Shivarathri Rajendra Mahaswamiji

Founder

Shivarathri Rajendra Mahaswamiji is the founder of JSS Mahavidyapeetha [1], an Indian non-profit working on education, healthcare, faith-based service and arts & culture from Mysuru.

Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Rajendra Mahaswamiji (29 August 1916 – 6 December 1986) was an Indian Lingayat pontiff and educationist who was the 23rd head of the Sri Veerasimhasana Mahasamsthana Math at Suttur in Mysore district, Karnataka. In 1954 he founded the Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Mahavidyapeetha (JSS Mahavidyapeetha), which grew into one of Karnataka's largest networks of schools, colleges, hostels and hospitals.

He reoriented the Suttur Math from primarily religious activity towards work on poverty, caste inequality and access to education, organised around three forms of service: jnana dasoha (education), anna dasoha (food and boarding) and arogya dasoha (health care).

Early life and education

He was born on 29 August 1916 and became the 23rd pontiff of the Suttur Math on 24 February 1928, at the age of twelve. He received his primary education at Suttur and studied Sanskrit at Mysuru from about the age of eight. He went to Varanasi for advanced study but returned to Mysore at the request of his seniors, continuing his studies there. He was a scholar of Kannada and Sanskrit, also worked in English, and was a patron of art and literature.

Career

As a boy he pressed for a boarding home for poor students from rural areas, and in the 1940s the Niranjanalaya hostel was opened. In 1954 he established the JSS Mahavidyapeetha as a formal body to run educational and welfare institutions. Over roughly five decades as pontiff he opened schools and colleges, hostels providing free board and lodging, engineering and medical colleges, and a range of associated trusts and societies.

He died on 6 December 1986. His shrine is at Suttur.

Recognition

The Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, conferred on him the title Rajagurutilaka in recognition of his contribution to society. The University of Mysore awarded him an honorary doctorate posthumously in 1989.

To mark the centenary of his birth, India Post issued a commemorative Rs 5 postage stamp in his honour, released at the Suttur Math on 27 August 2016 by Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Communications.[2][3][4][5]

JSS Mahavidyapeetha

Founded in 1954 by Jagadguru Dr. Sri Shivarathri Rajendra Mahaswamiji of the Suttur Srikshethra, JSS Mahavidyapeetha has grown from village schools and free hostels into one of India's largest faith-rooted education networks — spanning nursery to doctoral institutions, medical, dental, pharmacy and engineering colleges, hospitals, old age homes, craft training and Krishi Vigyan Kendras, with campuses now reaching Noida, Dubai and Mauritius.

JSS Mahavidyapeetha reports the following, on its own site: