This is the first time that Deccan College has found a special mention in the Union Budget. “And it has come in the backdrop of the recent allocation of Rs.3.5 crore by the State government for the institute’s museum project, for which the administrative nod had come only three days back,” said G B Deglurkar, president of Deccan College. The museum project will assemble archaeological and anthropological tools, EPI graphs, sculptures and coins for display.

Deccan College, spread over 120 acres, is a specialised post graduate research institute in heritage-related subjects like archeology, indology, anthropology and linguistics. Scholars like Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, R G Bhandarkar and Dwarkanath Kotnis were once students there.

The college has been working on the ambitious ‘Historical Sanskrit Dictionary’ for the last 30 years. The dictionary intends to give meaning to every Sanskrit word, along with its historical interpretations. “We have already published eight volumes of the dictionary, each comprising three parts. But there is still a lot of work to do. The grant will help boost this activity as we can pitch in for more manpower also,” said Deglurkar.