Bharati Krishna Tirthaji

Swāmī Bhāratī Kṛṣṇa Tīrtha (March 1884 – February 2, 1960) was the Śankarācārya of Govardhana matha in Puri, Orissā (now Odishā) from 1925 to 1960. He is particularly known for his book Vedic Mathematics.

Venkatarāman Shastrī was born in March 1884 to an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family. His father was P. Narasimha Shastrī, originally a tehsildar at Tirunelveli in Madras Presidency who later became the Deputy Collector of the Presidency. His uncle, Chandrasekhar Shastrī, was the Principal of the Mahārāja's college in Vizianagaram, while his great-grandfather, Justice C. Ranganāth Shastrī was a judge in the Madras High Court.

Venkatarāman Shastrī joined National College in Trichinopoly. After that he moved to the Church Missionary Society College and eventually the Hindu College, both in Tirunelveli. Shastri passed his matriculation examination from Madras University in January 1899, where he also finished the first.

Although Venkatarāman always scored high in subjects like mathematics, sciences and humanities, he was also proficient in languages and particularly good at Sanskrit. According to his own testimonials, Sanskrit and oratory were his favourite subjects. Due to his skill at the language, that he was awarded the title "Saraswati" by the Madras Sanskrit Association in July 1899 at the age of 16. At about that time, Venkatraman was profoundly influenced by his Sanskrit guru Vedam Venkatrai Shastri.

Venkatarāman passed B.A. examination in 1902. He then appeared for the M.A. Examination for the American College of Sciences in Rochester, New York from the Bombay centre in 1903. He also contributed to W. T. Stead's Review of Reviews on diverse topics like religion and science. During his college days, he also wrote extensively on history, sociology, philosophy, politics, and literature.

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