A transparent uniaxial sodium sulfanilate dihydrate (SSDH) single crystal having dimension of 30 mm diameter and 100 mm length was grown by Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method with a growth rate of 1 mm per day. Using an identical solution the conventional crystal grown to a dimension of 12 mm x 20 mm x 5 mm was obtained over a period of 20 days. The crystal structure has been confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. The crystalline perfection of sodium sulfanilate dihydrate crystals grown by slow evaporation solution technique (SEST) and SR method were characterized using chemical etching, laser damage threshold, Vickers microhardness, UV-vis NIR, birefringence and dielectric analysis. The above study indicates that the crystal quality of the Sankaranarayanan-Ramasamy (SR) method grown sodium sulfanilate dihydrate is good compared to conventional solution method grown SSDH crystal. The growth features of inclusions, low angle grain boundaries, twins and micro-cracks have been observed in conventional method grown SSDH crystals. The dielectric tensor components for unidirectional method grown sodium sulfanilate dihydrate single crystal were evaluated as a function of temperature at 100 Hz frequency. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.