KSDSU was established in 1961, with the scholar Umesh Mishra as its first Vice-Chancellor. The then Education Minister of unified Bihar, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, announced the instigation of the university. Kameshwar Singh donated his ancestral Anand Bagh Palace to the government of Bihar as a university for the promotion of Sanskrit. Currently, this palace is the head office of the university.

It has held one awareness campaign. Sanskrit scholar and poet Ram Karan Sharma was the vice chancellor from 1974 to 1980