D. JAVARE GOWDA ON S. SRIKANTA SASTRI 

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The greatness of a University is gauged not by its quantitative strength in terms of buildings, teachers and students, but by the quality of research work done and the intellectual pursuits attained by the research scholars and teachers. From this point of view the Mysore University can proudly claim a place of distinction among many other Universities in India. The devout votaries of knowledge and the intellectual luminaries like Dr. S. Srikanta Sastri are mainly instrumental for the reputation of this great University. Scholarship is nothing but intellectual ability coupled with industry and devotion to duty. Srikanta Sastri has been really the embodiment of these qualities. His whole life has been dedicated to the pursuit of truth and the acquisition of knowledge.

 

Even before I entered the Maharaja’s College as a student of the Honours Class in the year 1938 Srikanta Sastri had reached the pinnacle of glory as a great scholar. His knowledge of History was phenomenal and encyclopædic in character. A good number of books both in English and Kannada and as many as four hundred articles on Indian History, Culture, Language and Literature bear ample testimony to his varied interest, profound scholarship and recondite erudition. He treaded the entire gamut of Karnataka history and culture like a colossus. Sincerity, honesty and truthfulness are the hallmark of his scholarship. One may reverentially disagree with the views expressed by him, as, for example, on the original home of the Aryans, the Aryan Civilisation and even on Purandaradasa. Nobody disputes his intellectual abilities or sincerity of purpose. His scholarship is neither a shadow nor an imitation of some great personality. He is undisputedly an original thinker and a meticulous and austere seeker of truth.