Provided by Wikipedia Hermann Kulke (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German historian and Indologist, who was professor of South and Southeast Asian history at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988–2003). After receiving his PhD in Indology from Freiburg University in 1967, he taught for 21 years at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University (SAI).
He was a founding member of the Orissa Research Project (ORP) of the Southasia Institute (1970–1975), and was coordinator of the second ORP.
Specialization: pre-colonial South and Southeast Asian History; early state formation and historiography; regional cultures of India with emphasis on Orissa; Indianization of Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean Studies.
* In 2005 he received the Gold Medal of the Asiatic Society of Kolkata.
* In 2010 he was awarded the order of Padma Shri by the President of India.
* The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany was awarded to him by the President of Germany in 2011.