Jiao Bingzhen was a court painter of the Qing empire. He is known for figures and miniatures and was one of the early Chinese painters to learn Western techniques.
Johann Ernst Hanxleden, also known as Arnos Pathiri, was a German Jesuit priest and missionary, best known for his contributions as a Malayalam and Sanskrit poet, grammarian, lexicographer, and philologist. He was born in Lower Saxony, and whilst studying philosophy met a Jesuit priest. This led to Hanxleden volunteering to become a Jesuit missionary in the Malabar region of India. He travelled overland to India, a journey of 14 months, reaching Gujarat in December 1700. He completed his novitiate in Goa and then went to a Seminary at Sampaloor, Thrissur District, Kerala. He learnt Malayalam and the liturgical Syriac and was ordained as a priest in 1706.
After moving to Palayoor, Hanxleden studied Sanskrit and improved his Malayalam, learning under the tutelage of Namboodiri scholars such as Kunjan and Krishnan from Angamaly and Thekkemadom from Thrissur. From 1707 to 1711, he served as secretary to John Ribeiro, the then Archbishop of Cranganore. It is recorded that he also served as the vicar of the main church in Malabar. Later, he moved to Velur, Thrissur, in 1712 and built the Velur Forane Church. From 1729 onward, he spent his time between Velur, Sampaloor, Palayoor and Pazhuvil and it was at Pazhuvil he suffered a snake bite which resulted in his death on 20 March 1732, at the age of 51. He was buried there but, later, when a memorial was built outside the church, his mortal remains were transferred to it; the memorial also houses a historical museum.
Besides composing the Puthen Pana, Hanxleden created the first Malayalam dictionary, as well as grammar books and other devotional material.
Lionel David Barnett was an English orientalist. He was educated at University College, Liverpool, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a first class degree in classics. In 1899, he joined the British Museum as Assistant Keeper in the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts. In 1908 he became Keeper, remaining in the post until his retirement in 1936. He was also Professor of Sanskrit at University College, London, from 1906 to 1917; founding Lecturer in Sanskrit at the School of Oriental Studies (1917–1948); Lecturer in Ancient Indian History and Epigraphy (1922–1948); and Librarian of the School (1940–1947). In 1948, at the age of 77, he rejoined the British Museum, which was desperately short of staff, as an Assistant Keeper, remaining there until his death in 1960.
John Briggs entered the Madras Infantry in 1801. He took part in the Mahratta wars, serving in the final campaign as a political officer under Sir John Malcolm, whom he had previously accompanied on his mission to Persia in 1810. He was one of Mountstuart Elphinstone's assistants in the Dekhan, subsequently served in Khandesh, and succeeded Captain Grant Duff as resident at Sattára. In 1831 Briggs was appointed senior member of the board of commissioners for the government of Mysore when the administration of that state was assumed by the British. His appointment to this office, which was made by the governor-general Lord William Bentinck, was not agreeable to the government of Madras, and after a stormy tenure which lasted around a year, Briggs resigned his post in September 1832. He was transferred to the residency of Nágpur, where he remained until 1835. In that year he left India, and never returned. After his return to England he took a prominent part as a member of the court of directors of the East India Company in the discussion of Indian affairs, and was an opponent of Lord Dalhousie's annexation policy. He was also an active member of the Anti-Corn-law League. He was also a proficient Persian scholar and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of this. He died at Burgess Hill, Sussex, on 27 April 1875, at the age of eighty-nine.
John Crawfurd was a trained doctor, orientalist and scholar, who was employed in the East India Company. He wrote a number of works on his explorations in Asia.
John Dargavel Smith is a former professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge. His studies primarily focused on the language/literature/culture of Rajasthan including a major project on the hero-deity, Pabuji, a book on which was published in 1991 as The epic of Pabuji (Cambridge University Press). He earned a BA degree in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit and Hindi) in 1968 and a PhD in 1974. He was appointed Lecturer in Sanskrit at the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1975; University Lecturer in Sanskrit at Cambridge, 1984, and became promoted Reader in Sanskrit, October 2001. He retired in September 2007. In 2009 he published an abridged translation of the Mahabharata with Penguin Classics.
John Drew Bate was born in Plymouth in 1836. He trained at Regent’s Park College, London and then in 1865, sailed to India to work for the Baptist Missionary Society, the same year that he married, Beatrice Tagg. After a period in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) he was posted to Allahabad in 1868 where he stayed until his retirement in 1897. He became a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1873 and the Royal Asiatic Society in 1881.
He authored the Hindi Dictionary published in 1875 , adding 25,000 new words and forms of words. At his death this work was still considered the standard text and by order of the Education Department of the Government of India, copies were placed in all schools and colleges in India where Hindi was spoken. Bate contributed articles to the Missionary Herald, Baptist Magazine and Asiatic Quarterly Review. He also published An Examination of the Claims of Ishmael as viewed by Muhammadans.
He returned to England on his retirement. He had one son who lived to adulthood but was killed in the WWI and was outlived by his wife and their daughters. He died on 26th January, 1923.
John Edye was a shipwright and navy man who worked as Master Shipwright at the Royal Navy Dockyard at Trincomali (modern Trincomalee, Sri Lanka) for five years coinciding with 1829. He then worked at the Chatham Dockyard by at least 1832 before moving to the Department of the Surveyor of the Navy in 1834. Edye was made Chief Clerk at the Surveyor of the Navy's office and worked with Surveyor William Symonds on his many new designs for the Royal Navy's sailing fleet.
Edye's experience in Southern India gave him an expertise and interest in the region's maritime context which continued even after he returned to Britain. He contributed papers reporting on the state of Southern India's ships, ports and natural products to the Royal Asiatic Society's journals in 1834 and 1835, and was approved as a member of the Society in 1835 before retiring from the Society's affairs in 1843.
John Hodgson worked in the administration of the East India Company and served as the Surveyor-General of India from 1821-1823.