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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 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 Cecil Cloake was born in Wimbledon, London, England on 2 December, 1924, the son of Dr Cecil Stedman Cloake and Maude Osborne Newling. He was educated at King's College School and served in the Royal Engineers in India and Japan during and after World War II. After the war he completed his education, studying History at Cambridge University.

In 1948, Cloake joined the Foreign Office and served for multiple positions, including as 3rd Secretary, Baghdad, 1949; 3rd then 2nd Secretary, Saigon, 1951; attending the Geneva Conference, 1954; Private Secretary to Permanent Under-Secretary, 1956; Private Secretary to Parliamentary Under-Secretary, 1957; 1st Secretary, 1957; Consul (Commercial), New York, 1958; 1st Secretary, Moscow, 1962; Diplomatic Service Administration Office, 1965; Counsellor, 1966; Head of Accommodation Department, 1967; Counsellor (Commercial), Tehran, 1968–72; Head of Trade Relations and Exports Department, FCO, 1973–76; and Ambassador to Bulgaria, 1976–80.

Cloake was made a CMG (Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George) in 1977 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1988. He was a Fellow of Centre for International Studies, LSE from 1972 to 1973.

While in Saigon, in 1952, he met Margaret ("Molli") Morris (1929–2008) from Washington, D.C., who was serving there in the United States Diplomatic Service, and they were married in Cambridge four years later in 1956. She died in 2008. Cloake and his wife moved to Richmond, London in 1962 and wrote several books on the history of that area. He died on 9th July, 2014.

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.

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.

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.

Karl Jettmar (August 8, 1918 - March 28 , 2002 ) was an Austrian ethnologist, religious scholar and archaeologist. he was the son of the Viennese painter Rudolf Jettmar and studied at the University of Vienna from 1936, first in German and history, then in ethnology, folklore and prehistory. He received his doctorate in 1941 After his military service, he initially couldn't find a job as a scientist, but had to earn his living as a salesman. In 1953/54 he was a visiting scientist at the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt am Main, then until 1958 he was an assistant at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna.

In 1961 he accepted an appointment as a full professor of ethnology at the University of Mainz. From 1964 until his retirement in 1986, he was professor of ethnology at the University of Heidelberg, director of the South Asia Institute and from 1969 he was a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

Jettmar retired in 1983 abut continued to publish works on the indigenous religions, art and prehistory of Central Asia. In 1999 he became honorary member of the German association of anthropologists (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde, DGV).