Dr. P.L Bhargava is an eminent Indologist, who retired as Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. A historian of equal renown too, he had been at the McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, for about two years: 1974-76, as a Visiting Professor of Religion. His Ph.D thesis, entitled: India in the Vedic Age, was hailed as “the most original work of our times” (U.N. Ghoshal), “a distinct advance over Pargiter’s work” (A.S. Altekar), and “a brilliant sorting out of the very complex data into clear and logical pattern” (A.L. Basham).
A recipient of many academic honours - the latest among which being the 1994-95 President’s Award for “Eminent Sanskritists”, Professor Bhargava has already published eight books and over 60 papers.
Dr. Purushottam Lal Bhargava was the very first and longest reigning Head of the Sanskrit Department at Rajasthan University. He laid the foundation of the Sanskrit Department of Rajasthan University in 1961, and with his vision, hard work and brilliant initiatives it quickly became one of the best known departments on campus. Dr. Bhargava was born on May 29, 1909 in Alwar, Rajasthan. His father Pandit M.B.L. Bhargava was also highly educated and an author of several books on the political issues of the time. He worked for the Maharaja of Alwar and later moved to Lucknow and started his own publishing company “The Upper India Publishing House”.
With Dr. Bhargava’s initiatives and efforts, the newly formed Sanskrit Department at Rajasthan University rapidly became known not only outside Jaipur but also abroad, and attracted many foreign students who came to study Sanskrit with Dr. Bhargava and who are now well established scholars/dignitaries in their own right, such as Professor Johannes Bronkhorst of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Ambassador Hinkus Nijenhuis, the Dutch Ambassador to Venezuela, and Professor Liudmila Khokhlova of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow. Dr. Bhargava’s numerous students who did research under his guidance have gone on to do excellent work as teachers and researchers at various institutions of higher learning, and some have followed in his footsteps by later heading the Sanskrit Department like Dr. Hari Ram Acharya, Prof. Basant Jaitley and Dr. Subhash Taneja.
Dr. Bhargava remained as Head of the Sanskrit Department at Rajasthan University for an extended period of 12 years (1961- 73), before which he was the Head of the Sanskrit Department of the newly created Rajasthan College, Jaipur, for several years. Prior to that he was a Professor at the famed Jaswant College of Jodhpur. He was also a Visiting Professor at Punjabi University, Patiala for a year and a Visiting Professor of Religion at McMaster University in Canada where he taught for two years.
Dr. Bhargava contributed to the advancement of Rajasthan University in many capacities – scholarly as well as administrative. He started the prestigious scholarly publication ‘Rajasthan University Studies in Sanskrit’ and served as its Editor. He also served as the Dean of the Faculty of Sanskrit Studies and as the Director of the School of Humanities and continued to introduce new ideas and make constant improvements in the curriculum. As one of the most energetic members of the Syndicate of Rajasthan University, he helped shape many policies. He had also made significant contributions as an active member of the Senate, the Research Board, the Publications Board, the Academic Council, the Faculty of Arts, and the Library Committee of Rajasthan University. He also served on several committees outside the University. Notable are his contributions to the Rajasthan Government Sanskrit Advisory Board, the Curriculum Committee and Committee of Courses in Sanskrit, the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, as well as his work as member of the All India Oriental Conference, American Oriental Society, International Congress of Orientalists, Faculty of Arts Jeewaji University, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Board of Studies in Sanskrit, Jodhpur University, and Board of Studies in Sanskrit, Udaipur University. He also served as Convener of the Board of Studies in Sanskrit, University of Rajasthan.
Dr. Bhargava is highly regarded by the scholarly community of Sanskrit and Indic Studies as one of the most eminent scholars of our times. He had equal command on the three languages of Sanskrit, Hindi and English and wrote extensively in all three languages. His first scholarly book ‘Chandragupta Maurya’ written in his early youth, at age 24, was extremely well-received by experts in the field. His Ph.D. thesis published as a book India in the Vedic Age received raving reviews from scholarly journals and newspapers around the world and the highest praise from scholars of Indology such as Dr. A.S. Altekar, Dr. U.N. Ghoshal, Professor A.L Basham, Professor Nilkanta Sastri, Dr. K. M. Munshi, Dr. V.M. Apte, Dr. A.D. Pusallkar, Dr. Ludwik Sternbach, Professor Oscar Botto, and Professor T. Burrow. Dr. Bhargava continued his scholarly work of writing books and articles in journals and newspapers even in his nineties and has published numerous books and over 100 research articles. All his books have been received with great enthusiasm, admiration and highest praise by scholars in the field.
Professor Bhargava was also a popular and frequent speaker at All India Radio, Jaipur where he gave many talks for the benefit and education of the general public on various topics of interest from Sanskrit literature.
Dr. Bhargava was invited to speak at countless national and international conferences in Asia, Europe, and North America. Even at age ninety he was remarkably active professionally; for example, he travelled to Italy when he was invited to the 11th World Sanskrit conference by the Director of CESMEO, Dr. Oscar Botto (a very close friend of his for over 40 years), to deliver a talk and chair two sessions on Vedic Literature.
Another admirable initiative Dr. Bhargava took as Professor and Head of the Sanskrit Department at Rajasthan University, and prior to that at Rajasthan College, was to popularize Sanskrit by staging plays in Sanskrit. He directed many Sanskrit plays depicting interesting scenarios from various famous plays such as Shakuntalam, Mrcchakatikam, and Swapna Vasavadattam. He wrote the script in easy to understand Sanskrit and spent enormous amounts of time training the students to enact their roles properly and pronounce Sanskrit dialogues correctly and clearly. Among his recruits for actors in his plays was Govardhan Asrani who played the part of “Vidushak” in the scenes from Mrcchhakatikam and who then went on to become a famous comedian in Indian films. Many years later Asrani met Dr. Bhargava in the US and expressed his heartfelt gratitude towards him for initiating him into acting through the Sanskrit plays. The part of Udayana in one of his plays depicting a scene from Swapna Vasavadattam was played by one of his brilliant foreign students Johannes Bronkhorst, who (as mentioned earlier) is now a well-known Indologist. Prof. Bhargava’s Sanskrit plays in Jaipur were widely attended and highly appreciated and enjoyed by even the laymen audience who walked away with a happy feeling of having learnt many conversational Sanskrit phrases while being entertained by the wonderful student actors.
Dr. Bhargava was a brilliant student right from his childhood and won many awards and honors during his school and college years. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Lucknow University and won the Empress Victoria gold medal from the University for standing first in the B.A. examination. He was keenly interested in languages and history, and obtained Master’s degrees in Sanskrit, Hindi, and History. He specialized in Sanskrit and passed the Shastri examination of Lucknow University winning a gold medal from the University for standing first in it. Among his other honors that should be mentioned is the title of “Vidyamahodadhi” awarded by the Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan and Vedic Sanskriti Pracharak Sangh. In 1995 he was also honored at Rashtrapati Bhavan by the President of India as one of the topmost Sanskrit scholars in the country.
For his extraordinary involvement in the life of the University, his unique contributions to the advancement and rise of the Sanskrit Department and Rajasthan University, his outstanding work as a research scholar, his devotion and commitment to teaching and his love for his students, his relentless and innovative attempts to popularize Sanskrit among the masses and his deeply inspiring legacy, Rajasthan University is making a humble attempt to express its gratitude to him by bringing world scholars together at a conference in December 2009 marking his birth centenary.
Despite his immense achievements, Dr. Bhargava remained an extremely humble, gentle, and kind person, a true rshi in every sense of the word, who has truly set an example for future generations to follow.