Dhanesh Kumar Jain (; 1939–2019) was the founder of the publishing house Ratna Sagar, an

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

, and a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

. Jain was born in

Jammu Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...

. His family ran a business in button trading. His early education was from

Hindu College, Delhi Hindu College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Founded in 1899, it is one of the oldest colleges in India, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the Science and technology studies, sciences, humanities and c ...

and then

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...

. He earned two master's degrees from

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

, in Hindi and English. He received his Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1973 for his dissertation entitled "Pronominal Usage in Hindi: A Sociolinguistic Study", advised by Dell Hathway Hymes and Franklin Southworth. After teaching Hindi at Penn, in 1973 he returned to India and joined the Linguistics department at

Jawaharlal Nehru University Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU; ISO: Javāharalāla Neharū Viśvavidyālaya) is a public research university located in Delhi, India. It was established in 1969 and named after Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. The university ...

. In 1982, he formed Ratna Sagar, a publishing house for textbooks and teaching materials. Ratna Sagar later oversaw imprints such as Primus and Ratna Books. Jain continued working in linguistics alongside running Ratna Sagar, notably coauthoring ''The Indo-Aryan Languages'' with

George Cardona George Cardona (; born June 3, 1936) is an American linguist, Indologist, Sanskritist, and scholar of Pāṇini. Described as "a luminary" in Indo-European, Indo-Aryan, and Pāṇinian linguistics since the early sixties, Cardona has been recogn ...

, a comprehensive and foundational volume covering the Indo-Aryan language family. He also edited the

Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, East ...

Series in Linguistics. His wife was Kusum Jain, whom he met at Delhi University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Dhanesh Linguists of Indo-Aryan languages Linguists of Hindi Indologists 1939 births 2019 deaths Hindu College, Delhi alumni Fergusson College alumni Delhi University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University Indian publishers (people) People from Jammu (city)