Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (6 April 1833 – 4 July 1917) was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H. Kern or Hendrik Kern; a few other scholars bear the same surname.
Life
Hendrik Kern was born to Dutch parents in the
In 1850, he went to Utrecht University to study Letters. In 1851, he moved to Leiden University to avail himself of the opportunity to read Sanskrit with Professor A. Rutgers. After obtaining his Doctor's Degree in 1855, he moved to Berlin, where he continued his Sanskrit studies as a pupil of Albrecht Weber, and also took up Germanic and Slavonic languages.
On his return to the Netherlands in 1858, Dr Kern accepted a post as a lecturer of Greek at
Professor Kern continued work after his retirement. When his wife died in 1916, he was heart-broken and out-lived her by less than a year.
Work
Together with Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk, Kern is regarded as one of the founding fathers of Oriental Studies in the Netherlands. His interest in languages was great, as witness his decision to take up English and Italian while still a secondary school pupil. In addition, he displayed an extraordinary ability to study, and to master, a wide variety of languages.
At first, his studies were restricted (if "restricted" is indeed the correct word) to Indo-European languages, ranging from the Germanic sub-group to
In 1874, he published an edition of the astronomer Āryabhata's work, thus putting out the first publication in Nagara script in the Netherlands.
Apart from promoting the study of
sub-group.His interests were not restricted to pure
Kern's versatility also showed itself in his cultural studies. His History of Buddhism in India (1881–83), displays a thorough command of its subject. However, the author has been criticised for an incomplete understanding of Eastern
He published extensively, and his influence on subsequent linguists, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere, has been profound.
Select bibliography
Kern's chief work is considered to be Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië (
He also critically edited the
(With two exceptions, the following publications are in Dutch. The translation of a title in quotation marks indicates that no English translation of the work has come to notice.)
- Handleiding bij het onderwijs der Nederlandse taal
- ("A Guide to the Teaching of Dutch")
- two vols, Zutphen, 1859–60, numerous reprints.
- Korte Nederlandse Spraakkunst
- ("A Concise Dutch Grammar")
- Haarlem, 1872.
- Over de schrijfwijze van eenige zamenst. in het Nederlands
- ("On the Spelling of Some Compounds in Dutch")
- Utrecht, 1858.
- Çakuntalā of het herkenningsteeken, Ind. tnsp. van Kālidāsa
- ("Çacuntalā or the Mark of Recognition: Kālidāsa's Indian Play")
- Haarlem, 1862.
- Over het aandeel van Indië en de geschiedenis van de Beschaving, en den invloed der studie van het Sanskrit op de taalwetenschap
- ("On the Share of India and the History of Civilisation, and the Influence of the Study of Sanskrit on Linguistics")
- Leiden, 1865.
- Die Glossen in der Lex Salica und die Sprache der Salischen Franken
- ("The Glosses in the Salic Lawand the Language of the Salic Franks" [written in German])
- The Hague, 1869.
- Over de jaartelling der Zdl. Buddhisten
- ("Concerning the Chronology of the Southern Buddhists")
- a publication of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 1874.
- Wŗttasançaya, Oud-Javaans leerdicht over versbouw, tekst en vert.
- ("Wŗttasançaya, an Old-Javanese Didactic Poem on Metrical Construction": Text and Translation)
- Leiden, 1875.
- Eene Indische sage in Javaansch gewaad
- ("An Indian Legend in JavaneseGuise")
- a publication of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 1876.
- Over de oudjavaanse vertaling van 't Mahābhārata
- ("On the Old-Javanese Translation of the Mahābhārata)
- a publication of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 1877.
- Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië
- ("A History of Buddhism in India")
- two vols, Haarlem, 1881–83. [Considered to be Kern's chief work.]
- Over den invloed der Indische, Arabische en Europese beschaving op de volken van den Indische Archipel
- ("On the Influence of the Civilisations on the Peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago")
- Leiden, 1883.
- Saddharma-Pundarîka, or, the Lotus of the True Law
- (First English translation of Lotus Sutra)[3]
- Oxford, 1884.
- Verklaring van eenige woorden in Pali-geschriften
- ("An Explanation of Some Words in PaliWritings")
- a publication of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 1886.
- De Fidji-taal vergeleken met hare verwanten in Indonesië en Polynesië
- Tekstuitgave van het Oud-Javaanse heldendicht Rāmāyana
- ("A Text Edition of the Old-Javanese Rāmāyana Epic")
- The Hague, 1900.
- De legende van Kunjarakarna
- ("The Legend of Kunjarakarna")
- Amsterdam, 1901.
- Taalvergelijkende verhandeling over het Aneityumsch, met een Aanhangsel over het Klankstelsel van het Eromanga [sic]
- ("A Comparative Treatise of Aneityum: With an Appendix on the Sound System of Erromanga")
- Amsterdam, 1906.
- Hendrik Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, 's-Gravenhage, M. Nijhoff, 15 v., 1913–28.
- Numerous contributions to Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkundeand other learned journals.
References
- ^ "J.H.C. Kern (1833–1917)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ The Lotus Sutra Index at www.sacred-texts.com
Further reading
- Silk, Jonathan (2012). Kern and the Study of Indian Buddhism: With a Speculative Note on the Ceylonese Dhammarucikas. Journal of the Pali Text Society 31, 125–154.
- Thomas, F. W.; Vogel, J. Ph.; Blagden, C. O. (January 1918). Hendrik Kern, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 173–184 – via JSTOR (subscription required)
- Vetter, Tilmann (1999). Hendrik Kern and the Lotus Sutra, Annual Report of The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University for the year 1998, pp. 129–142
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kern, Jan Hendrik". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 757. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the