Dear Indology-janāḥ,
I met Johannes in 1973 in Pune. I was just beginning my MA in Sanskrit at the Centre for Advanced Study in Sanskrit (CASS) at (then) Poona University. I believe he was finishing up that year, after migrating
to Pune from Jaipur a couple of years earlier to study vyākaraṇa, as was most fitting for Pune. I was much closer to a beginner than I should have been at the time, and quite out of my
element in the MA classes on the Siddhāntakaumudī taught by SD Joshi (a required course in the curriculum), in which Johannes excelled. Dr. Joshi paced rapidly and non-stop from one end of the room to the other, like a caged animal, for the entire hour of
every class, never referring to a book or a text; such was his extraordinary pāṇḍitya and energy. The only time he would stop would be to ask, usually once or twice in every class, “Bronkhorst, what question do you have?” Johannes would almost always have
a question, usually quite a penetrating one, to the delight of Dr. Joshi, who would then divert his lecture to answer it fully. Clearly, Dr. Joshi saw that Johannes was a challenging student with a bright future.
Like Robert Z, Johannes sent me packets of publications every year until that was superseded by the ease of sending electronic copies, which followed until just a few years
ago. The fact that Johannes had initially studied mathematics was, I understood at the time, a close predecessor to his expertise in Sanskrit, in vyākaraṇa, in śāstra. When I was in Pune last November, someone informed me that he was “keeping indifferent health.”
He was a highly valued friend and colleague. We were fortunate to have him in our midst for more than half a century.
Kind regards
Fred Smith