Vidyalankara Saligrama Krishna Ramachandra Rao (4 September 1925 – 2 February 2006) was an Indian

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, Sanskrit

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and professor of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

. His books, most of them in

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

and English, deal with Indian culture,

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. They are based on research he conducted on ancient Indian texts and rare manuscripts. He was working on a thirty-two volume project on the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

in English at the time of his death.

Early life

Saligrama Krishna Ramachandra Rao was born in a

Madhva Brahmin Madhva Brahmins (also often referred as Madhvas or Sadh-Vaishnavas), are communities of Hindus from the Brahmin caste in India, who follow Sadh Vaishnavism () and Dvaita philosophy propounded by Madhvacharya. They are found mostly in the Indian ...

family on September 4, 1925, in

Hassan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...

, a small town in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

. He spent his early childhood with his grandparents in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

, where he started school. He also started learning Sanskrit from Agnihotri Yajnavitthalachar, a scholar. This training in Sanskrit would help him write numerous books later in life. When his grandfather died, he moved to Nanjanagudu, a small town, where his parents were staying at the time. He soon moved to Mysore to finish school. In 1949 he graduated with a master's degree in psychology from

University of Mysore The University of Mysore is a public state university in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The university was founded during the reign of Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV and the premiership of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. The university is recognised by t ...

Work

He first worked as a research assistant at the

Indian Institute of Science The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a Public university, public, Deemed university, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The ...

and rose to become head of its department of Psychology. From 1954 to 1965, he was Professor of Psychology at the All India Institute of Mental Health (now

NIMHANS The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) is a medical institution in Bengaluru, India. NIMHANS serves as the apex centre for mental health education and neuroscience research in the country. It is an Institute of N ...

). In 1962, while at NIMHANS, he wrote a book ''The Development of Psychological Thought in India''. He also created an Indian version of the

Thematic Apperception Test The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective psychological test developed during the 1930s by Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard University. Proponents of the technique assert that subjects' responses, in the narratives ...

(TAT) cards and conducted experiments based on them. He was also instrumental in revising the syllabus that was taught at NIMHANS to include aspects of Indian philosophy that had influenced the study of psychology. He left NIMHANS in 1965, and worked as a visiting professor in various institutions in Bangalore, lecturing and teaching courses in psychology,

indology Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

, philosophy, social work and education. In later life, he divided his time between public speaking, writing and teaching students at home.

Author

His books deal primarily with Indian culture, philosophy, art, music, and literature. They are based on research he conducted on ancient Indian texts and rare manuscripts. He has also written a

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

in Sanskrit, a commentary in

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

on ''Visuddhimagga'', a book by

Buddhaghosa Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (''mahāvihāra'') at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda schoo ...

. He has also written a treatise in Pali called ''Sumangala-gatha'' which was published in the journal ''The Light of the Dhamma''. At the time of his death, he was working on a thirty-two volume project on the Rigveda in English. Volume sixteen was published two years after his death in 2007.

Other work

He was also a painter and a sculptor. One of his works is on permanent display at

Ravindra Kalakshetra Ravindra Kalakshetra is a cultural centre in Bangalore which provides a home for musical and theatrical performances. Located in heart of Bangalore city, it was built to commemorate the birth centenary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Man ...

Death

He died on February 2, 2006, in Bangalore. He is survived by his wife and two children.

References

''The Hindu'' 3 Feb 2006

External links

Prof SKR trust website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rao, S. K. Ramachandra 1925 births 2006 deaths Scholars from Karnataka People from Hassan University of Mysore alumni Indian Sanskrit scholars Indian psychologists 20th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century psychologists