A few days ago, the sad news has reached me of the passing away of my Leiden colleague, friend, and Guru, F.B.J. Kuiper.Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper was born on July 7th, 1907 at 's Gravenhage (The Hague). He was emeritus professor of Leiden University, Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Amsterdam.
He passed away quietly on the morning of November 14th, 2003. He is survived by his wife Mrs. H. Kuiper, three sons, a daughter, and his grandchildren. The burial, attended by family and few close friends and colleagues, took place on the 19th.
With F.B.J. Kuiper one of last great Indologists of his generation has left us. Kuiper's work spanned a host of fields: from Indo-European linguistics to Indo-Iranian, Vedic, Skt. drama, Prakrit, Dravidian, Munda, Pan-Indian linguistics, the Indian Sprachbund, to Indian and Iranian mythology.
For a list of Kuiper's publications, spanning seven decades, and a for discussion of his work, see several lists in his journal, the Indo-Iranian Journal, as well as in the introduction to his Ancient Indian Cosmogony (ed. J. Irwin, Delhi 1983), T.Ya. Elizarenkova's essay on Kuiper (Trudy po vedijskoij mifologii = in Engl., Numen 34, 1987, 145-178), and in the introduction to his Selected Writings on Indian Linguistics and Philology (ed. A. Lubotsky, M.S. Oort, M. Witzel, Amsterdam 1997).
To honor his work, it is perhaps best to quote two published estimations:
T.Ya. Elizarenkova (Numen): "The activity of Kuiper ... is uncommonly many-sided. He is not only the author of many articles, which have opened new perspectives for Indology, but also an active reviewer who quickly published his reactions to important Indological and Iranistical publications, a participant in different scholarly discussions." And from the 1997 linguistic collection: ".. whether he publishes a short note in IIJ or a monograph, these contributions always contain a new approach to an old problem, or they deal with a novel topic first discovered and treated only by him. ... he represents the most innovative and at the same time, lasting work done in our field in the Netherlands during this century."
Michael Witzel, 21.11.2003
26.11.03