Ernest Bender (January 2, 1919 – April 18, 1996) was a Professor of

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

s and literature at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Bender was born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, on January 2, 1919, before moving to

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

when he was aged four. He was admitted into the selective

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

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program of Boys High School ( Central High School), and graduated in 1937. Bender undertook his undergraduate studies at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

where he continued his studies in classics, firmly entrenching his lifelong interest in

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and cultural history. Upoon earning his B.A. in 1941, Bender became a graduate student in the Oriental Studies Department of the

. There he became acquainted with the three teachers who influenced him the most:

W. Norman Brown William Norman Brown (June 24, 1892 – April 22, 1975) was an American Indologist and Sanskritist who established the first academic department of South Asian Studies in North America and organized the American Oriental Society in 1926. He was t ...

Indology Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

, and

Zellig Harris Zellig Sabbettai Harris (; October 23, 1909 – May 22, 1992) was an influential American linguist, mathematical syntactician, and methodologist of science. Originally a Semiticist, he is best known for his work in structural linguistics and dis ...

and Henry Hoenigswald in

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

. Through Brown, Bender pursued a career in Indology, specializing in medieval

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...

and its associated literature and art. Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan in the wake of the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

in December 1941, Bender was drafted into the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

, but was discharged from active duty due to medical reasons. Due to his talent and background in classical languages, Bender was given a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to study

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Asia Society in

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. He then returned to Philadelphia, serving from 1943 to 1944 as an instructor of Hindi and Urdu in the Army Specialized Training Program. From 1944 until 1946, Bender coordinated the Army Specialized Training Program in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

. At the same time, Bender was awarded two consecutive Harrison fellowships at Pennsylvania for the study of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. While studying Indology, Bender continued working with Harris on linguistics, coauthoring two articles on the Cherokee language. An unpublished manuscript of Cherokee texts, complete with translations and grammatical analysis is stored in the Boas Collection in the Library of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. Bender was awarded a Rockefeller fellowship from 1947 to 1948, visiting

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

, and Sri Lanka. He was voracious photographer, copying many medieval manuscripts. His prolific archive of Jain materials was derived from this period. The Rockefeller grant also gave him the opportunity to work on the grammar of the Sinhalese language. Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed to the newly created South Asia Regional Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He became an assistant professor in 1950, in a joint appointment with the Oriental Studies Department. From 1955 to 1956, he returned to India and Sri Lanka on a Guggenheim fellowship to research the

Old Gujarati Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...

. It was during this trip that he developed his grammars for Hindi and Urdu. He was elevated to associate professor with tenure in 1958, and became a professor in 1967. In 1958, Bender began a three decade editorial relationship with the

American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society encourages basi ...

; he began as associate editor and became the chief editor in 1964, a post he held until 1988. He served as the president of the AOS from 1993 to 1994. He served as the vice-president of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies, and convened the 6th World Sanskrit Conference in Philadelphia in 1984. He was a member of many scholarly societies beyond those in America, including the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; the L.D. Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad; the Asiatic Society of Bengal; the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune; and the Oriental Institute in

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

. Bender had a pivotal role in developing teaching methods for

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

al languages in the American graduate studies framework. During the World War II era and its immediate aftermath, when the discipline of linguistics began to gain acceptance, Bender participated in formulating teaching techniques for South Asian languages in the military system,

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

staff, as well as graduate students. He authored ten monographs on linguistic or literary topics concerning Indian languages, and several articles, including art historical topics. He published grammars of Hindi, Urdu and

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second most widely spoken o ...

and completed, but did not publish grammars for Gujarati and Sinhalese. In 1992, he published a critical edition and translation of the Salibhadra-Dhanna-Carita, a medieval Jain didactic story composed in

. After retiring in 1989, he spent significant time compiling an etymological glossary of Old Gujarati. He died at his home,

Newtown Square Newtown Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Prior to 1789 it was part of Chester County. The population was 12,216 as of the 2010 census, and was 19,705 as of 2017. History The first mention of the township was in 1684, ...

, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1996 of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

, aged 77 years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Ernest 1919 births 1996 deaths Argentine emigrants to the United States Linguists from the United States Temple University alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II University of Pennsylvania faculty