Tilak Maharashtra University

The origin of the Vidyapeeth dates back to 1921, when immediately after the demise of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, his follower Mahatma Gandhi mooted the idea of establishing a university in his memory. One of the postulates of the four-fold formula conceived by Lokmanya Tilak was National Education and the other three were Swaraj, Swadeshi and Boycott. The delegates of the first Maharashtra Provincial Conference on 6 May 1921, under the presidency of Shrimat Shankaracharya of Karveer Peeth, decided to have National University in Maharashtra. Thus, the present-day Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth (TMV) was established.

TMV is a public-funded university, that had scholar Shri Shankaracharya Vidyashankar Bharati (alias Dr. Kurtakoti) as its first chancellor. This post has been held by other personalities such as the Sanskrit scholar Bharatacharya Shri. C. V. Vaidya, the first premier of Bombay Presidency Shri. B. G. Kher, Dr. M. S. alias Lokanayak Bapusaheb Aney, a great Sanskrit scholar and a historian Maha Mahopadhyay Datto Vaman Potdar, and Honorable Shri. Y. B. Chavan, Shri. S. B. Chavan, Shri. Shivraj Patil, Shri. Sushilkumar Shinde — all Union Home Ministers.

During the pre-independence period, degrees awarded in the faculties of Arts, Management, Commerce and Engineering as well as the research works in Sanskrit and Ayurveda were world acclaimed and recognized. Similarly, in the post-independence period, the degrees of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth were equivalent to the degrees of other statutory universities.

Though late, in the year 1987 the University Grants Commission took cognizance of significant work of TMV in the fields of Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Social Sciences and Distance Education. Thereby, on its recommendations, the Government of India conferred the "Deemed to be University" status upon Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth. With the conferment of this status, the Vidyapeeth gained recognition at national level. Since November 2015 Vidyapeeth has got 'B grade' by NAAC.[1]

The concept of non-formal education was first discussed at national level in 1985 and thereby the TMV contributed to this national vision by launching a distance education course (B.B.A.). TMV takes pride that the distance education program was launched before the establishment of IGNOU at national level and YCMOU at state level.

With the conferment of "Deemed to be University" status in 1987 the Vidyapeeth received its first financial assistance for the development of campus during the last phase of VIII Plan. Simultaneously, the State Government sanctioned salary component for few teaching (17) and non-teaching posts (52). Since then the Vidyapeeth has received financial support for development/research purpose from UGC/State Government. It is to be noted that for smooth and efficient functioning of the Vidyapeeth, requisite teaching and non-teaching staff were employed from its own funds.

Considerable research work has been conducted by the faculties of Sanskrit, Social Sciences and Ayurveda with its respective prime focus on —

• promotion and protection of our great Indian heritage and tradition through the study of Sanskrit — the original source of all Indian languages and Sanskrit sources of Indian history;

• application of innovative concept of interdisciplinary approach to emerging social issues and challenges; to create awareness among deprived sections of society;

• impart ayurvedic knowledge of preventive medicine and positive health to the masses in context of oral prescriptions, study of manuscripts for trends in drugs and clinical trials.

In the year 2000, the Distance Education Council (DEC), New Delhi gave its recognition and offered financial assistance for distance education programmes.

By 2004, there was a boom in the fields of computer and management. Thereby, the student strength of the Vidyapeeth for courses in these fields increased. Now with prime focus on its core fields — i.e., Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Social Sciences — intact, Vidyapeeth re-oriented itself to offer new courses that cater to the student community and meet the demands of industrial sector by seeking requisite approvals from statutory councils – NCTE / AICTE / INC / MSCOTP / MSBTE and BCI the Vidyapeeth launched B.Ed. & M.Ed. / BHMCT / B.Sc. Nursing / BPT / Diploma Engineering / LL.B. courses respectively.

Several eminent personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Zakir Husain, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Shri. Sharad Pawar, Shri. Pranab Mukherji and others during their visit to the Vidyapeeth campus have appreciated its uniqueness, amicable culture and rigorous research work.[2] S.V. Sohoni, the eminent scholar of Sanskrit and Indology, was the Vice-Chancellor of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth in the 1980s.

In 2016, the university established the Lokmanya Tilak Center For Research & Development with the aim of facilitating resources for research students at one place.[3] The research centre conducted over 80 research projects in the year 2017-18.

• Faculty of Arts and Fine Arts
• Faculty of Moral and Social Sciences
• Faculty of Ayurveda
• Faculty of Distance Education
• Faculty of Modern Sciences and Professional Skills
• College of Physiotherapy
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Law
• College of Nursing
• Faculty of Commerce
• Faculty of Management

• Tilak Maharashtra University