Faculty – Community Education Division, Sanskrit Studies
Dr. Tanuja Ajotikar is an accomplished scholar of Sanskrit linguistics and computational philology, specializing in Pāṇinian grammar, Sanskrit lexicography, and digital humanities. She holds a Ph.D. in Sanskrit Linguistics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, where her doctoral research focused on the development of a Sanskrit WordNet through computational expansion models. She also earned an M.Phil. in Sanskrit and Prakrit Languages from the University of Pune, where she received top honors for her study on the influence of Tantra philosophy on Nāgeśabhaṭṭa’s sphoṭa theory.
Dr. Ajotikar currently serves as an Assistant Professor at The Sanskrit Library, Providence, Rhode Island, and as Co-Director of India Programs at Maharishi Vedic University, The Netherlands. Over the years, she has held several teaching and research positions at institutions including the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, Harvard University, and Shree Somnath Sanskrit University. Her research and teaching contributions bridge traditional Sanskrit studies and modern computational methods, with a strong focus on digital preservation and analysis of Sanskrit manuscripts.
An award-winning scholar, Dr. Ajotikar has presented her work at international conferences including the World Sanskrit Conference and American Oriental Society, and has numerous publications to her credit in both Sanskrit and English. Beyond academia, she actively contributes to advancing Sanskrit pedagogy and digital resources that sustain India’s intellectual and linguistic heritage.