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Professor D.D. Sharma (b. 1928), a renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Linguistics, served Panjab University, Chandigarh for nearly 28 years. He obtained Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the Benaras Hindu University in 1958 and later on Ph.D. and D. Litt. In Linguistics from the Panjab University, Chandigarh, besides the highest Oriental title, viz., Sahityacharya (Varanasi) and Diploma in French, German and Persian. Professor Sharma is well acquainted with nearly two dozen Indian and foreign languages and has to his credit 30 research volumes and scores of research papers on the subjects of languages, culture and literature, published in research journals of national and international repute. In Linguistics he has made substantial contribution in the fields of descriptive, historical, comparative, contrastive linguistics, sociolinguistics and semantics. It was in recognition of his contribution to Linguistics that he was awarded the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1984-86) to undertake the linguistic survey of the Himalayan languages from Ladakh to Bhutan. In the field of Sanskrit language and literature too his contribution is equally substantial. His research work on Kalidasa bagged him an award from the Sanskrit Academi, Unttar Pradesh and was awarded ‘All India Vidvat Samman’ by the Gyan Kalyan Datavya Nyas, Delhi in 1998, and Sanskrit Vidvat Samman by Sampurnanad Sanskrit University, Varanasi (1999), Millennium Sanskrit Samman by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (Govt. of India) and H.R.D. Ministry (2001) and Certificate of Honour by the President of India (2001). On his retirement from the Panjab University in May 1989 he was awarded Emiritus Fellowship by the U.G.C. for the completion of his 12 volume research project on Himalayan languages, of which 9 volumes have already appeared. Currently, he is actively engaged in the completion of the remaining volume of the above mentioned project and is also working on an 8 – volume project on ‘Socio-Cultural History of Uttarakhand’ and ‘Cultural Encyclopaedia of Uttarakhand’ for which he has been awarded Indira Gandhi Memorial Fellowship (2001-03).