Rewa Prasad Dwivedi (born 22 August 1935) is a Sanskrit scholar and poet. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit in 1991
Life and career
He was born in Nadner, on the banks of the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh, to Pandit Narmada Prasad Dwivedi and Lakshmi Devi. When has about eight years old, his parents died, and he went to Varanasi for his studies. There, he learnt Sanskrit language and literature in both the traditional and modern education systems: he obtained a Sahityacharya title and a M.A. degree in Sanskrit from Benares Hindu University. He got a PhD from Ravi Shankar University, Raipur, in 1965, and a D.Litt from Jabalpur University in 1974.
He is an emeritus professor of Sanskrit at the Banaras Hindu University, where he taught from 1977–1995, and was Dean, Faculty of Sanskrit, for three two-year terms between 1979 and 1989. He is also the founder of Kalidas Samsthan, Varanasi.
Work
His major works are the two Sanskrit epic poems Sitacaritam and Svatantryasambhavam. The first maha kavya (epic poem), Uttara Sita-charitam, composed from 1956 to 1968, is based on theRamayana and deals with the later life of Sita, but is recast to contemporary times and deals with Indian polity and patriotism. His second epic, Svatantrya-sambhavam, which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1991, portrays the Indian national freedom movement, from the time of Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi to events of post-Independence India. His other Sanskrit works includePramatah (1988, a collection of poems on the atomic age), Sri Rewa Bhadrapitham (1988, verses in praise of the river Rewa, Narmada), Shatapatram (1987, poems about poetry), and Yuthika (a four-act play)
He has also written commentaries in Hindi on works of Sanskrit poetics, as well as works of his own on poetics, such as Kavyalankarakarika (1976), Natyanusasanam (1974), and Sahityasarirakam] He has also published a Complete works of Kalidasa (1976), and produced critical editions of Ritusamhara and Raghuvamsha by Kalidasa, published by the Sahitya Akademi in 1993
Awards
He has won numerous awards:
• Certificate of Honour from the President of India, 1978.
• Four awards for Svatantryasambhava:
        • Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit, 1991
        • Kalpavalli Award by Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, Calcutta, 1993
        • Vacaspati award by K.K. Birla Foundation, New Delhi, 1997
        ;• Sriveni award by R.J. Dalmiya Sriveni Trust, Delhi, 1999
• Mahamahopadya P. V. Kane medal for poetics
• Nine awards by the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• Mitra Puraskara (twice)
• Bhojapuraskara
• Vyasapuraskara by Sanskrit Academy, Bhopal, for Complete works of Kalidasa