# Hans T. Bakker

Hans T. Bakker (born 1948) is a cultural historian and Indologist, who has served as the Professor of the History of Hinduism and Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He worked in the British Museum as a researcher in the project "Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State".

## Career

Before joining the British Museum in 2014, Bakker was at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands where he was director of the Institute of Indian Studies at Groningen and, from 1996, Professor of the History of Hinduism in the Sanskrit Tradition and Indian Philosophy and holder of the Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He has been a visiting fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford and a visiting professor at the University of Vienna and the University of Kyoto.
Bakker's main research interest has been the political and religious culture of India in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. As part of this work he led the study of the earliest known version of the Skanda Purāṇa preserved in Kathmandu, Nepal. This version of the Skanda Purāṇa is substantially different from the Skanda Purāṇa known from manuscripts and the printed edition in India.
Bakker has continued and expanded the best traditions of Dutch Indology and has trained a number of able scholars, among them Peter Bisschop (Leiden University), Harunaga Isaacson (University of Hamburg) and Yuko Yokochi (University of Kyoto).
Bakker has been working as researcher in "Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State", a project based in the British Museum that is funded by the European Research Council (2013–2019).

## Works
### Books

* 1986 Ayodhyā. Part I: The History of Ayodhyā from the 7th century BC to the middle of the 18th century. Part II: Ayodhyāmāhātmya. Groningen: Groningen Oriental Studies, vol. I.
* 1989 De Leer van de Wind. Een natuurfilosofie uit de Upanisaden, ingeleid, vertaald en geannoteerd door Hans Bakker. Kok/Agora, Kampen. pp. 103.
* 1997 The Vākāṭakas. An Essay in Hindu Iconology. Groningen. Gonda Indological Studies vol. V. pp. xiv, 263.
* 1997 De Schaamteloosheid tot het Uiterste Gedreven. Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar in de Interpretatie van het Hindoeïsme in de Sanskrit-Traditie vanwege de Stichting J. Gonda-Fonds (KNAW) bij de Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op 27 mei 1997. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Amsterdam, 1997. Gonda Lectures.
* 1998 The Skandapurāṇa, Volume I. Adhyāyas 1–25. Critically Edited with Prolegomena and English Synopsis by R. Adriaensen, H. T. Bakker & H. Isaacson. Groningen. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies. pp. xiv, 349.
* 2004 The Skandapurāṇa, Volume II A, Adhyāyas 26–31.14: The Vārāṇasī Cycle. Critical Edition with an Introduction, English Synopsis & Philological and Historical Commentary by Hans T. Bakker & Harunaga Isaacson. Egbert Forsten, Groningen. pp. xvi, 345. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies.
* 2014 The Skandapurāṇa Volume II B, Adhyāyas 31–52. The Vāhana and Naraka Cycles. Critical edition with an Introduction and Annotated English Synopsis by Hans T. Bakker, Peter C. Bisschop, and Yuko Yokochi. In cooperation with: Nina Mirnig and Judit Törzsök. Brill, Leiden 2014. pp. xii, 372. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies.
* 2014 The World of the Skandapurāṇa. Northern India in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries. Brill, Leiden. pp. xvi, 316. Supplement to Groningen Oriental Studies. doi:10.1163/9789004277144
* 2017 Monuments of Hope, Gloom, and Glory, in the age of the Hunnic Wars: 50 years that changed India Archived 11 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine (484-534). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam. 24th J. Gonda Lecture. Japanese translation (Kibō, Shitsui, Eikō no Kinenhi—Indo wo kaeta 50(gojū) nen ni wataru Hun tono tataka’i (484–534nen) in: Ajia Bukkyō Bijutsu Ronshū, Minami Ajia I: Mauriya-chō 〜 Gupta-chō (Buddhist Art in Asia, South Asia I: from Maurya to Gupta dynasty), Ed. by Miyamoto Akira and Fukuyama Yasuko, Tokyo, Chūōkōron Bijutsu Shuppan, 2020. pp. 417–454.
* 2019 Holy Ground -- Where Art and Text Meet. Studies in the Cultural History of India. Brill, Leiden/Boston. Gonda Indological Studies 20. doi:10.1163/9789004412071
* 2020 The Alkhan -- A Hunnic People in South Asia. Barkhuis, Groningen. Companion to Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia, Fasc. 1.
* 2021 Aristotle’s Epistemology. Barkhuis, Groningen. pp. ix, 58. https://www.barkhuis.nl/product_info.php?products_id=267 Archived 3 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine
* 2023 The Five Realities: Kauṇḍinya's Commentary on the Pāśupatasūtras. Chapter 1, Based on the critical edition by Peter Bisschop (2022). Translated and annotated by Hans T . Bakker. Draft 1: June 5, 2023. Academia. https://britishmuseum.academia.edu/HansTBakker

### Edited collections

* 1981 (Editor together with A. W. Entwistle) Vaiṣṇavism. The History of the Kṛṣṇa and Rāma Cults and their Contribution to Indian Pilgrimage. Groningen. pp. 206.
* 1983 (Editor together with A. W. Entwistle) Devī. The worship of the Goddess and its contribution to Indian pilgrimage. Groningen. pp. 133.
* 1988 (Editor together with M. Gosman) De Orient—Droom of Dreiging? Het Oosten in Westers Perspektief. Kok/Agora, Kampen. pp. 175.
* 1990 (Editor) The History of Sacred Places in India as reflected in Traditional Literature. Papers on Pilgrimage in South Asia. Brill, Leiden. Panels of the VIIth World Sanskrit Conference vol. iii. pp. 221.
* 1991 (Editor together with M. Gosman) Heilige Oorlogen. Een onderzoek naar historische en hedendaagse vormen van collectief religieus geweld. Kok/Agora, Kampen. pp. 260.
* 1992 (Editor) The Sacred Centre as the Focus of Political Interest. Proceedings of the symposium held on the occasion of the 375th anniversary of the University of Groningen, 5–8 March 1989. Forsten, Groningen. Groningen Oriental Studies vol. vi, 268.
* 1999 (Editor together with Ellen Raven) Fifteenth International Conference on South Asian Archaeology, Leiden, 5–9 July 1999. Abstracts. IIAS Leiden. European Association of South Asian Archæologists. pp. 67.
* 2004 (Editor) Origin and Growth of the Purāṇic Text Corpus with Special Reference to the Skandapurāṇa. Delhi. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference Vol. 3.2. pp. xii, 208.
* 2004 (Editor) The Vākāṭaka Heritage. Indian Culture at the Crossroads. Edited by Hans T. Bakker. Egbert Forsten, Groningen 2004. Gonda Indological Studies XIII. pp. viii, 196.
* 2005 (Editor) Een Tuil Orchideëen. Anthologie uit de Tuin der Geesteswetenschappen te Groningen. Barkhuis Publishing, Groningen. pp. viii, 247.
* 2008 (Editor) Mansar. The Discovery of Pravareśvara and Pravarapura, Temple and Residence of the Vākāṭaka King Pravarasena II. Proceedings of a Symposium at the British Museum, London, 30 June 1 July 2008. Library of the University of Groningen, Groningen.

### Articles

* 2021 Diversity and organization in Early Śaivism. in: De Simini, Florinda & Csaba Kiss (eds.), Śivadharmāmṛta. Essays on the Śivadharma and its Network. Università di Napoli L’Orientale Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo. The Śivadharma Project. Studies on the History of Śaivism II. Unior Press, Napoli. pp. 1–17. https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-228-1
* 2022 A Theatre of Broken Dreams 2.0. Vidiśā in the Days of Gupta Hegemony. in: Kulke, Hermann & B.P. Sahu (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of the State in Premodern India, Chapter 9. London & New York. pp. 191–207. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003242062-12.
* 2022 Prabhākara. Sigillary and Epigraphic Evidence: Shall the Twain Meet? in: Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 107 (2021), pp. 71-86.