The position of Wales Professorship of Sanskrit in

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

is the first endowed chair for Sanskrit studies established in the United States. Henry Ware Wales (18181856; Harvard, 1838) by a will dated April 24, 1849, provided for the endowment of the Professorship. The chair was established on January 26, 1903 with Charles Rockwell Lanman elected as the inaugural holder of the chair on March 23, 1903. The current holder,

Michael Witzel Michael Witzel (born July 18, 1943) is a German-American philologist, comparative mythologist and Indologist. Witzel is the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University and the editor of the Harvard Oriental Series (volumes 50–80). Witz ...

, was appointed in 1987 and is the fourth Wales professor.

Foundation

The inaugural Wales Professor of Sanskrit

Charles Rockwell Lanman Charles Rockwell Lanman (July 8, 1850 – February 20, 1941) was an American scholar of the Sanskrit language. Early life and education Charles Rockwell Lanman was born in Norwich, Connecticut, the eighth of the nine children of Peter La ...

started his career in

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

in 1876 where a department of Sanskrit was established under him. In 1880 Lanman accepted professorship at Harvard under request by the then Harvard President

Charles William Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfor ...

List of professors

* Walter Eugene Clark * Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr. (1958–1983) *

(1987 onwards)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Professor of Sanskrit, Wales Sanskrit, Wales Sanskrit, Wales American Sanskrit scholars