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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.

Thomas Hardwicke joined the British East India Company army with the Bengal Artillery in November 1778. He was posted in southern India from 1781 to 1785. He was wounded at Satyamangalam on 13 September 1790 and was posted as a Company Orderly at Bangalore, before moving to Bengal in 1793 to become Adjutant and Quartermaster of Artillery. Hardwicke rose to become Major-General in 1819. He resigned from the command of the Bengal Artillery in 1823 to return to England and died at The Lodge, Lambeth, on 3 March 1835.

During his military career in India, Hardwicke travelled extensively over the subcontinent. He collected zoological specimens and amassed a large collection of paintings of animals which he employed local artists to make. The Indian artists employed by Hardwicke are unknown, except for one, Goordial, but they were trained and their style was adapted to the demands of technical illustration using watercolours. The collection was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1835 which was later partly moved to the Natural History Museum. The collection consists of 4500 illustrations.

Hardwicke was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1813 and Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1804. He also held positions of Vice-President to the Asiatic Society of Bengal and was an honorary member of the Royal Dublin Society. Hardwicke was not married but had three illegitimate daughters and two sons apart from two daughters born to an Indian mistress (named as Fyzbuhsh in his Will).

Raymond Head was born in London in 1948. He studied piano with Alice Goossens before attending Dartington College of Arts and Rolle College, Exmouth, Devon, from 1967 to 1970. He studied composition privately with Roger Smalley and Edwin Roxburgh and visited Darmstadt, Germany, for the Ferienkurse für Musik in 1968. After teaching at Bottisham Village College, Cambridge, and subsequently in Devon he went to Rome in 1976 and taught at St George's School, Rome, and was a repetiteur for Hans Werner Henze's first Cantiere at Montepulciano, Tuscany.
Raymond Head began an investigation into Indian influences on Western culture, a long time interest. This led to post-graduate work at the Royal College of Art, London, travel in the USA on a British Academy scholarship and a short-stay Yale Fellowship. In 1986 he published a book The Indian Style (Allen & Unwin, London, University of Chicago Press, 1986) which was followed in 1991 by A Catalogue of the Paintings and Drawings in the Royal Asiatic Society, London. He was invited to give the Sir George Birdwood Memorial Lecture at the Royal Society of Arts, London, in 1987. He also gave concerts and broadcasts for the BBC in London (during the 1982 Indian Festival, London), Turin, and for the National Trust on the theme of Indian influences on western music.
Head is a Gustav Holst scholar and a musical adviser to the Holst Birthplace Museum in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He received a Holst Foundation Award 1984 to pursue original work on Holst and was a Trustee of the Holst Birthplace Museum from 2003 to 2006. On 4th April 2008 Raymond's Fanfare for Gustav Holst was played at the unveiling of Holst's Statue in Cheltenham.
For a full biography see Raymond Head's website.

Samuel G.T. Heatley (more commonly known as Heatly) was a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, serving as one of its secretaries in 1847. He was a geologist and contributed articles to the Society's Journal.

Brian Houghton Hodgson was born in 1801 (possibly 1800, there is some uncertainty to the date), the second of seven children. He entered Haileybury in February 1816, finishing top in his year in Bengali, Persian, Hindi, Political Economy, and Classics. As head of his year at Haileybury, Hodgson was entitled to choose the Presidency to which he would be sent. Hodgson chose Bengal and arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1818 to continue his studies at Fort William. However Hodgson became ill with a 'liver condition' and he was advised to seek an appointment at a hill station. He was posted as Assistant Commissioner to Kumaon.
He was in Kumaon for only a year before being appointed as Assistant Resident in Nepal, working under Edward Gardner. It was during this residency that Hodgson began his research into Buddhism and collected Sanskrit manuscripts.
Hodgson was recalled to Calcutta in 1822 as acting Deputy Secretary in the Persian Department of the Foreign Office – a key role but one that he could not maintain due to further illness. He returned to Kathmandu, in 1824, as the Postmaster and became Resident in 1829 until 1843. Hodgson developed interests, not only in Buddhism, but in the languages of the people, in zoology, and in ethnography. He continued to collect manuscripts which he deposited with institutions in Europe and India.
Hodgson's interest in zoology meant that he employed local trappers and hunters, alongside draughtsmen and painters, to collect and record indigenous species. He published 97 papers on the birds and mammals of Nepal and his interest was keenest during the 1930s when Dr Archibald Campbell was his Assistant Resident. He also introduced tea cultivation into the Himalayas.
As Resident, Hodgson would be expected to report on the political situation of the area. He wrote papers on the possibility of trade with China along a trans-Himalayan route, on the legal system, the police and the army of Nepal. He was also interested in the neighbouring countries.
Whilst in Nepal Hodgson was in a relationship with Meharrunisha Begum. His son, Henry, was born in 1835, and his daughter, Sarah, in 1836. He left Nepal in 1844 having resigned due to disagreement with the political policy of Lord Ellenborough. He did not settle in England – he left his children with his sister, Fanny, in Arnhem and sailed for Calcutta in July 1845. He decided to go to Darjeeling with the Campbells, where he bought a bungalow and named it Brianstone, and continued his zoological and ethnographical studies.
Hodgson's daughter died from TB in 1851, and his son returned to India in 1853 to become a Zamindar, but he died in 1856 in Darjeeling. Hodgson returned to Europe in 1853 for a brief period, during which time he married Anne Scott, who returned to Darjeeling with Hodgson later that year. After 1853 Hodgson concentrated more on ethnology and linguistics, than zoology. Anne returned to England in 1857 and Hodgson followed her in 1858.
Hodgson lived in England for a further 36 years before his death in 1894. He remained active in his interest of India and Nepal. Anne died in 1868 but Hodgson remarried the following year to Susan Townshend. She was only 26 years old at the time of their marriage but they seemed happy. Hodgson was awarded an honorary doctorate at Oxford in 1889. He died in London on 23 May 1894 and was buried in the church yard at Alderley.