People
Leadership
R N Iyengar
Distinguished Professor and Mentor of CAHCProf R. N. Iyengar is the founder and Distinguished Professor and Mentor of the Center for Ancient History and Culture (CAHC) at the Jain University, which he established in 2012. He continues to pursue research in Indian Knowledge Systems including the History of Science in India.
R N Iyengar B.E., M.Sc(Eng).,Ph.D., (b. 1943) is renowned for his contributions to Earthquake Engineering, Random Vibrations, Mathematical Modeling, Structural Dynamics and Nonlinear Systems. As faculty at the Indian Institute of Science from 1969 till his retirement in 2005 as KSIDC Chair Professor in Civil Engineering, Iyengar has published 200 technical papers, reports, general articles and books. He is Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Science, National Academy of Science and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He held the Distinguished Schmidt Chair at the Florida Atlantic University, USA in 1995. He was Director of CBRI-CSIR (1994-2000); Raja Ramanna Fellow of Dept. of Atomic Energy (2005-10). After establishing the Centre for Disaster Mitigation with a unique Fire Research Lab, he is currently Distinguished Emeritus Professor and the Director of the Center for Ancient History & Culture at the Jain University, Bangalore.
Brought up in a family of Sanskrit scholars, Professor Iyengar received initial training in Sanskrit studies in the traditional way. This has propelled him to become an avid reader of ancient texts in the original. He has developed, combining Indic knowledge traditions with modern methods, a new line of study of ancient Indian heritage. His findings on comets, eclipses, earthquakes, ancient geography, effect of precession and the Pole Star Dhruva in Vedic literature, Concept of Probability in classical music, have attracted worldwide attention. He brought out the Parāśaratantra, an ancient Sanskrit treatise on astronomy and natural sciences, with text, translation and notes in 2013. Recently he has edited Nāradaśilpaśāstram, a medieval period text on Civil Engineering with introduction, translation and notes. He is presently critically editing Vṛddha-gārgīya Jyotiṣa an ancient text on astral sciences from about ten unpublished manuscripts.
Recent Recognition: Prof. R. N. Iyengar was conferred the SASTRA-Mahamana Award for Excellence in Indian Knowledge Systems by SASTRA Deemed University on 28-Feb-2026. Read announcement and view images.
Shankar Rajaraman
Director of CAHCDr. Shankar Rajaraman is a medical doctor with a post-graduate degree in Psychiatry, a researcher in Indian Knowledge Systems by profession, and a Sanskrit poet and translator by passion. His poetical works include Citranaiṣadham, Devidānavīyam, Bhārāvatārastava, and Nipuṇaprāghūṇakam. Shankar received the Maharshi Badarayan Vyas Samman from the President of India for his contribution to Sanskrit language and literature.
His Citranaiṣadham is the first full-fledged Gomūtrikā kāvya in the history of Sanskrit literature. His PhD, in psychology from the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), was on a topic that bridged the psychology of self-conscious emotions and Sanskrit poetics. He has penned several original works in Sanskrit. His interests include Sanskrit poetry, particularly Citrakāvya, Sanskrit poetics, leadership studies under IKS, psychology of emotions, and translating works between Sanskrit, Kannada, and English.
Team
R S Hariharan
Assistant ProfessorDr. R S Hariharan holds a PhD in Sanskrit Literature. He has a background in science and technology with experience in research, linguistics, and industry. His work explores Sanskrit literature and India’s civilisational and scientific thought.
Smita Bhatta
Project AssistantSmita Bhatta holds a Master’s degree in Sanskrit. She assists in manuscript collation, translation, and editing activities, and the maintenance of the book catalog for the project titled “IKS Project of MOE-AICTE at Jain University”.
Roopa Ramesh
Research AssistantRoopa Ramesh holds a Master’s degree in Sanskrit. She assists in manuscript collation, translation, and editing activities, and the maintenance of the book catalog for the project titled “IKS Project of MOE-AICTE at Jain University”.
Vani S
Research AssistantVani S holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Sanskrit Computational Linguistics and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering. She has teaching experience with Samskrita Bharati, conducting spoken Sanskrit camps and Sanskrit certification courses.
Warija Adiga
AssociateWarija Adiga holds a Master’s degree in Sanskrit and is a researcher involved in the study of ancient Sanskrit manuscripts and shastras. She has published several Sanskrit articles and stories in Sanskrit magazines like Sambhashana Sandesha and Sanskrit Bhavitavyam. She has presented a couple of papers at the All India Sanskrit Conference and the BVP Conference, and has summarised the proceedings of the BVP conference (Udupi) and the All India Oriental Centennial Conference (Nagpur) in book form. Some of her articles have been published by Indica and the Ethics Asia journal as well.
Sunder Chakravarty
AssociateSunder Chakravarty holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Electrical Communication Engineering, and a Kovida Sanskrit Certificate from Samskrita Bharati. He develops computer programs and models to validate and infer astronomical and other observational information in ancient texts.