The Institute of Indian Studies
| Oude Boteringestraat 23 9712 GC Groningen |
||
| Tel | : | 050 - 363 58 19 |
| Fax | : | 050 - 363 72 63 |
| : | h.t.bakker@let.rug.nl | |
| Web | : | www.theol.rug.nl/~bakker |
The Institute of Indian Studies of the University of Groningen was founded in 1953 by Professor Dr Jacob Ensink (1921), who had succeeded Johanna E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw as lecturer in 1951. Ensink held the chair of Sanskrit, which was newly established in the Faculty of Arts in 1962, until 1983.
Earlier Sanskrit had been accommodated to one of the chairs in the Faculty of Arts. The first to teach Sanskrit in Groningen was Barend Sijmons (1881), professor of comparative linguistics and germanic languages. From 1889 to 1903 Sanskrit was taught by Jacob Samuel Speyer, professor of Latin. During his Groningen professorship Speyer published his translation of the Jatakamala and his famous Vedische und Sanskrit Syntax in the Grundriss der Indo-arischen Philologie.
In 1996 the J. Gonda Foundation of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) endowed the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen with the present chair, which is committed to The History of Hinduism in the Sanskrit Tradition and Indian Philosophy. It is held by Dr Hans T. Bakker.
Indian Studies in Groningen is committed to three faculties. Courses of Sanskrit, Sanskrit literature and Indian cultural history are given in the Faculty of Arts. Courses of the history of Indian philosophy are given in the Faculty of Philosophy and Indian religion courses (Hinduism and Buddhism) are given in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
