Categories: Obituaries

Noted Sanskrit scholar Ved Kumari Ghai passes away

Sanskrit scholar Ved Kumari Ghai passed away at the age of 91. She was born in Jammu City, Jammu and Kashmir, in 1931. She did her MA and PhD in Sanskrit from the University of Jammu. She also studied at the Banaras Hindu University and the University of Oxford.

Ghai was a prolific scholar and author of several books on Sanskrit literature. She started her career as a professor of Sanskrit at Government College for Women, Parade, Jammu. She was a head of post graduate level Sanskrit Department, Jammu University until her retirement on 31 December 1991. She taught Panini’s Sanskrit grammar and literature at the Institute of Indian Studies, Copenhagen University, Denmark in 1966–1967 and 1978–1980. She was a scholar in Dogri language and also knew Hindi. She was also involved in social work. She was a member of the Amarnath shrine board.

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Ghai was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award in India, in 2001 for her contributions to Sanskrit literature. She was also a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, the highest literary award in India, in 1991 for her book “The Sanskrit Language”.

Here are some of her notable works

The Sanskrit Language (1991)
A History of Sanskrit Literature (1996)
The Ramayana (2000)
The Mahabharata (2003)
The Bhagavad Gita (2005)

Ghai’s work has been praised by scholars around the world. She was a pioneer in the field of Sanskrit studies and her work has helped to make Sanskrit literature more accessible to a wider audience. She was a true scholar and her work will be remembered for generations to come.

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