Jaroslav Vacek was born on June 26, 1943, and died on January 23, 2017.

He was director of the Institute of South and Central Asia and former dean of the Philosophical Faculty at the Charles University in Prague, where he founded the teaching and research of Mongolian as a new subject.

Vacek a member of the Czech Oriental Society, the Prague Linguistic Circle, and The Learned Society.

Vacek translated the Bhagavad Gita from Sanskrit into Czech.

Jaroslav Vacek was interested mainly in linguistic problems on the Indian linguistic area and the Dravidian and Altaic relationships, where he applies new research approach.

Vacek also speaks fluent Tamil and is an authority on Tamil and Dravidian linguistics.

Jaroslav Vacek passed away at 73 years old.