Pandurang Vaman Kane (kɑːnɛ KAANAY; 7 May 1880[3] – 18 April 1972[4]) was an Indian academic, historian, lawyer, Indologist, and Sanskrit scholar.

[1] Kane initially studied and taught Sanskrit, but later obtained degrees in law and practiced before the Bombay High Court.

[5][7] The historian Ram Sharan Sharma says: "Pandurang Vaman Kane, a great Sanskritist wedded to social reform, continued the earlier tradition of scholarship.

His monumental work entitled the "History of the Dharmasastra", published in five volumes in the twentieth century, is an encyclopedia of ancient social laws and customs.

His paternal family belonged to a priestly caste, however, his father, Vamanrao Kane,[12] was a pleader and a taluka lawyer.

[18] The whole treatise encompasses 6,500 pages, and provides an authoritative and encyclopedic treatment of the religious and civil law of ancient and medieval India.

Dr. Kane was rewarded as Mahamahopadhyaya (Etymology: Maha+Maha+Upadhyay = The greatest among the great teachers), usually shortened to MM as a prefix in the writings that refer to him.

One such issue that cropped up during Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was whether ancient Indians ate beef and both the groups quoted extensively from Kane's work to support their viewpoint.

Another such issue was whether the girls in the ancient times had the right to wear the yajnopavita (sacred thread), as the upanayana ceremony was restricted only to the men in the recent past.

Kane Gold Medal is given once every three years to a scholar for outstanding contribution to the study of Vedic, Dharmashastra or Alankara Literature.