Dates

• Existence: 1856 - 1906

Biography

Cecil Bendall (1856-1906), Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Cambridge. Cecil Bendall was educated at City of London School, and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1875. He migrated to Gonville and Caius College two years later, took a first class in the classical tripos in 1879, and was elected a Fellow of Caius. He then devoted himself to the study of Sanskrit (which he had begun to learn while still at school, and continued to pursue as an undergraduate under the aegis of Professor E.B. Cowell), and in 1881 gained a first in the Indian languages tripos. He was on the staff of the British Museum's Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books from 1882 to 1898, and Professor of Sanskrit at University College London from 1885 to 1903. He had completed in 1883 the catalogue (begun by Professor Cowell) of Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts at Cambridge University Library, and in later years paid two visits to India and Nepal to acquire further manuscripts for the Library (1884-85 and 1898-99). He returned to Cambridge from London at the beginning of the new century, becoming University Lecturer in Sanskrit (1901) and Curator of Oriental Literature at the University Library (1902). He succeeded his old master E.B. Cowell as Professor of Sanskrit in 1903, but held the chair for only three years before his death on 14 March 1906.

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