[Apologies for cross-posting]
Dear list members,
Another sun of Sanskrit grammar has set. Popularly referred to as Vaiyākaraṇamārtaṇḍa, Acharya Vishwanath Mishra—one of the tallest scholars of Sanskrit grammar—passed away around 6 a.m. India time on the morning of January 28 2016.
Born on June 15 1930 at Siwan in Bihar, Acharya Mishra studied major works of Sanskrit grammar, starting with Siddhāntakaumudī, under ‘Mahashaya Ji’ Ram Yash Tripathi (1884–1966) in Varanasi for eleven years. He also studied the Rasagaṅgadhara and the Pañcalakṣaṇi from Mahashaya Ji. His other Guru-s included Pandit Badrinath Shukla.
Acharya Mishra taught at Daltonganj in Ranchi for three years, and then at various colleges and universities in Rajasthan. Bikaner was his home for a long time. In his final days, he taught at the Jain Vishvabharati at Nagaur in Rajasthan.
In 1980, Acharya Mishra’s Hindi commentary Subodhinī on the Paribhāṣenduśekhara was published by Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan. It is widely considered to be the best Hindi explanation of the Paribhāṣenduśekhara. In 1997, his Hindi commentary Subodhinī on the Laghuśabdenduśekhara (up to the Pañcasandhi) was published by Chaukhambha Sanskrit Sansthan. This book was dedicated to Abhinavaśaṅkarācārya ‘Dharmasamrāṭ’ Svāmī Karapatrī (1907–1982) and has been reprinted several times. Two other well-known works of Acharya Mishra are the Praudhanibandhasaurabham (1982) and the Bhikṣunyāyakarṇikā. In all he authored seven books and more than fifty papers. When the commentaries on the Paribhāṣenduśekhara and the Laghuśabdenduśekhara were presented by Acharya Mishra to my Guru, Jagadguru Svāmī Rāmabhadracārya, he remarked to those present, “You give me material things, today Mishra Ji has given me invaluable and hard-to-find knowledge,” and placed the two books on his head as a mark of respect to Acharya Mishra.
For his services to Sanskrit, Acharya Mishra was honoured with the President’s Certificate of Honour for the year 1999. The honour was presented to him by the then President of India Honourable K. R. Narayanan on February 6 2002.
Several students of Acharya Mishra are scholars of Sanskrit grammar today. Prof. Ramyatna Shukla of Varanasasi briefly studied under Acharya Mishra.
The attached photo from the website of Acharya Siyaramadasa Naiyayika shows Acharya Mishra in the centre at the age of 84 in January 2015. To the left is his student Prof. Ashok Kumar Tiwari and to the right is Acharya Siyaramadasa Naiyayika. More photos of the Acharya from this meeting can be seen
here:
Sources:
[2] Radha Vallabh Tripathi (ed.) Inventory of Sanskrit Scholars (2012). Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan. ISBN 978-93-86111-85-2. p. 165.