The work of Shukla traces the genesis of Hindi poetry and prose since the 6th century and its development through Buddhist and Nath schools and the medieval contributions of Amir Khusro, Kabirdas, Ravidas, Tulsidas, stretching to the modern realism of Nirala and Premchand.

In developing a scientific methodology to investigate the literary works of several centuries as creations of socio-economic and political conditions of the respective era, Acharya Shukla became a pathbreaker.

He started his work in the world of letters with a poem and an article Prachin Bharatiyoin Ka Pahirava in Hindi and by writing in English his first published essay at the age of 17—What Has India to do.

Acharya Shukla taught at Banaras Hindu University Varanasi and chaired its department of Hindi during Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya's period from 1937 until he died (1941).

His collection of original poems Madhushrota includes his adolescent hunger for hills, rocks, waterfalls, crops and birds, and images of his childhood sphere.

Its first secretary, Kusum Chaturvedi, published a regular journal Naya Mandand which established a reputation for its special numbers on women, postmodernism, Dalit Sahitya, among others.