South Asia Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
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| Established | 1750 |
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Key people
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H. Carton Rogers III, Vice-Provost and Director of Libraries Richard Griscom, Director of Collection Development Pushkar Sohoni, South Asia Bibliographer |
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Parent organization
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University of Pennsylvania |
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries have one of the most important and largest collections of research material pertaining to the study of South Asia in the United States of America. Starting with the nineteenth century, when Sanskrit was first taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the Libraries have collected material for the study of South Asia.
The first bibliographer dedicated to South Asia Studies in the library was Kanta Bhatia. She retired in 1994, and was replaced by Dr. David Nelson. From 2011 onwards, Dr. Pushkar Sohoni served as the bibliographer and librarian, while teaching in the Department of South Asia Studies. In 2016, he left to teach at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune.
Prof. Morton W. Easton, Professor of Comparative Philology (1883–1912), taught Sanskrit courses at the University of Pennsylvania. He had studied Sanskrit at Yale under W.D. Whitney (1827–1894). Upon completing his dissertation on the evolution of language, Easton was awarded the first American doctorate in Sanskrit in 1872. The University of Pennsylvania was one of the first American academic institutions to offer courses in Sanskrit; already during the 1880s, the university offered a major and a minor in Sanskrit. Easton retired in 1912 and was replaced the following year by Franklin Edgerton. After Edgerton left in 1926, W. Norman Brown was appointed in his place. Brown was responsible for the creation of the Department of South Asia Studies and expanded well beyond his own Indological interests. From 1916 to 1919, Brown had held the position of the Harrison Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He organized the American Oriental Society in 1926. By the summer of 1947 Brown's summer program, "India: A Program of Regional Studies" was being offered at Penn. In 1948, he established the Department of South Asia Regional Studies, the first area studies department in North America. Offerings continued to be expanded until a full program was available in the 1949-1950 academic year. He brought together a number of eminent scholars such as Holden Furber, Stella Kramrisch, and Ernest Bender, ensuring that the Department of South Asia Studies at Penn became, and continues as, one of the most important places in the world for serious research on South Asia in general and Sanskrit in particular. Scholars such as George Cardona, Ludo Rocher, Rosane Rocher, and Richard D. Lambert worked at Penn throughout their careers, and ensured a rich collection was developed for the libraries.
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