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…
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…
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…
BELLONI-FILIPPI, Ferdinando. Buti near Pisa 7/17.7.1877 — Florence 24.1. 1960. Italian Indologist. Professor in Florence and Pisa. A student of Pullé and Formichi, graduated in 1901 at Pisa. From 1904 libera docenza in filologia sanscrita at Pisa, taught there 1905-09. In 1909 further studies of German and Sanskrit (Jacobi) at…
BECKH, Christoph Eugen Hermann. Nürnberg 4.5.1875 — Stuttgart 1.3.1937. German Indologist and Tibetan Scholar, later turned into Anthroposophist Priest. Son of a factory owner, Eugen Beckh, and Marie Seiler, studied economy and law at the Maximilianeum of Munich until 1896 and worked as assessor, but was soon frustrated with law…
BEAL, Samuel. Devonport 27.11.1825 — Greens Norton, Northamptonshire 20.8.1889. British Priest, Sinologist and Buddhist Scholar. Although a priest, he was no missionary like most Sinologists of his time especially in the U.K. Son of the Rev. William Beal (d. 1872), a Wesleyan minister. Educated at Kingswood and Devonport schools and…
BAYNES, Herbert Morton Walker. Kensington, Middlesex / Bayswater, Westminster 2.2.1855 — Cumberland / Manly, both in NSW, Australia 1.9.1928. British Scholar of Indian Religions, a Theosophist. In peoplepill briefly called “British Civil Servant and Orientalist”, and werelate.org adds “Translator in the High Court in London. Was fluent in 22 languages”.…
BASTIAN, Philipp Wilhelm Adolf. Bremen 26.6.1826 — Port-of-Spain, Trinidad 2.2.1905. Catholic German Anthropologist, Psychologist, and Traveller, a pioneer of South-east Asian studies. Born in a merchant family, son of Hermann Theodor Bassus (1796–1866) and Auguste Krafft. Studied biology and medicine at Berlin, Jena, Würzburg (under Virchow) and Prague (dr. med.…
BARUCH, Willy. Herford, Kr. Detmold 1900 — Montfavet, Avignon ?.3.1954. German Indologist, Sinologist, Tibetan, Buddhist and Central Asian Scholar. Born of a Jewish family in Westfalen. Studies at Berlin and Leipzig, student of Lüders and F. Weller, then of Kirfel at Bonn. Ph.D. 1937 Bonn. Leaving Germany he was living…