Vagish Shastri

Vagish Shastri (1934–2022), born Bhagirath Prasad Tripathi, was a renowned Sanskrit grammarian, linguist, and scholar of yoga and tantra. He developed the Vagyoga method, a mnemonic and intuitive system for learning Sanskrit, and founded the Vagyoga Chetana Peetham in Varanasi to promote it. Through this institution, he edited and published over 300 rare Sanskrit manuscripts on grammar and philosophy. For his contributions to literature and education, the Government of India conferred on him the Padma Shri in 2018. His extensive body of work includes the detailed analysis पाणिनीयधातुपाठसमीक्षा (Paniniya Dhatupatha Samiksa), pedagogical works like Vagyoga: Mnemonic Sanskrit, and explorations of spiritual practice such as Shakti Shiva and Yoga and Autobiography of The Vagyogi.