tuppil Venkatacharya. The trust fund supports the preservation, dissemination and study of Sanskrit and South Asian heritage and culture at the University of Toronto. It is based in UTM&#39;s Centre for South Asian Civilizations.

He is survived by two sons, Hari and Patanjali.