Dr. Robert Goldman

Professor Goldman completed his bachelor’s degree in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit) at Columbia College in 1964, graduating with the Taraknath Das Prize in Oriental Studies, and his doctorate in Sanskrit (Oriental Studies) at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.

He has served as Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Rochester (1970-1971) and, at the University of California at Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Sanskrit (1971-75) Associate Professor of Sanskrit, (1975-79) and Professor of Sanskrit, (1979—). He was the inaugural holder of the Sarah Kailath Chair in India Studies, an endowed Berkeley professorship established in 1996. In 1984-85 he served as the Spalding Visiting Lecturer in Eastern Religion and Ethics at Wolfson College, the University of Oxford.

Professor Goldman has authored numerous scholarly works on Sanskrit literature and Indian culture with particular emphasis on studies of the great Indian epics. He is the director of and a principal translator in a major ongoing collaborative project on the translation and annotation of the critical edition of the monumental Sanskrit epic the Valmiki Ramayana, a seminal work of Asian civilization. At present he and his collaborator are working on the sixth of the seven volumes that will constitute this massive work. The fith volume in this series was cited as one of “The 100 Best Books of 1997” by the Los Angeles Times Book Review (Sunday, December 14, 1997)

Professor Goldman has received a number of awards and honors in recognition of his scholarly contribution to the field of India Studies, including

* Fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Institute of Indian Studies.

* Citation and Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of California, Berkeley, 1974.

* Honorary Fellowship at Calcutta Sanskrit College, 1992.

* Election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996

* Awarded Honorary Degree of “Vidyasagara” (“Ocean of Learning”) by the Mandakini Samskrita Vidvat Parishad, New Delhi at the Xth World Sanskrit Conference, Bangalore, India 1997