On 26 February Dr Marianne Oort passed away one week and a few days before her 91st birthday. Many may know her as a very regular participant at Indological events such as the meetings of the American
Oriental Society and World Sanskrit Conferences. She was one of the last living students of Prof. F.B.J. Kuiper at Leiden University and among the earliest generations of student-members of the Indological study association at Leiden University which since
Kuiper's time carries the name "Hertjes". Witzel explained this name in his obituary of F.B.J. Kuiper as follows (IIJ 47, p. 175):
Kuiper was well liked by his many students who called themselves, after a
Classical verse, the Hertjes (‘deer’,
mṛgāḥ) wishing to be protected from the
lion of Sanskrit grammar by Kuiper as their Guru (vyākaraṇasiṁhabhītā
apaśabdamṛgāḥ kva vicareyuḥ ?).
Otherwise she was also widely known for almost two decades (1978-1997) as the very helpful assistant librarian of the Kern Institute Indological Library -- into which the Indological Library of the
Institute of Oriental Languages (founded by J. Gonda) of Utrecht University had been integrated in 1992, and which is now, since ca. 2003, integrated into the general Library of Leiden University.
In addition, she was for many years an active participant in the reading group on the Paippalaada-Samhita organized by Alexander Lubotsky at Leiden University.
Condolences to her family and friends.