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).
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.
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.