Shastri, Vidyadhar

Vidyadhar Shastri (1901–1983) was a Sanskrit poet and a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindi. He was born in the city of Churu in Rajasthan (India), received the degree of Shastri from Punjab University (Lahore), a Master of Arts in Sanskrit from the University of Agra and resided at the city of Bikaner during the bulk of his scholarly and academic endeavours. In 1962, he was conferred the honour of Vidyavachaspati by the President of India. In 1928 Vidyadhar Shastri was appointed lecturer in Sanskrit at Dungar College in Bikaner and became Head, Department of Sanskrit in 1936. After retiring from Dungar College in 1956, Vidyadhar Shastri served as Head, Department of Sanskrit at Hiralal Barahsaini College, Aligarh. In 1958, he established the Hindi Vishwa Bharati (Bikaner) for the promotion of Sanskrit, Hindi and Rajasthani literature. He served as lifetime head of this institute.