K. T. Pandurangi

For 35 years, he taught Sanskrit and Indian philosophy at the graduate and postgraduate level, retiring in the year 1979. He delivered lectures on Philosophy & Sanskrit at universities, at The Indian Institute of World Culture, and at Gokhale Institute. After retirement, he guided research students, including students from the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and the United States, for Ph.D, M.Phil and Vidya Varidhi degrees, also serving as Examiner for more than a dozen Ph.D theses submitted in various universities in India. For 20 years (1980 to 2000) he had short-term assignments in five academic centres: Bangalore University (4 years), Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Delhi (4 years), Indian Council of Philosophical Research (3 years), Gandhi Centre for Science and Human values, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bangalore (4 years), Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (for 5 years).

Krishnacharya Tamanacharya Pandurangi (1 February 1918 - 22 April 2017), also known by the pen name Viswamangala, was an Indian Sanskrit scholar and a notable Indologist. Pandurangi was unique among contemporary Sanskrit scholars, being simultaneously at home among both traditional and modern systems of education. In 1989, the Government of India honoured him with the Rashtrapati Award for his contributions to literature and research.

Krishnacharya was born on 1 February 1918 in a family of Sanskrit scholars to Tamanacharya Pandurangi and Lakshmi Bai in Dharwad, Karnataka. Due to the family's economic conditions, he could complete only up to the 7th standard and could not study in a high school. He then studied Sanskrit in the Sankaracharya Patasala at Dharwad. His further higher education was in Patasalas as well; from Dharwad to Sangli Patasala; from Sangli to Mysore Patasala and so on. In 1936 at the age of 18 he moved to Mysore. Within four years he had completed the study of Nyaya and Vedanta there. At Patasala, he learnt Nyaya Shastra under Dharapuram Krishnamurthi Acharya. At other times he went to the residence of the same Acharya and learnt Vedanta at home. He practised this kind of double-study under other scholars, including Kasipranesa Acharya, Chaturvedi Ramachandracharya, Doddaballapur Vasudevacharya, Nerur Krishnacharya, Ardikoppam Subramanya Shastry, Channa Kesava Shastry and others. In 1940, at the age of 22, he joined the Oriental department of Annamalai University and Maharaja's College, Mysore, where he studied Purva Mimamsa under such reputed scholars as Dr. B. N. K. Sharma. He also holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Banares Hindu University.