Johannes Bronkhorst

Johannes Bronkhorst (born 17 July 1946, in Schiedam) is a Dutch Orientalist and Indologist, specializing in Buddhist studies and early Buddhism. He is emeritus professor at the University of Lausanne.

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After studying Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (B.Sc. 1968), he moved to India, where he turned to Sanskrit and Pāli, first at the University of Rajasthan (Jaipur), then the University of Pune (M.A. 1976, Ph.D. 1979). In Pune he read with traditional Sanskrit scholars, specialising in Sanskrit grammar and Indian philosophy. Back in the Netherlands, he did a second doctorate (1980) at the University of Leiden. Having worked for research projects funded by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, he was appointed in 1987 to the position of Professor of Sanskrit and Indian studies at the University of Lausanne. He retired in 2011.

Bronkhorst has concentrated on the history of Indian thought and published on a wide range of topics, including indigenous grammar and linguistics, the interaction between Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism and their philosophical schools and religious practices. A key output of this work appeared in his monograph Greater Magadha (2007).^[1] The book has been reviewed by several scholars including Jason Neelis^[2] and Alexander Wynne.^[3] Some of Bronkhort's publications address larger questions relating to the theory and study of religion. The website of the University of Lausanne provides access to some of his work.^[4]

Bronkhorst became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.^[5]

• — (2009). Buddhist Teaching in India. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 9780861715664.
• — (2011). Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004201408.
• — (2011). Language and Reality: On an Episode in Indian Thought. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004204355.
• — (2012). "Rites Without Symbols". Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 24 (3): 236–266. doi:10.1163/157006812X635691. S2CID 55938059.
• — (2016). How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas. Leiden; Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-31551-8.
• — (2024). Extreme Religious Behaviours: Where Religious Practice and Biological Evolution Clash. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783111374215.