Sanskrit is the most ancient and perfect among the languages of the world. Its storehouse of knowledge is an unsurpassed and the most invaluable treasure of the world. This language is a symbol of the peculiar India tradition and thought, which has exhibited full freedom in the search of truth, has shown complete tolerance towards spiritual and other king of experiences of mankind, and has shown catholicity towards universal truth. This language contains not a rich fund of knowledge its international significance and to keep intact traditional scholarship and to strike a compromise between India and western outlooks and to conduct research and study the various aspects of culture and spiritual literature, this university was founded on 22 March, 1958 by the then Chief Minister Dr. Sampurnanand and Education Minister Pt. Kamalapati Tripathi at Varanasi, the oldest cultural city of India, with the name of `Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya', Dr. A.N. Jha is its first vice-chancellor. It was renamed as Sampurnanand Sanskrit University under the U.P. State University Act, 1973, w.e.f.16th Dec. 1974.

The University has since been proceeding along the set path of the programme while trying to achieve its goal. If its former shape "Govt. sanskrit College" is included it has an excellent history of about 205 years.