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 Eysinga (1839–1876, until 1867 van den Bergh only) and Ida Catharina Wilhelmina Roorda van Eysinga (1838–1911), brother of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 Benary (1807–1860). The family took the name…