J. E. B. Gray

Biography

John Evelyn Bury Gray was born on April 1, 1924, at Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. He attended Dublin University in Ireland, graduating with a B.A. Gray was fluent in Sanskrit. In 1948, Gray began working at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, where he was a lecturer in Sanskrit. He remained at the university until his retirement in 1989. Gray traveled to Bombay, India, in the early 1950’s and to Mahārāstra, India, in the late 1950’s.

Gray wrote many scholarly articles about Indian culture and language. In 1959, he published two articles in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. In one article, “An Analysis of Rgvedic Recitation,” he examined Rgvedic Brahman chants, explaining that academics had not investigated thoroughly those Vedic recitations. When he went to India, Gray recorded eight Vedic hymns with more than one hundred verses recited by an elderly man in Bombay and six hymns with approximately eighty verses told by a Mahārāstra pandit, or wise man, who had mastered those Vedic chants for his community. For his second article, “An Analysis of Nambudiri Rgvedic Recitation and the Nature of the Vedic Accent,” Gray borrowed recordings from Kerala in southern India to examine pitch changes in chants. He also evaluated another professor’s 1956 recordings from Kathmandu, Nepal.

Gray’s best-known book was a collection of Indian folktales that he selected and retold for young readers. In 1959, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies contacted Oxford University Press and recommended that Gray write a book about India for the Oxford Myths and Legends series for children. Gray developed an intense sickness which disrupted his writing of Indian Tales and Legends, delaying its publication until the fall of 1961. The fables and myths included in the collection originally were written in the Sanskrit and Pali languages and told by Brahmans and Buddhists. Gray said his selections revealed significant aspects and themes of Indian culture.

Suffering from throat cancer, Gray died on February 7, 1991, at his home in Sutton Valence, Kent England. His son, Nicholas Charles Bury Gray, was with him when he died.

Gray’s scholarly and popular writing retained significance into the twenty-first century. Scholars have continued to cite Gray’s authoritative articles. Indian Tales and Legends was reprinted several times, distributed on microform, and translated into Romanian. Schools included Gray’s book in their social studies lesson plans.