Sanskrit studies in Groningen: 1881-present
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, before 1988 Faculty of Arts
In Groningen, the first to teach Sanskrit was Barend Sijmons in 1881. He was succeeded by the professor in Dutch Willem van Helten, the Latinist Jacob Speijer, the professors in English Johan Kern, Peter Harting and Reinard Zandvoort. In 1954 the Sanskrit lessons were taken over by Jacob Ensink, who became professor in Sanskrit from 1962 to 1984. In 1953 Ensink founded the Institute of Indian Studies within the Faculty of Arts. In 1988, the Indological section was shifted to the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies. Hans Bakker held an endowed chair in Sanskrit from 1996-2013. Today the Indological department is part of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture in Asia.
Sanskrit (chair: 1962-1988 and 1996-2013):
| 1881 | B. Sijmons (professor in comparative linguistics and Germanic languages, Sanskrit and German) |
| 1882-1911 | W.L. van Helten (professor in Dutch language and literature and old Frisian, from 1882-1889 also professor in fundamentals of Sanskrit) |
| 1889-1903 | J.S. Speijer (professor in Latin studies and fundamentals of Sanskrit) |
| 1905-1924 | J.H. Kern (professor in English language and literature, with Sanskrit) |
| 1924-1937 | P.N.U. Harting (professor in English language and literature, and from 1933-1937 also Sanskrit) |
| 1937-1964 | R.W. Zandvoort (professor in English with Sanskrit) |
| 1942-1951 | J.E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw (assistant lecturer in Sanskrit) |
| 1951-1984 | J. Ensink (lecturer and, from 1962 onwards, professor in Sanskrit) |
| 1967-1972 | J.M.S. Baljon (jr.) (lector in the Islam and the religions of India; from 1969 onwards also of Hindi and Urdu) |
| 1970-1984 | M.A.G.T. Kloppenborg (lecturer in history of religions, also in Utrecht) |
| 1976-1996 | H.T. Bakker (lecturer in Sanskrit) |
| 1978-1986 | G.J. Meulenbeld (associate professor in Indology) |
| 1996-2013 | H.T. Bakker (endowed professor in the interpretation of Hinduism in the Sanskrit tradition; Gonda chair) |
| …-2002 | L.P. van den Bosch (associate professor in comparative religious science and history of Indian religions and Islam) |
| 2007-present | P. Berger (associate professor in Indian religions and the anthropology of religion) |