Ludo Rocher

Ludo Rocher (1926-2016) was an eminent Sanskrit scholar, and the W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.^[1]

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 taught Sanskrit and comparative philology at the University of Brussels from 1956 to 1966.^[2] Dr. Rocher directed the Center for Study of South and Southeast Asia at the University of Brussels from 1961-67.^[3]

Upon the invitation of Prof. W. Norman Brown, Prof. 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).^[4]

A past president of the American Oriental Society,^[5] 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.^[6] He lived in Philadelphia with his wife Rosane Rocher, till his death in 2016 at the age of 90.^[7]

Ludo Rocher has authored nearly 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

• Founders of Western Indology : August Wilhelm Von Schlegel and Henry Thomas Colebrooke in Correspondence 1820-1837, co-authored with Rosane Rocher, (Weisbaden : Otto Harrassowitz, 2013).
• Studies in Hindu law and Dharmaśāstra, with a foreword by Donald R. Davis, (London ; New York : Anthem Press, 2012). ISBN 978-1783083152
• The making of western Indology : Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Company, co-authored with Rosane Rocher, (Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2012). ISBN 0415336015
• Jīmūtavāhana's Dāyabhāga : the Hindu law of inheritance in Bengal (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2002). ISBN 978-0195138177
• Studies in Indian literature and philosophy : collected articles of J.A.B. van Buitenen (Delhi : American Institute of Indian Studies : Motilal Banarsidass, 1988).
• The Purāṇas (Weisbaden : O. Harrassowitz, 1986).
• Ezourvedam : a French Veda of the eighteenth century (Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1984). ISBN 978-0915027064 ISBN 0915027062
• Dissertation on the Sanskrit language by Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo : with an introductory article, a complete English translation, and an index of sources,(Amsterdam : Benjamins, 1977).
• Smṛticintāmaṇi of Gaṅgāditya (Baroda : Oriental Institute, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1976).
• Le problème linguistique en Inde (Bruxelles : Académie royale des sciences d'ourte-mer, 1968).
• Droit hindou ancien (Bruxelles : Éditions de l'Institut de sociologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1965).
• The theory of proof in ancient Hindu law (Bruxelles : Les Editions de la Libraries Encyclopedique, 1964).
• De Katha-Upanishad (Antwerpen : Uitg. s.m. Ontwikkeling, 1964).
• Leerboek van het moderne Hindi. Manual of Modern Hindi (Gent : University, 1958).
• Preemtsjand: Novellen. Uit het Hindie vertaald [Stories of Premchand, translated from Hindi into Dutch] (Antwerpen: De Nederlandse Boekhandel, 1958).
• Vācaspati Miśra : Vyavahāracintāmaṇi. A Digest on Legal Procedure (Gent: University, 1956).

Festschrift

• Festschrift for Professor Ludo Rocher (editors Richard W. Lariviere and Richard Salomon), (Madras : Adyar Library and Research Centre, The Theosophical Society, 1987).

Legacy

His notable students include,

• Prof. Rosane D. Rocher (University of Pennsylvania),^[8]
• Prof. Madhav Deshpande (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor),^[9]
• Prof. Robert P. Goldman (University of California, Berkeley),^[10]
• Prof. Richard G. Salomon (University of Washington),^[11]
• Prof. J. Patrick Olivelle (University of Texas),^[12]
• Dr. Richard W. Lariviere (President, The Field Museum, Chicago),^[13]
• Prof. Mitchell G. Weiss (University of Basel),^[14]
• Prof. Frederick M. Smith (University of Iowa),^[15]
• Prof. Xinru Liu (Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences),^[16]
• Prof. Signe M. Cohen (University of Missouri).^[17]

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."

References