The Sanskrit College and University in Kolkata is a state public university built upon one of India’s oldest centres of Sanskrit and oriental learning. Sanskrit College began its journey in 1824 during the Bengal Presidency and developed into an influential institution for the study of Sanskrit literature, grammar, philosophy, Hindu law, ancient Indian history, Pali, Prakrit, and related traditions. Its intellectual history is closely associated with major scholars and reformers, most notably Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who became Principal in 1851 and played a central role in modernizing the institution and widening its educational outlook. The present university was created when the Government of West Bengal transformed Sanskrit College through West Bengal Act XXXIII of 2015. The university became functional on 15 June 2016 with Professor Dilipkumar Mohanta as its first Vice-Chancellor. It retains the historic Kolkata campus at 1, Bankim Chatterjee Street while extending its responsibilities beyond the older college model. Academic departments include Sanskrit, Pali, Philosophy, Linguistics, Bengali, English, Ancient Indian and World History, and Traditional Oriental Learning. The TOL framework preserves specialized study in fields such as Advaita Vedanta, Panini Vyakarana, and Sahitya. The institution’s distinctive strength is the coexistence of classical scholarship and modern humanities. Its library and manuscript traditions support research in Indian intellectual history, philology, philosophy, and textual studies, while contemporary departments create links with language, history, and comparative humanistic inquiry. The university marked two centuries of its institutional heritage in 2024, connecting its nineteenth-century role in the Bengal Renaissance with its current statutory mission. For students and researchers, it offers an unusual academic environment where traditional Sanskrit learning, archival resources, and modern university methods operate within the same institution. Its Nabadwip-related traditional learning activities further connect the modern university with Bengal’s historic Sanskrit pedagogy, extending classical scholarship beyond the main Kolkata campus and preserving living intellectual traditions.