I have great pleasure in writing a Foreword to this Volume of research papers presented to Dr. V. Raghavan by his students, friends and colleagues. Dr. Raghavan was an active member of the Sanskrit Commission of the Government of India and has been connected since inception with the Central Sanskrit Board (Kendriya Samskrita Parishad) of the Ministry, as also with the Rashtriya Sanskrit Samsthan. The Parishad and the Samsthan owe much to him in the plans and projects it had adopted for the promotion of Sanskrit in the country. As the second President of the Kendriya Samskrita Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, he organised its Research and Publication work and after the setting up of a central organisation in the Minis-try for the coordinated development of the Vidyapeethas, he has been guiding its work in various capacities, as Chairman of the Central Publication Committee and the Examination Committee and as Editor of the periodical collection of short rare works in Sanskrit called the Malayamaruta and of the Research Journal Samskrita Vimarsa.
I must especially mention one great piece of work he did with which I was connected. I had the honour of calling upon him to bear, as Chairman, the burden of the academic work of the First World Sanskrit Conference which this Ministry undertook to conduct in the end of March 1972. With his visits to the several foreign countries in the East and West and his world-wide contacts in the field of Sanskrit studies and experience of conducting conferences, he made a signal success of what was one of the largest Conferences. In addition to the academic work, he also took care of the Sanskrit entertainments, Sanskrit Dramas, Dances and Song-recitals, and produced also his own new Sanskrit play at the Conference.