- Ernest Bender
Ernest Bender (
January 2 ,1919 –April 18 ,1996 ) was a Professor ofIndo-Aryan language s and literature at theUniversity of Pennsylvania .Bender was born in
Buenos Aires ,Argentina , onJanuary 2 ,1919 , before moving toPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania when he was aged four. He was admitted into the selective Greek andLatin program of Boys High School (Central High School), and graduated in 1937. Bender undertook his undergraduate studies atTemple University where he continued his studies inclassics , firmly entrenching his lifelong interest inphilology and cultural history. Upoon earning his B.A. in 1941, Bender became a graduate student in the Oriental Studies Department of theUniversity of Pennsylvania . There he became acquainted with the three teachers who influenced him the most:W. Norman Brown inIndology , andZellig Harris andHenry Hoenigswald inlinguistics . Through Brown, Bender pursued a career in Indology, specializing in medievalJainism and its associated literature and art.Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan in the wake of the
attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Bender was drafted into theUnited States Air Force , but was discharged from active duty due to medical reasons. Due to his talent and background in classical languages, Bender was given a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to studyHindi andUrdu at theAsia Society inNew York City . He then returned to Philadelphia, serving from 1943 to 1944 as an instructor of Hindi and Urdu in the Army Specialized Training Program. From 1944 until 1946, Bender coordinated the Army Specialized Training Program in Japanese. At the same time, Bender was awarded two consecutive Harrison fellowships at Pennsylvania for the study ofSanskrit . While studying Indology, Bender continued working with Harris on linguistics, coauthoring two articles on theCherokee language . An unpublished manuscript of Cherokee texts, complete with translations and grammatical analysis is stored in the Boas Collection in the Library of theAmerican Philosophical Society .Bender was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship from 1947 to 1948, visiting
India ,Pakistan , andSri Lanka . He was voracious photographer, copying many medieval manuscripts. His prolific archive of Jain materials was derived from this period. The Rockefeller grant also gave him the opportunity to work on the grammar of theSinhalese language .Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed to the newly created South Asia Regional Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He became an assistant professor in 1950, in a joint appointment with the Oriental Studies Department. From 1955 to 1956, he returned to India and Sri Lanka on a Guggenheim fellowship to research the Old
Gujarati language . It was during this trip that he developed his grammars for Hindi and Urdu. He was elevated to associate professor with tenure in 1958, and became a professor in 1967.In 1958, Bender began a three decade editorial relationship with the
American Oriental Society ; he began as associate editor and became the chief editor in 1964, a post he held until 1988. He served as the president of the AOS from 1993 to 1994. He served as the vice-president of theInternational Association of Sanskrit Studies , and convened the 6th World Sanskrit Conference in Philadelphia in 1984. He was a member of many scholarly societies beyond those in America, including the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; the L.D. Institute of Indology inAhmedabad ; the Asiatic Society of Bengal; the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune; and the Oriental Institute inBaroda .Bender had a pivotal role in developing teaching methods for
Indian subcontinent al languages in the American graduate studies framework. During the World War II era and its immediate aftermath, when the discipline of linguistics began to gain acceptance, Bender participated in formulating teaching techniques for South Asian languages in the military system,US State Department staff, as well as graduate students. He authored ten monographs on linguistic or literary topics concerning Indian languages, and several articles, including art historical topics. He published grammars of Hindi, Urdu andBengali language and completed, but did not publish grammars for Gujarati and Sinhalese. In 1992, he published a critical edition and translation of theSalibhadra-Dhanna-Carita , a medieval Jain didactic story composed in Old Gujarati. After retiring in 1989, he spent significant time compiling an etymological glossary of Old Gujarati. He died at his home,Newtown Square , Pennsylvania, onApril 18 ,1996 of aheart attack , aged 77 years old.References
*cite journal|first= Richard J. |last=Cohen|year=1996 |month=August |title=Obituary: Ernest Bender (1919-1996) |journal=
Journal of Asian Studies |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=pp. 802–803 |accessdate= 2007-11-07
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