Ludo Rocher

Ludo Rocher (1926-2016) was an eminent Sanskrit scholar, and the W. Norman Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ludo Rocher was born in Hemiksem in the province of Antwerp, Belgium on 25 April 1926. He became a U.S. citizen in 1972.

Rocher received his MA (summa cum laude) in Classics with a minor in Sanskrit in 1948 from the University of Ghent. Subsequently, he was awarded two doctorates by the same university - a JD (Juris Doctor) and a PhD (also summa cum laude) in 1952. His principal teacher at the university was Adriaan Scharpé. He also studied in the Netherlands with Jan Gonda and Barend Faddegon, and with Paṇḍit T.S. Śrīnivāsa Śāstrī during his stay at the Deccan College, Pune in India between 1953 and 1955. After obtaining his Habilitation in 1956, he served as Professor of Comparative Philology and Sanskrit at the University of Brussels from 1959 to 1966. He was also the Director of the Center for Study of South and Southeast Asia at the University of Brussels from 1961-67.

At the invitation of Prof. W. Norman Brown, Rocher then moved to Philadelphia, where he was appointed Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1966 to 2002, with interruptions, he was the Chair of the Department of Oriental Studies (renamed Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in 1991).

A past president of the American Oriental Society, Rocher was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society and of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences (Belgium). He was also a Fellow of the Asiatic Society (Calcutta) where he frequently conducted research..

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