Colmán McLaughlin has done research into the Ajanta caves and in particular the paintings undertaken by Robert Gill. Other publications include "Stupendous Monuments Indeed of the Superstition of Former Ages”, Eli Franco, Monika Zin (Ed.), From Turfan to Ajanta: Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the Occasion of His
Eightieth Birthday, Volume 1, Lumbini International Research Institute, 2010, Pp. 627-64.
Johannes Rahder was born in Lubuk Begalung, now a district of Padang, Indonesia, where his father was governor of western Sumatra. He studied first in Leiden (1917-24), then in Brussels (La Vallée Poussin) and Paris (Pelliot) from 1924-28. He gained his PhD at the University of Utrecht in 1926 under the supervision of Willem Caland (1859 – 1932), the Dutch Indologist, philologist, numismatist and translator. Rahder studied the Daśabhūmikasūtra, the ‘Scripture of the Ten Stages’, the definitive scriptural account of the ten stages (daśabhūmi) of Buddhism. He completed a translation which was subsequently published.
Rahder also published, in 1929, this Glossary of the Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese Versions of the Daśabhūmikasūtra revealing something of the breadth of his research. This copy was sent to the Royal Asiatic Society by the Librarie Orientaliste, Paul Geuthner, in April 1929.
In 1929 he was in Japan as the chargé de mission scientifique at Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo, working on the Hōbōgirin, le dictionnaire encyclopédique du bouddhisme d’après les sources chinoises et japonaises, francophone scholars being keen to study texts on Buddhism from a wide range of sources. Rahder returned to Utrecht in 1929 to become Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Linguistics and in 1931 moved to Leiden to become Professor of Japanese. This post gave him the opportunity to travel in Japan and Korea. In 1937-38 he became Visiting Professor at University of Hawai’i, which eventually led to his decision to leave Leiden, in 1946, to became a full Professor in Hawai’i. However that was short-lived. In 1947 Rahder moved to Yale University where he stayed until his retirement in 1965.
Rahder had a keen interest in Buddhism and linguistics. He not only studied Sanskrit and Pali, but also Chinese, Japanese and other languages so he was better able to access original source material. He made significant contributions to the wider understanding and influence of Buddhism as well as the etymology of several languages.
The Indian Institute was an institute within the University of Oxford. It was started by Sir Monier Monier-Williams in 1883 to provide training for the Indian Civil Service. The institute's building is located in central Oxford, England, at the north end of Catte Street, on the corner with Holywell Street, and facing down Broad Street from the east. The original Indian Institute building is now the Oxford Martin School of the University of Oxford, the History Faculty having moved to the old City of Oxford School building on George Street and its library to the Bodleian site.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (later merged into Creative Scotland), and the Arts Council of Wales. In January 1940, during the Second World War, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts was appointed to help promote and maintain British culture. Chaired by Lord De La Warr, President of the Board of Education, the council was government-funded and after the war was renamed the Arts Council of Great Britain. Reginald Jacques was appointed musical director with Sir Henry Walford Davies and George Dyson also involved. John Denison took over after the war. A royal charter was granted on 9 August 1946 followed by another in 1967. The latter provided for functions in Scotland and Wales to be conducted by two committees known as the Scottish and Welsh Arts Councils – the basis for the later Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council of Wales.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is an art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the fourth-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. The New York State Legislature granted the Metropolitan Museum of Art an Act of Incorporation on April 13, 1870, "for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said City a Museum and Library of Art, of encouraging and developing the Study of the Fine Arts, and the application of Art to manufacture and natural life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction and recreations". This legislation was supplemented later by the 1893 Act, Chapter 476, which required that its collections "shall be kept open and accessible to the public free of all charge throughout the year". The founders included businessmen and financiers, among them Theodore Roosevelt Sr., the father of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the US, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. Henry Gurdon Marquand donated an important part of his collection of Old Masters paintings to the fledgling institution. The museum first opened on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue.
Reading Museum is a museum, located in the Town Hall, of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. Reading Town Hall was built in several phases between 1786 and 1897, although the principal façade was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1875. In 1879, the foundation stone was laid for a new wing containing a library and museum, and the museum duly opened in 1883. The museum displayed a large eclectic collection from the late Horatio Bland. Three art galleries were added in further extension in 1897In 1975, the civic offices moved out of the Town Hall to Reading Civic Centre. They were followed in 1985 by the Reading Central Library which left only the museum and the concert hall in use. After some debate, plans to demolish the Town Hall and replace it with a new cultural centre were abandoned, and in 1986 refurbishment of the building started. The museum was closed for renewal in 1989, reopening in stages from 1993 (the Reading: People & Place gallery) to 2000.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portuguese: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian) is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the wealthiest charitable foundations in the world, the Gulbenkian Foundation was founded on 18 July 1956 according to the last will and testament of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, a Portugal-based oil magnate who bequeathed his assets to the country in the form of a foundation.