Sampurnanand Sanskrit University

Rising in warm sandstone and brick from a leafy 67-acre campus at Jagatganj, Sampurnanand Sanskrit University is one of the most quietly magnificent buildings in Varanasi and a living monument to India's scholarly tradition.

• Its lineage reaches back to 1791, when Jonathan Duncan, the British Resident at Benares, proposed a Government Sanskrit College to preserve and cultivate the vast body of Sanskrit learning; the first teacher was Pandit Kashinath, and the enterprise was sanctioned by Governor-General Charles Cornwallis.
• The institution grew steadily through the nineteenth century, was elevated to a full university in 1958 through the efforts of Dr.
• Sampurnanand, then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and took his name in 1974.
• What began as a colonial-era college is today a global reference point for pandits, grammarians and philosophers, with faculties devoted to Veda-Vedanga, Sahitya, Darshana (philosophy), Jyotisha (astronomy and astrology), Shramana Vidya and modern knowledge systems.
• Architecturally, the campus is a graceful conversation between Europe and India.
• The imposing central facade carries pointed Gothic arches, deep verandahs and turreted rooflines, while the layout of courtyards and open lawns follows a distinctly Indian sense of space and light.
• The most celebrated structure is the Saraswati Bhavan, whose foundation stone was laid in 1907 during the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales and which was completed in 1914 to house a manuscript treasury of more than one hundred thousand handwritten Sanskrit texts on palm-leaf and paper.
• On campus you will also find an archaeological museum, established in 1910, displaying stone and terracotta sculpture, coins and copper plates from the Mauryan, Gupta and medieval periods.
• Together they make the grounds feel less like a working college and more like a repository of civilisation.
• For the curious traveller, this is a serene, uncommercial alternative to the crowded ghats: come on a weekday morning to watch students in traditional dress cross the lawns, hear recitation drifting from the classrooms, and admire the arches in soft light.
• The campus is freely open, entry is free, and photography of the exterior is welcome; ask politely before photographing inside the museum or library reading rooms.
• Vegetarian travellers will feel completely at ease here.
• Varanasi is one of the great vegetarian cities of India, and Jagatganj sits within a short auto ride of Godowlia's famous sweet and chaat houses.
• Pure-vegetarian institutions such as Kashi Chat Bhandar and Keshari Restaurant near Godowlia, and Ksheer Sagar in Sonarpura, serve satvik thalis, kachori-sabzi and Banarasi sweets without a trace of meat, egg or alcohol.
• One gentle caution: Varanasi's famous thandai is sometimes laced with bhang (cannabis), so always ask specifically for a plain lassi or plain thandai.