There he became acquainted with the three teachers who influenced him the most: W. Norman Brown in Indology, and Zellig Harris and Henry Hoenigswald in linguistics.

Through Brown, Bender pursued a career in Indology, specializing in medieval Jainism and its associated literature and art.

While studying Indology, Bender continued working with Harris on linguistics, coauthoring two articles on the Cherokee language.

An unpublished manuscript of Cherokee texts, complete with translations and grammatical analysis is stored in the Boas Collection in the Library of the American Philosophical Society.

Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed to the newly created South Asia Regional Studies Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bender had a pivotal role in developing teaching methods for Indian subcontinental languages in the American graduate studies framework.

During the World War II era and its immediate aftermath, when the discipline of linguistics began to gain acceptance, Bender participated in formulating teaching techniques for South Asian languages in the military system, US State Department staff, as well as graduate students.