Books Studies in Hindu Law and Dhar, The Making of Western I, Jimutavahana's Dayabhaga, Ezourvedam, Founders of Western Indology |
Ludo Rocher (1926-2016) was an eminent Sanskrit scholar, and the W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Biography
Prof. Rocher was born in Belgium on 25 April 1926 (U.S. citizen, 1972), and he earned his J.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Ghent. He received his MA summa cum laude in classics with a minor in Sanskrit at the University of Ghent in 1948 and his PhD, again summa cum laude, in 1952 from the same institution, where his principal teacher was Adriaan Scharpé. He also studied in the Netherlands with Jan Gonda and Barend Faddegon, and with Paṇḍit T.S. Śrīnivāsa Śāstrī during his stay at the Deccan College (Pune) between 1953 and 1955. After achieving his Habilitation in 1956, he served as professor of Comparative Philology and Sanskrit at the University of Brussels from 1959 to 1966. Dr. Rocher directed the Center for Study of South and Southeast Asia at the University of Brussels from 1961-67.
Upon the invitation of Prof. W. Norman Brown, Dr. Rocher then moved to Philadelphia, where he was appointed as a Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1966 to 2002, with interruptions, he was the Chair of the Department of Oriental Studies (renamed Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in 1991).
A past president of the American Oriental Society, Dr. Rocher was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society and of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences (Belgium), and a Fellow of the Asiatic Society (Calcutta) where he has frequently conducted research. He lived in Philadelphia with his wife Rosane Rocher, till his death in 2016 at the age of 90.
Ludo Rocher authored over twenty books and innumerable articles on Sanskrit legal and other branches of literature. Dr. Ludo Rocher and Dr. Rosane Rocher were jointly awarded the 2015 prize of the Fondation Colette Caillat of the Institut de France "for their latest two joint books, The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company (2012) and Founders of Western Indology: August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Henry Thomas Colebrooke 1820–1837 (2013), and for their lifelong, signal contributions to Sanskrit studies and the history of Indology."
Select bibliography
Legacy
His notable students include,
Awards
Dr. Ludo Rocher and Dr. Rosane Rocher were jointly awarded the 2015 prize of the Fondation Colette Caillat of the Institut de France "for their latest two joint books, The Making of Western Indology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company (2012) and Founders of Western Indology: August Wilhelm von Schlegel and Henry Thomas Colebrooke 1820–1837 (2013), and for their lifelong, signal contributions to Sanskrit studies and the history of Indology."