S. Srikanta Sastri

Sondekoppa Srikanta Sastri (5 November 1904 – 10 May 1974) was an Indian historian, Indologist, and polyglot. He authored around 12 books, over two hundred articles, several monographs and book reviews over four decades in English, Kannada, Telugu and Sanskrit. These include "Sources of Karnataka History", "Geopolitics of India & Greater India", "Bharatiya Samskruthi" (a compendium on Indian culture and tradition) and "Hoysala Vastushilpa" (a study of temple architecture of the Hoysala period in Karnataka). S. Srikanta Sastri was a polyglot well versed in fourteen languages spanning Greek, Latin, Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit and German among others. He was Head of the Department of History & Indology at Maharaja College, University of Mysore between 1940 and 1960. He was conferred the Kannada Literary Academy award in 1970 and was subsequently honoured by Governor of Karnataka Mohanlal Sukhadia in 1973 during mythic society diamond jubilee function. A Festschrift was brought forth and presented to him during his felicitation function in 1973 titled "Srikanthika" with articles on History and Indology by distinguished scholars. His work on Indus Valley civilization and town planning at Harappa and Mohenjodaro were published in successive articles and drew considerable attention. His articles on The Aryan Invasion theory, the date of Adi Sankaracharya, Oswald Spengler's view on Indian culture, Jaina epistemology, Proto-Vedic religion of Indus Valley Civilization and evolution of the Gandabherunda insignia remain relevant today.