The department of Sanskrit is the first and oldest department of the College. It was an outgrowth of the Sanskrit School ‘SaraswathodyothiniSamskrithaPathasala’ founded by the celebrated Sanskrit scholar, PunnasseriNambiSreeNeelakanta Sharma in 1889. Neelakanta Sharma blazed a new path in Sanskrit education and revolted against the orthodox concepts that defined the social fabric and cultural coventions of Kerala. He imparted Sanskrit Education to all irrespective of caste, creed and religion. ‘SaraswathodyothiniSamskrithaPathasala’ was upgraded as a college and the University of Madras granted affiliation to it in 1911. When the school was elevated to the status of a college with the new name Central Sanskrit College, it automatically became a department imparting training for ‘Vidwan‘ andSiromani’ titles, roughly equivalent to present Graduate course. The Sanskrit Vidwan course was later re-designed as three year undergraduate program in 1966. Two year post graduate program was intoduced in 1968. The University of Calicut recognized the department as a research center in 1979.The Sanskrit Sahitya Honors Four-Year Undergraduate Program has been running since 2024.