Pakistani botanist. Kashyap served as Professor of Botany at the University of Panjab, Lahore, from 1919. He was especially interested in hepatics and authored the series "Morphological and Biological Notes on New and Little Known West-Himalayan Liverworts" in the New Phytologist (1914-1915) and a two-part work on the liverworts of the Western Himalayas and the Panjab Plain (1929-1932). He was also the author of the 1936 Lahore District Flora, which was revised and completed by his former assistant, Amar Chand Joshi. A great explorer and collector, Kashyap's specimens from the Himalayan region are particularly rich.
Kahsyap was born in Jhelum and attended Panjab University before studying medicine at Agra, receiving his Medical Diploma in 1904. During this time he continued his scientific studies at Panjab University. After serving for two years in the Medical Service of the United Provinces, he achieved his BSc from Panjab University, following which he resigned from the Medical Service and joined Government College, Lahore, as Professor of Biology. He continued on to gain his MSc in botany in 1909 and the next year entered Cambridge University in England, where he took his Honours degree in the Natural Science Tripos. Returning home in 1912 he was appointed Professor of Botany at the Government College, Lahore, and when the Honours School in Botany was organised at Panjab University in 1919, became Professor of Botany there. He remained at this university for the rest of his days, which conferred on him an honorary DSc in the year before his death.
Kashyap was the first secretary of the Indian Botanical Society, founded in 1920, and later its president. As well as his interest in liverworts, his work on the sexual generation of Equisetum and the flora of Tibet was particularly noted. Despite falling very ill on one of his forays in the Himalayas, he was undeterred and returned many times before his heart began to give him trouble. He died suddenly of heart failure in 1934. The genus Kashyapia R.S.Chopra was named in his honour.
Sources:
Bharadwaja, 1934, Journal of the Indian Botanical Society, 13(4): 311-314
H. Chaudhuri, 1934, Current Science, 3(6): 245-248
H. Chaudhuri, 1937, "Obituary Notice. Rai Bahadur Dr. Shiv Ram Kashyap (1882-1934)", Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Section B, Biological sciences 5(6): 333-337.