Homogeneously europium doped yttrium oxide and oxysulfide has been prepared from its nitrates directly using fuels like urea-ODH (oxalyldihydrazide) and thiourea respectively, employing self-propagating high temperature synthesis techniques. The material synthesized has been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, photoluminescent emission spectroscopy. The results indicate that the phase pure europium doped yttrium oxide and oxy sulfide can be obtained at very low temperature in the range of 250-500℃ in short time. The as formed products were sintered with and without flux (alkali fluorides). PL intensity of the phosphor with the flux was higher than that of the phosphor without the flux.