Sastry

Sastry is a surname commonly found among Indian families and, less often, a given name. It is a transliteration of the Sanskrit honorific Shastri, traditionally awarded to scholars and teachers who study the shastras, the canonical texts of Hindu philosophy, law, grammar and astronomy.

Etymology and variants: The term Shastri derives from shastra, meaning a treatise or science, with the suffix -tri indicating a learned person. Variants in spelling and pronunciation include Sastry, Sastri, Shastri, Shastri, and Shastr i, reflecting transliteration across languages. The spelling Sastry is particularly common in Telugu-speaking communities, while other forms appear in Kannada, Tamil and Marathi-speaking populations.

Usage and distribution: The name is most common among Brahmin communities in South India, especially in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with presence in neighboring states and within the Indian diaspora. As a surname, Sastry often signals ancestral association with scholarly or priestly roles, though in contemporary usage it is carried as a family name irrespective of current occupation.

Notable bearers and references: Individuals with the surname have contributed across fields such as academia, government, and the arts, illustrating the broader adoption of the name beyond its traditional scholarly origins.

See also: Shastri; Sastri; Shastr i (disambiguation).