Satya Vrat Shastri (or Satyavrat Shastri), born 29th September 1930, is a highly decorated Sanskrit scholar, writer, grammarian and poet from India. He has written three Mahakavyas, three Khandakavyas, one Prabandhakavyas and one Patrakavya and five works in critical writing in Sanskrit. His important works are Ramakirtimahakavyam, Brahattaram Bharatam, Sribodhisattvacharitam, Vaidika Vyakarana, Sarmanyadesah Sutram Vibhati, and "Discovery of Sanskrit Treasures" in seven volumes .
He is currently an honorary professor at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was the Head of the Department of Sanskrit and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Delhi, where he was the Pandit Manmohan Nath Dar Professor of Sanskrit (1970-1995).
During his career he has won many national and international awards, including, the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit, given by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, in 1968 for his poetry work, Srigurugovindasimhacharitam , then in 2006, he became the first recipient of the Jnanpith award in Sanskrit language (conferred in 2009 by Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn).
Prof. Shastri received his early education under his father, a renowned scholar Shri Charu Deva Shastri. Thereafter he moved to Varanasi, where he studied under, Pandit Shuk Deo Jha and Dr. Siddheshwar Varma.
He received his B.A. Hons. and M.A. in Sanskrit from the Punjab University, and his Ph.D from the Banaras Hindu University.
He joined the University of Delhi soon after, where for the next the forty years of his teaching career he has held important positions as the Head of the Department of Sanskrit and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Satya Vrat Shastri was also the Vice-Chancellor of Shri Jagannath Sanskrit University, Puri, Orissa, and a visiting professor at the Chulalongkorn and Silpakorn Universities in Bangkok, as well as the Northeast Buddhist University, Nongkhai, Thailand, also the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, the Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. He also taught Sanskrit to Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn [1977-1979].
Satya Vrat Shastri has written many important poetic works in Sanskrit, the most important being his rendition from Royal Thai into Sanskrit, of the Thai version of the Ramayana, viz., Sri-rama-kirti-maha-kavyam, upon royal request, and with a Forward written by the Princess of Thailand. His current research projects are the Sanskrit inscriptions and Hindu temples in Thailand, Kalidasa Studies, a critical edition of the Yogavasishtha, the Sanskritic vocabulary of South East Asia, and the Rama story in South East Asia.
In 2009, he became the only Sanskrit poet to have won the (2006) Jnanpith award, for his contributions to the enrichment of the language, and conferred by his former disciple, Princess of Thailand, Maha Chakri Sirindhon .
The Ramayana - A Linguistic Study ( with a Foreword by Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee and an Introduction by Dr. Siddheshwar Varma, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi 1964,
Vaidika Vyakarana (Hindi translation of A.A.Macdonell's "A Vedic Grammar for Students", Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi 1971,
Studies in Sanskrit and Indian Culture in Thailand, Parimal Prakashan, Delhi 1982,
Kalidasa in Modern Sanskrit Literature, Eastern Book Linkers, Delhi, 1991
Subhasitasahasri (Thousand Pearls from Sanskrit Literature),Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi, 1998
Studies in the Language and the Poetry of the Yogavasistha (In the Press).
Brhattaram Bharatam ( A Kavya in Sanskrit ) Sarasvati Susama, Journal of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, Vol. XII, No. 1, Samvat 2014
Sribodhisattvacaritam (A Kavya in Sanskrit), First Ed. Self Publication, Delhi, Samvat 2017 (A.D. 1960) pages iv+ 120, Second Ed. Meharchand Lacchmandas, Delhi 1974,
Srigurugovindasimhacaritam (A Kavya in Sanskrit) (With a Foreword by Dr. V.Raghavan), First Ed. Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, Patiala, 1967, Second Ed. Sahitya Bhandar, Meerut, 1984,
Sarmanyadesah Sutaram Vibhati (A Kavya in Sanskrit), Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad, Lucknow, 1976
Indira Gandhi-caritam (A Kavya in Sansktir), Bharatiya Vidya Prakashan, Delhi, 1976,
Thaidesavilasam (A Kavya in Sanskrit) (With a Foreword by Prof. Visudh Busyakul), Easten Book Linkers, Delhi 1979
Sriramakirtimahakavyam (A Kavya in Sanskrit) ( with a foreword by Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the Princess of Thailand), Moolamall Sachdev and Amarnath Sachdeva Foundations, Bangkok, First Ed. 1990 , Second Ed. 1991, Third Ed. 1995.
Patrakavyam (A Kavya in Sanskrit), Eastern Book Linkers, Delhi 1994
New Experiments in Kalidasa (Plays), Eastern Book Linkers, Delhi 1994
