Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern

Hendrik Kern

Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (born April 6, 1833 in Purworedjo on the island of Java , † July 4, 1917 in Utrecht ) was a Dutch Sanskritist, Indologist and Orientalist .

Life

Hendrik Kern was born in Java in 1833 to Dutch parents. His father was the officer Johann Hendrik Kern (* April 14, 1799 in Groningen, † July 25, 1863 in Groenlo) and his mother Maria Conradina von Schindler (* around 1803 in Vierlingsbeek, † March 20, 1894 in Groenlo). Kern spent the first six years of his life in Java, where his father was last commandant in Makassar. In 1839 he returned to the Netherlands for health reasons and settled in Doesburg in 1840 and in Groenlo in 1843 . Kern attended Latin school there. In 1849 he attended high school in Zutphen and, after passing his university exams, began studying at the University of Utrecht on September 19, 1850 to study languages ​​and literature. After passing the basic exams, he moved to the University of Leiden . Here he studied Sanskrit with Antonie Rutgers , Greek with Carel Gabriel Cobet and Matthias de Vries . On October 12, 1855 he received his doctorate under Rutgers with the treatise Specimen historicum exhibens scriptores Graecos de rebus Persicis Achaemenidarum monumentis collatos to the doctorate of philosophy.

In order to deepen his studies he went to Berlin, where he heard Sanskrit with Albrecht Weber , and also completed German and Slavic language studies. After he had completed a thesis on Indian astronomy (Brhat-samhita von Varahamihira ), he began in 1857 to provide contributions to the great St. Petersburg Sanskrit dictionary by Böhtlingk and Roth . In the same year he returned to Utrecht, where he held lectures on Gothic and Dutch as a private lecturer. In 1858 he got a position as a teacher of Greek at the Athenaeum in Maastricht , but gave it up in 1862 to devote himself to researching the local Sanskrit manuscripts in London. Here he made the acquaintance of Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899) and received through the mediation of Theodor Goldstückers and Friedrich Max Müller the Anglo-Sanskrit professorship at Benares College in the British East Indies, which he held until 1865.

On June 2, 1865, he was appointed professor of Sanskrit and comparative language studies at the University of Leiden. He began this task on October 18, 1865 with the introductory speech Het aandeel van Indië in de geschiedenis der beschaving en de invloed der studie van het Sanskrit op de taalwetenschap (1865). His philological studies dealt with Indo-European languages, Austronesian languages ​​and he was the founder of the epigraphy of Cambodia. By comparing the language of Fiji, he showed that it is related to the language of Indonesia and Polynesia. He also participated in the organizational tasks of the university and was rector of the Alma Mater in 1879/80 . On March 20, 1903, his contract as a professor expired and he retired on September 21, 1903 and moved to Utrecht that same year.

Nevertheless, he continued to work in his field. Kern was a linguist, less of a good teacher. Its traces run through many branches of science. He also received numerous domestic and foreign honors. From May 7, 1866, he was a member and for many years chairman of the literary department of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences . In 1891 he became a Knight of the Order Pour le Mérite (Peace Class), he was Commander of the Order of the Dutch Lion , Commander of the Legion of Honor , Knight of the Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus and Knight of the Portuguese Order of Christ San Thiagio . The Institute for Indological Studies in Leiden bears the name of the founder of Indology in Leiden.

family

Kern was married twice. His first marriage was on August 17, 1859 in Groenlo with Hendrika Anna Wijnveldt (* around 1833 in Zutphen † August 17, 1860 in Groenlo), the daughter of Joost Wijnveldt and Hendrika Johanna Huijskes. A daughter who died young comes from the marriage. His second marriage was on May 1, 1866, with Annette Marie Thérèse Moïse de Chateleux (born June 30, 1839 in Delfzijl, † November 24, 1916 in Utrecht), the daughter of Englebert Bernhard Joseph Moïse de Chateleux and Jeantine Rudolphine Vos. There are three sons and three daughters from the marriage. From the children we know:

• Rudolf Arnoud Kern (born September 26, 1875 in Leiden, † March 23, 1958 ibid) married. March 19, 1914 with Romelia Rutgers van der Loeff († January 31, 1943 in Amersfoort)
• Johan Hendrik Kern (* January 24, 1867 in Leiden, † December 19, 1933 there) Professor of the Dutch language, m. on May 22, 1903 in Rotterdam with Susanna Wilhelmine Petronella Salomons (born November 5, 1874 in Kralingen, † October 12, 1952 in Wassenaar)
• Rudolfine Jantine Kern (born December 14, 1868 in Leiden, † July 4, 1947 in Apeldoorn)
• Maria Conradina Hilda Kern (born October 8, 1870 in Leiden, † after 1960) married. June 6, 1912 in Utrecht with Willem Joachim Pieter Suringar (born February 29, 1876 in Maastrich, † June 17, 1955 in Lochem)
• Berta Kern (born November 9, 1872 in Leiden, † January 27, 1965 (Maryland, USA)) married. June 23, 1898 in Leiden Hendrik Herman Juynboll (* July 24, 1867 in Delft, † October 25, 1945 in Bethesda (Md, USA))
• Herman Egbert Kern (born April 2, 1879 in Leiden, † March 11, 1960 in Voorburg)

Works

In addition to numerous smaller articles in Dutch and other scholarly journals, his main works are: “Handleiding bij het onderwijs der nederlandsche taal” (a Dutch school grammar based on Grimm's principles, 1859–1860, 2nd volume, 7th edition, Amsterdam 1884); a Dutch translation of "Sakuntalâ" (1862); the text edition of "Brihat Sanhitâ", an astrological work by the Indian Varâha Mihira, in the "Bibliotheca indica" (7th part 1865), and an English translation of the work in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in London (1869 ff.);

further

• Yoga yâtrâ Text and German translation of Varâha Mihira in Weber's Indian Studies , Volumes 10 and 14, 1867 and 1876
• The glosses in the Lex Salica and the language of the Salian Franks . The Hague 1869 ( digitized version )
• Kawistudlien , containing the text of the first two chants of the old Javanese poem Arjuna-Wiwâha , with translation and explanation, The Hague 1871
• Aryabhatiya, a manual of astronomy . Leiden 1874
• Wrttasanc'aya , an old Javanese poem about prosody, in Kawi text with Dutch translation, Leiden 1875
• An Indian sage in a javaansch robe . Amsterdam 1876
• Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indie . Haarlem 1881-83; deutsch von Jacobi, Leipzig, 1882–84, an English translation of the Buddhist religious book
• Saddharma Pundarika . Oxford 1884
• Kern, Hendrik: Kern, Manual of Indian Buddhism, ( outline of Indo-Aryan philology and antiquity ; 3, 8), Strasbourg: KJ Trübner, 1896 digitalisat / Gallica and
• Kern, Hendrik: Buddhism and its, History in India, Leipzig, O. Schulze 1882. Digitized
• De Fidji taal vergeleken met hare related in Indonesie and Polynesia . Amsterdam 1886.

A comprehensive summary from 1903 can also be found in Caland.

literature

• Hermann Christern (Ed.): German Biographical Yearbook. Transition volume 2. 1917–1920. Death list 1917 . German publishing house Stuttgart, Berlin [among others]
• H. van der Hoeven: Kern, Johan Hendrik Caspar (1833-1917) . In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. ( Online , Dutch)
• W. Caland: Levens report van H. Kern. In: Handelingen en levensberichten van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde te Leiden, over het jaar 1917-1918. EJ Brill, Leiden 1918 ( online )
• How is dat Maatschappij “Vivat”, Amsterdam, 1902, pp. 244–245

Web links

• Literature by and about Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern in the catalog of the German National Library
• Record at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)
• Record at the digital library of Dutch literature (DBNL)
• Genealogy link