# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bendall, Cecil

​BENDALL, CECIL (1856–1906), professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge, born at Islington on 1 July 1856, was youngest son in a family of six sons and three daughters of Robert Smith Bendall, a tradesman in London, by Ms wife Elizabeth Kay, daughter of William Holmes. A precocious child, he attended the City of London School from 1869 to 1875, under Dr. Edwin Abbott Abbott. There he gained a Carpenter scholarship in 1871. As a boy he developed a keen taste, which he retained through life, for ecclesiastical architecture and monumental brasses, as well as for music, especially the work of Bach and Palestrina. From 1873 onwards he was taught Sanskrit at school, his teacher being Mr. George Frederick Nicholl, afterwards professor of Arabic at Oxford, who offered to instruct a few of the more promising classical scholars. Bendall made rapid strides in the language. In October 1875 he went to Cambridge as minor scholar in classics and Sanskrit exhibitioner of Trinity College. During seven years' residence in the university he read Sanskrit with Prof. Edward Byles Cowell [q. v. Suppl. II], whose influence decided the direction of his career. In October 1877 he migrated as a scholar to Caius College, graduating B.A. as fifth in the first class in the classical tripos in 1879. He was fellow of Caius from 1879 to 1886. Meanwhile in the summer of 1879 he attended Prof. Benfey's lectures at Gottingen on the Veda and on Zend, and in 1881 gained a first class in the Indian languages tripos at Cambridge. He had already in 1880 contributed an annotated abridgment of 'The Megha-Sutra,' with translation, to the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society' (n.s. xii. 286 seq.). In the October term of 1881 he gave lectures in Sanskrit to classical students and to Indian civil service candidates studying at the university, and he completed in 1883 at Mr. Henry Bradshaw's suggestion a still indispensable 'Catalogue of the Buddhist Sanskrit MSS. in the University Library of Cambridge,' which had been initiated by Prof. (Swell. In the introduction, Bendall for the first time showed systematically how palæograph determined the age of Sanskrit MSS. In 1882 he left Cambridge to become senior assistant in the department of Oriental MSS. and printed books in the British Museum, and he held the post till his retirement, through ill-health, in 1898. While at the museum he published for the trustees catalogues of the Sanskrit and Pali books (1893) and of the Sanskrit manuscripts (1902).
He also engaged in professorial work, holding the chair of Sanskrit at University College, London, from 1885 to 1903.
With the aid of grants from the Worts fund at Cambridge he twice visited Nepal and Northern India for the acquisition of MSS. for the Cambridge University library. On his first visit (1884-5) he obtained some 500 Sanskrit MSS. and nine inscribed tablets (cf. J. F. Fleet, Inscriptions of the Gupta Dynasty, p. 184). Of this visit he gave an account in his 'Journey of Literary and Archaeological Research in Nepal and Northern India' (1886). To the Royal Asiatic Society's 'Journal' (1888, pp. 465-501) he contributed extracts from the Sanskrit text, with translation and notes, of 'The Tantrakhyana,' a collection of Indian folklore, which he had discovered in a unique palm-leaf MS. during this visit to Nepal. A second visit followed his withdrawal from the British Museum (1898-9) and resulted in the acquisition of some ninety MSS. (see Roy. Asiat. Soc. Journal, 1900, p. 162). Elected in 1883 a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, he was from 1884 a member of its council. He frequently read papers at the meetings of the International Congress of Orientalists, and was delegate for his university in 1899 and 1902.
In 1901 he succeeded Robert Alexander Neil [q. v. Suppl. II] as university lecturer and lecturer to the Indian civil service board at Cambridge. In 1902 he became curator of Oriental literature in the ​university library. Next year, on the death of his old teacher, Prof. Cowell, he was elected professor of Sanskrit in the university, delivering on 24 Oct. his inaugural address on 'Some of the aims and methods of recent Indian research.' He was made honorary fellow of his college in 1905. Bendall, who combined a lifelong devotion to music with many other social gifts, died on 14 March 1906 at Liverpool after a long illness, and was buried at the Huntingdon Road cemetery, Cambridge. He married at Esher on 19 July 1898 a French lady, Georgette, daughter of Georges Joseph Ignace Jung, and widow of G. Mosse of Cowley Hall, Middlesex, but had no issue. She became a member of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1901, was author of 'Practical Lessons in Cookery for Small Households' (1905), and died on 24 Dec. 1910 at her sister's residence in Paris.
Bendall was a sound textual critic, an expert in Indian palaeography and epigraphy, and an inspiring teacher. The Tibetan language was within his range of knowledge. His most important published works dealt with the Sanskrit Buddhist literature of the Mahayana, which he made his special study. They were: 1. 'Qiksasamuccaya' (an important compendium of Buddhist doctrine), Sanskrit text with critical notes published in 'Bibliotheca Buddhica' by the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, 1897-1902. Bendall, who had discovered the work in Nepal, was engaged with Dr. W. H. D. Rouse on its translation at his death. 2. 'Subhasita-samgraha,' text with notes, Louvain, 1903'. 3. (with Louis de la Vallee Poussin) 'Bodhisattvabhumi,' Louvain, 1905.
By his will he left his Oriental palm-leaf MSS. and printed books to Cambridge University (for description see Journal Royal Asiatic Soc. 1900, p. 345, and April 1907). His residuary estate after Mrs. Bendall's death was assigned to the foundation of a prize for Sanskrit at Caius College, a small sum being allotted to the formation there of an Oriental library for junior students (The Times, 18 June 1906). Part of his valuable musical collection was acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum.
[The Times, 15 March 1906; will, 18 June 1906; Who's Who, 1906; Journal, Roy. Asiat. Soc. n.s. 1906, xx. 527 seq. (notice by Prof. E. J. Rapson); In Memoriam Cecil Bendall, by H. T. Francis (privately printed), 1906; Cambridge Review, 26 April 1906; private information.]
W. B. O.