Johannes Adrianus Bernardus van Buitenen was a Dutch Indologist at the University of Chicago where he was the George V. Bobrinskoy Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. He was one of the world's leading Sanskrit scholars. His interests ranged widely over literature, philosophy and philology, but toward the end of his career he focused primarily on the Mahābhārata.
Biography
Van Buitenen studied with Jan Gonda at the Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht, Netherlands. He received his doctorate, cum laude, on 23 October 1953 and immediately departed for India where he stayed until 1956 as sub-editor of the " Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles" project at Deccan College, Poona. From 1959 to 1961 he was Reader in Indian philosophy at Utrecht but found he had little interest in the position or in staying in the Netherlands. As a consequence he happily accepted an invitation to take a position at the University of Chicago and remained there until his death in 1979 at the age of fifty-one. He was appointed associate professor in Sanskrit and Indic studies in 1959 and professor in linguistics in Oriental languages in 1964. After a South Asian languages and civilizations department was formed in 1966, he was chairman for 10 years. Van Buitenen contributed to the training of several notable scholars in the USA, among them James L. Fitzgerald, Walter O. Kaelber, Michael D. Willis, Bruce M. Sullivan and Bruce Lincoln. Van Buitenen was on the board of directors of the American Oriental Society and became a correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963. Amongst many publications he edited and translated the first five books of the Hindu epic, "The Mahabharata". They were published in three volumes by the University of Chicago Press. At the time of his death he was working on the fourth of seven volumes.
Publications
Books
Rāmānuja’s Vedārthasangraha, Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen, India, 1956
Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen. Chicago, 1959
The Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad: A Critical Essay, with Text, Translation and Commentary. The Hague, 1962
Two Plays of Ancient India: The Little Clay Cart and the Minister's Seal New York, 1968
Rāmānuja on the Bhagavadgītā: a condensed rendering of his Gītābhāṣya with copious notes and an introduction Delhi, 1968.
Yāmuna’s Āgamaprāmāṇya: or, Treatise on the Validity of Pañcarātra Madras, 1971
The Mahabharata, Volume 1, Book 1: The Book of the Beginning Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen. Chicago, 1973
The Mahabharata, Volume 2, Book 2: The Book of Assembly; Book 3: The Book of the Forest Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen. Chicago, 1975
The Mahabharata, Volume 3, Book 4: The Book of the Virata; Book 5: The Book of the Effort Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen. Chicago, 1978
The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata Translated by J. A. B. van Buitenen, edited by James L. Fitzgerald. Chicago, 1981
