BERGH VAN EYSINGA, Gustaaf Adolf van den. ’s-Gravenhage 27.6.1874 — Bloemendaal, North Holland 26.5.1957. Dutch Protestant Theologian and Scholar of Comparative Religion. Son of ajunctcommies Marie Henri Philip van den Bergh van E. (until 1867 van den Bergh only) and Ida Catharina Wilhelmina Roorda van Eysinga, brother of theologian Henri…
BERGAIGNE, Abel-Henri-Joseph. Vimy (Pas-de-Calais) 31.8.1838 — La Grave (Hautes Alpes) 6.8.1888. French Indologist. Professor in Paris. Son of a registrar, Sylvain Bergaigne (1795–1855), and Joséphine Césarine Aubron, educated in Amiens. He abandoned the financial career planned by his father and went in 1864 to Paris in order to study IE…
BERG, Cornelis Christian. Rotterdam-West 18.12.1900 — Leiden 25.6.1990. Dutch South-East Asian Scholar. Professor in Leiden. After school in Schiedam from 1919 studies of Arabic, Sanskrit and Javanese at Leiden. Cand. 1922, Master 1925, Dr. 1927 (under Hazeu and Krom). After two years as teacher in Indonesia (Solo and Yogyakarta), from…
BEREZOVSKIJ, Mihail Mihajlovič. 1848 — St.Petersburg 5.4.1912. Russian Ornithologist, Ethnographer and Traveller in Central Asia. Born in a noble family, school in St.Petersburg. As young man involved in radical politics, but escaped punishments. Studied zoology at St.Petersburg. From 1876 repeatedly with Potanin in Mongolia, starting as zoologist and botanist, but…
BENVENISTE, Émile (born Ezra B.). Aleppo, Syria 25.2. or 27.4.1902 — Versailles 3.10.1976. French Iranian scholar and Linguist. Professor in Paris, naturalized as Frenchman in 1924. Son of Mathieu (Mathatias) Benveniste, of a well known Sephardim family of Turkey (originally of Spain), and Marie Malkenson, both teachers. Educated privately, in…
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 (Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya Thera). London 8.12.1872 — London 9.3.1923. British Bauddha. Son of an engineer, lost early his father. He grew up in a strictly Roman Catholic home, but left church in his teens. Educated in Bath. Studied science (analytical chemistry), suffered of constant sickness. Became…
BÉNISTI (Monié-Bénisti, also Bénisti-Monié, 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…
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 Isaak Benfey (1763–1832), a merchant and Talmud scholar, who also taught Hebrew to his son, and Caroline Salomon (1774–1838). School and from 1824 studies in Göttingen…