भारतीकृष्णतीर्थः

Venkataramana Shastri was born on 14 March 1884 to an orthodox Tamil Brahmin family. According to his own testimonials, Sanskrit and oratory were his favorite subjects. Due to his knowledge of the language, he was conferred the title “Saraswati” at the age of 16 by the Madras Sanskrit Association in July 1899. Venkataraman worked under Gopal Krishna Gokhale in 1905 for the National Education Movement and the South African Indian problems.

He was a head of the chemistry department and later the principal of The National College, Rajahmundry. The revolutionary and anti-government activities of Venkataramana resulted in an arrest warrant issued against him by the British government. To avoid arrest Venkataramana had become incognito and stayed with Sitarama shastri. He later became the head of the śaṅkara-maṭha in Puri as Bharati Krishna Tirtha.