Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Hindi: ???? ?????? ?????????????, is a Central university (Central University, India), located in Varanasi, India, which is also the largest residential university in Asia, with over 12,000 students living on its campus. BHU was founded in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and under the Parliamentary legislation, B.H.U. Act 1915 .

The campus spread over 2760 acre (5.5 km�) campus was built on land donated by then Kashi Naresh (Kingdom of Kashi). It has 140 teaching departments and more than 55 hostels for boys and girls. The total enrollment in the University stands at just over 15000, including students from all over India and abroad. Several of its colleges, including engineering (IT-BHU (Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University)), science, linguistics, law and medicine (IMS-BHU), Faculty of Management Studies (Faculty of Management Studies, BHU), are ranked amongst the best in India., out of these IT-BHU is set to become Indias 16th IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology), IIT-Varanasi from the academic session 2010 . BHU is ranked as the second best university in the field of research after Delhi University..