Pandurang Vaman Kane

Mahamahopadhyaya
Pandurang Vaman Kane
MP
पांडुरंग वामन काणे
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
(Nominated)
In office
16 November 1953[1] – 2 April 1964
Preceded byAlladi Krishnaswamy Iyer
ConstituencyPresidential Nominee
Vice Chancellor of the University of Bombay
In office
10 November 1947 – 9 November 1949
Preceded byM. C. Chagla
Succeeded byNatwarlal H. Bhagwati
Personal details
Born(1880-05-07)7 May 1880
Ratnagiri district, Maharashtra
Died18 April 1972(1972-04-18) (aged 91)[2]
Alma materUniversity of Mumbai
AwardsSahitya Akademi Award (1956)
Bharat Ratna (1963)

Pandurang Vaman Kane (kɑːnɛ KAANAY; Marathi: पांडुरंग वामन काणे; 7 May 1880[3] – 18 April 1972[4]) was an Indian academic, historian, lawyer, Indologist, and Sanskrit scholar.[5] He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 1963.[6]

Kane's academic career spanned for more than four decades, and included a tenure as the vice-chancellor of the University of Bombay,[7] from 1947[8] to 1949.[9] He is known for his magnum opus, History of Dharmaśāstra (1930–62), a five-volume treatise on law in ancient and medieval India.[5][10] He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian parliament from 1953 to 1964.[1]

Kane initially studied and taught Sanskrit, but later obtained degrees in law and practiced before the Bombay High Court.[5][7] He taught Sanskrit at Wilson College and Elphinstone College and law at Government Law College.[5][7] Kane was a member of the Bombay Asiatic Society.[5][7]

The historian Ram Sharan Sharma says: "Pandurang Vaman Kane, a great Sanskritist wedded to social reform, continued the earlier tradition of scholarship. His monumental work entitled the "History of the Dharmasastra", published in five volumes in the twentieth century, is an encyclopedia of ancient social laws and customs. This enables us to study the social processes in ancient India."[11]

  1. ^ a b "List of Nominated Members Since 1952". Rajya Sabha. National Informatics Centre. Archived from the original on 1 January 2012.
  2. ^ "RAJYA SABHA MEMBERS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 1952 – 2003" (PDF). Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  3. ^ S. K. Dhawan (1991). Bharat Ratnas, 1954-1991. Wave Publications. p. 78.
  4. ^ SOAS University of London (1970). Report of the Governing Board and Statement of Accounts (PDF). Hertfordshire: Stephen Austin and Sons Ltd. p. 7.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Centre issues postage stamp in honour of Indologist PV Kane". Hindustan Times. Mumbai. 18 April 2022. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023.
  6. ^ "Dr. P. V. Kane, the noted historian and scholar, the President, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the Vice-President, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Prime Minister Nehru, and Mrs. P. M. Maneckji, after the investiture ceremoney in Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday at which Dr. Kane and Dr. Hussain were awarded the Bharat Ratna". The Indian Express. Chittoor. 19 April 1963. p. 1.
  7. ^ a b c d Vaibhav Mariwala (17 July 2017). "Dr. Kane Road: Scholar, lawyer who helped shape modern Hindu Law". The Indian Express. Mumbai. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021.
  8. ^ "New Vice-Chancellor of Bombay 'Varsity". The Indian Express. Madras. 13 November 1947. p. 8.
  9. ^ "New Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University". The Indian Express. Madras. 12 November 1949. p. 9.
  10. ^ Abhiram Ghadyalpatil (31 July 2016). "Bhandarkar Institute:The fountainhead of oriental studies". LiveMint. Archived from the original on 25 October 2022.
  11. ^ Sharma, R.S. (2005). India's Ancient Past. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-568785-9.