BENTLEY, John. 1756? — Calcutta 4.3.1823 (when 67). British Mathematician and Astronomer. Spent long time in India. While severely criticizing the supposed high antiquity of Indian astronomy, he took himself the other extreme, dating e.g. Varāhamihira around 1000 A.D. His reasons were partly religious as high dates were not in…
BENNETT, Charles Henry Allan (Ananda Metteyya Thera). London 8.12.1872 — London 9.3.1923. British Bauddha. Son of an engineer, lost early his father, educated in Bath. Studied science (analytical chemistry). Became interested in Buddhism in 1890 after reading Arnold’s The Light of Asia. In 1898 arrived in Ceylon in order to…
BÉNISTI (Monié-Bénisti, née Sarfati), Mireille. Algier 10.10.1909 — 11.12. 1993. French Art Historian (Buddhist and Khmer Art). Born in Algeria came early to Paris. Suffered of ill health, but in November 1943 she joined the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationale in Algier, and worked after the war in Ministère…
BENIGNY, Gyula (Julius). 1890 — 1966. Hungarian IE Linguist. Ph.D. Teacher at Debrecen Calvinist Lyceum, from 1917 Docent of IE studies at Debrecen University, in 1932-49 eo. Ptofessor. Mainly lectured on Latin. Publications: “Die Namen der Eltern im Indoiranischen und im Gotischen”, KZ 48, 1918, 230-236; “Zur einleitenden Konjunktion vor…
BENFEY, Theodor. Nörten bei Göttingen 28.1.1809 — Göttingen 26.6.1881. German Indologist and IE Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Born in a Jewish family, son of Isaac B., a merchant and Talmud scholar, who also taught Hebrew to his son. School and studies (1824–) in Göttingen and Munich, mostly classical philology (K.…
BENDER, Harold Herman. Martinsburg, W.Va. 20.4.1882 — Princeton 15.8.1951. U.S. IE, Indo-Iranian, and Lithuanian Scholar. Professor in Princeton. Born in an old American family, son of Lewis B. and Margaret Eleanore Kline. A.B. 1903 Lafayette College, then studied Sanskrit and IE at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore (under Bloomfield). Ph.D. 1907…
BENDER, Ernest. Buenos Aires 2.1.1919 — Philadelphia 18.4.1996. U.S. Indologist. Professor in Philadelphia. Born in Argentina as U.S. citizen, came to Philadelphia in the age of four. Educated there, began studies of classics at Temple University (A.B. 1941). From 1941 PG studies at University of Pennsylvania in Indology (W. N.…
BENDALL, Cecil. London 1.7.1856 — Liverpool 14.3.1906. British Indologist, a Specialist of Buddhist Mahāyāna Literature in Sanskrit. Professor in Cambridge. Son of London tradesman Robert Smith B. and Elizabeth Kay. Attended the City of London School, together with Stevenson (?) and Webster, learnt Sanskrit from Nicholl. In 1875 began study…
BENARY, Franz Simon Ferdinand. Kassel 22.3.1805 — Berlin 7.2.1880. German Indologist and Orientalist. Professor in Berlin. Born in Kassel in a Jewish family, as a son of the banker Salmon Levy (1770-1828; from 1818 Benary) and Gutheil Meilert (1778-1833), brother of —> Agathon B., himself took Christianity in 1829. From…
BENARY, Karl Albert Agathon. Kassel 17.1.1807 — Berlin 6.12.1860. German Classical and IE scholar. Teacher in Berlin. Born in Kassel as a son of the banker Salmon Levy (1770-1828; from 1818 Benary) and Gutheil Meilert (1778-1833), brother of —> Ferdinand B. After school in Göttingen and Erfurt he studied in…