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 (an Ashkenazi from Lithuania), both…
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 engineer Samuel Bennett and Charlotte Corbyn, 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…
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. 1912 Budapest (diss. on Latin accent). Teacher at Debrecen Calvinist Lyceum, from 1917 Docent of IE studies at Debrecen University, in 1932-49 eo. Professor. Mainly lectured on Latin. Publications: “Die Namen der Eltern im Indoiranischen und im Gotischen”, KZ 48,…
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…
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 Isaac Lewis Bender (1850–1908) and Margaret (Maggie) Eleanore Kline (1852–1940). A.B. 1903 Lafayette College, then studied Sanskrit and IE at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore…
BENDER, Ernest. Buenos Aires 2.1.1919 — Newton Square, co. Delaware, PA 18.4.1996. U.S. Indologist. Professor in Philadelphia. Born in Argentina as U.S. citizen, son of Morris A. Bender (1887–1951) and his wife Celia, came to Philadelphia in the age of four. Educated there, began studies of classics at Temple University…
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 Bendall (1812–1865) and Elizabeth Kay Holmes (1818–1897). Attended the City of London School, together with Stevenson (?) and Webster, learnt Sanskrit from Nicholl. In…