Dictionary of Indian Biography/Kern, John Henry Caspar
KERN, JOHN HENRY CASPAR (1833–)
Born April 6, 1833, in Java : son of a Major in the Dutch Indian Army : to Holland, when seven years old : educated at Utrecht and Leiden : studied Sanskrit and Classical Philology : Litter. Doct., 1855 : studied Sanskrit under A. Weber at Berlin : appointed Professor of Greek in the Athenaeum at Maestricht, 1858 : studied in London from 1862 : Sanskrit Professor at Queen's College, Benares, 1863–65 : held the same position at Leiden University, 1865–1903 : great linguist and scholar : noted for his researches into the ancient civilization of India, and of the East Indian archipelago : his chief works on Indian subjects are—his Dutch translation of Kalidas' drama Sdkuntala, 1862; text of Brhat-Samhita by Varaha-Mihira, 1865, followed by English translation, 1870; History of Indian Buddhism in Dutch, 1881, translated into German by Jacobi : English translation of the Saddharma-Pundarika (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxi), 1884 : Manual of Indian Buddhism, 1896, etc. : collaborated in the great Sanskrit Dictionary with Bohtlingk and Roth : Hon. M.R.A.S. : Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam; and of many other learned Societies of different countries.