Biography
Ram Karan Sharma is a Sanskrit poet and scholar. He was born at Shivapur in the Saran district of Bihar. He has been awarded an MA in Sanskrit and Hindi from Patna University as well as Sahityacharya, Vyakarana Shastri and Vedanta Shastri degrees. He earned a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, under the guidance of Murray B. Emeneau. Sharma writes in both Sanskrit and English. His literary works include the poetry collections Sandhya, Patheyasatakam and Vina, and the novels, Rayisah and Sima. Elements of poetry in the Mahabharata is considered his most significant work as a critic of Sanskrit literature. Apart from his literary works he has also translated and edited books on Indian medicine, epics, and Puranas. He also contributed research papers in various seminars, journals and books in the field of Indology.
Awards and Honours
He has received many awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit in 1989, the Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award in 1989, the Delhi Sanskrit Academy Award, and the prestigious Presidential Award. He received the 2005 Krishna Kanta Handique Memorial Award, given in recognition of his contributions to promote the cause of Sanskrit language and literature. In 2004, he was given Vachaspati Puraskar by the K. K. Birla Foundation to honour writers for their work in Sanskrit during the previous ten years for his poetic work Gaganvani.
He is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and Member of the American Oriental Society.
He was vice chancellor of Kameshwar Singh Darbhanga Sanskrit University, Darbhanga, from 1974-1980 and has also held the same position at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, from 1984-1985. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania. ..
