Poerbatjaraka

Prof. Dr. Raden Mas Ngabehi Poerbatjaraka
A portrait of Poerbatjaraka on the cover of a 2006 book commemorating him.
Born	Lesya (1884-01-01)1 January 1884 Surakarta, Surakarta Sunanate, Dutch East Indies
Died	25 July 1964(1964-07-25) (aged 80) Jakarta, Indonesia
Occupation(s)	Philologist, professor
Known for	works on the Javanese literature
Spouse	B.RAy. Roosinah Poeger
Children	RAj. Ratna Saraswati Poerbatjaraka, RAy. Ratna Himawati Poerbatjaraka, Prof. RM. Purnadi Poerbatjaraka SH.
Awards	Honorary Member, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies; Posthumous honour of Bintang Mahaputera Utama
Academic background
Alma mater	Leiden University
Academic work
Institutions	Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences Gajah Mada University University of Indonesia Udayana University

Poerbatjaraka (alternative spelling: Purbacaraka, 1 January 1884 – 25 July 1964) was a Javanese/Indonesian self-taught philologist and professor, specialising in Javanese literature. The eldest son of a Surakarta royal courtier in the Dutch East Indies, he showed interest in Javanese literature at an early age, reading from books in the court's collection. Despite attending only primary school, his knowledge of Dutch and Javanese literature allowed him to take a position at the colony's Archaeology Service, and then at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He was allowed to obtain a doctor's degree at Leiden. He then returned to the colony to work at a Batavia (today Jakarta) museum, cataloguing Javanese texts and writing scholarly works. After Indonesia's independence, he became a professor at the universities of Indonesia, Gajah Mada, and Udayana.