Foreign Indologists

By Swami Harshananda

William George Archer

He lived in A.D. 1907-1979. He studied at the Cambridge University and joined the Indian Civil Service. He worked in Bihar and specialized in the folk art of Bihar later becoming a general art-critic. After retirement in A. D. 1948 he returned to England. He was connected throughout his life as Keeper or Curator of the various collections of Indian Paintings in England. Some of his publications are:

1. Kangra Paintings'
2. Indian Paintings from Rajasthan'
3. Indian Miniatures'
4. Kalighat Paintings

Arthur Avalon

He lived in A. D. 1865-1936. This is the pen-name of Sir John George Woodroffe, an Englishman who became famous as the expositor of the Tārānātha Tarkavācaspati. Vācaspatyam is a monumental encyclopedic dictionary of Sanskrit. Its author was Tārānāth Tarkavācaspati. He belonged to Kalna in West Bengal. Being the best student of the Sanskrit College of Calcutta, he won the title Tarkavācaspati. He had his higher studies in Vedānta and Pāṇini’s sutras at Vārāṇasī. Later, he served as the Professor of Grammar at the Calcutta Sanskrit College. Apart from the Vācaspatyam, his other work is the commentary Saralā on the Siddhāntakaumudi of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita.

James Robert Ballantyne

He lived in A.D. 1813-1864. He was educated at the Edinburgh College and studied Oriental Languages. He was the principal of the Sanskrit College of Vārāṇasī for 16 years. Later he became the Librarian of the India Office Library at London. His works are:

1. Sāñkhya Aphorisms of Kapila
2. Nyāya Sutra in two parts
3. Vaiśesika Sutra
4. Mahābhāsya of Patañjali
5. YogaSutra of Patañjali

Lionel David Barnett

He lived in A. D. 1871-1960. He was a student of the Cambridge University. Barnett was a linguist, apart from Sanskrit he knew several languages like Tibetan, Persian and Hebrew. He worked as Professor of Sanskrit at the London University. Later he taught at the School of Oriental Studies and also was the keeper of the British Museum. The following are some of his works:

1. Hindu Gods and Heroes
2. Antiquities of India
3. Brahman Knowledge, An Outline of the Philosophy of Vedānta

John Beames

He lived in A. D. 1837-1902. He had served as an I.C.S. officer in Punjab and later in Bengal. He was considered as an important orientalist of his times. Some of his works are:

1. A Comparative Grammar of the Aryan Languages
2. Outlines of Indian philology
3. Bengali Grammar

Maurice Bloomfield

He lived in A. D. 1855-1928. He was one of the well-known scholars of the Vedas and comparative grammar. He was born in Austria but migrated to the U.S.A. He was the head of the department of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in the Johns Hopkins University for 45 years. Vedic Concordance is his most famous work. The other works are:

1. Ṛgveda Repetitions
2. Translation of the Atharvaveda

Alice Boner

He lived in A. D. 1981. Alice Boner was a lady Indologist from Switzerland. She came to India in A. D. 1929 and later settled down in Vārāṇasī. She was deeply interested in ancient Indian art. Among her works are:

1. Principles of Composition in Hindu Sculpture
2. Cave Temple Period
3. New Light on the Sun Temple of Konarak

Johanon Georg Buhler

He lived in A.D. 1837-1898. He belonged to Germany and did his doctorate from the Goettingen University in Oriental Languages and Archaeology. He went to Paris, London and the Oxford Universities for Sanskrit studies. He came to India in A. D. 1861 and served in the government in various capacities. He successfully collected over 5000 Sanskrit manuscripts from Western India. The oldest among them was the script of Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarañginī. He edited and published the Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research. His important works are:

1. Aphorism on the Sacred Laws of the Hindus by Āpastamba
2. The Sacred Law of the Aryan as taught in the School of Āpastamba
3. Gautama, Vaṣistha and Boudhāyana

Ebenezer Burgess

He lived in A. D. 1805-1870. Burgess came from the U.S.A. to India as a missionary in A. D. 1838. He lived for 15 years in various places in Maharashtra and returned to U.S.A in A. D. 1854. A translation of the Suryasiddhānta is his chief work.

James Burgess

He lived in A. D. 1832-1916. He was an Englishman who came to India as a professor of Mathematics in the Doveton College of Calcutta in A. D. 1855. He did a lot of work in the field of Indology before returning to his country in A. D. 1889. He served as the Director General of Archaeological Survey of India also. His chief contributions are:

1. Starting and editing the Epigraphia Indica
2. The publications:

• Temples of Śatruñjaya
• Rock Temples of Elephanta\ Rock-cut Temples of India
• Cave Temples of India

Arthur Coke Burnell

He lived in A. D. 1840-1882. Hailing from England, Arthur Coke Burnell joined the Madras Civil Service in A. D. 1860 and worked mainly on the judicial side. He had made an extensive collection of Sanskrit manuscripts which he presented to the India Office Library in London. The following are his works:

1. The Aindra School of Sanskrit Grammarians'
2. The Ordinances of Manu
3. Ārseya Brāhmana of the Sāmaveda

Edward Byles Cowell

He lived in A.D. 1826-1903. He belonged to Ipswich in England. He was interested in oriental subjects even from his school days. He learnt Sanskrit with diligence. He came to India and was appointed Professor of History at the Presidency College of Calcutta in A. D. 1856. Later, he became the Principal of the Sanskrit College. After leaving India and returning to England, he was appointed as the Professor of Sanskrit at the Cambridge University. He taught Sanskrit, Indian Philosophy, Comparative Philology and Persian.

Among his many works, a few may be mentioned:

1. Edited the Prākṛt Grammar of Vararuci
2. Translations of Kausitaki Upanisad and Maitrāyani Upanisad
3. Sarvadarśanasañgraha of Mādhava-Vidyāraṇya with translation
4. Śāndilya Bhaktisutras with Svapneśvara Bhāsya
5. Translation of Kusumāñjali

Paul Deussen

He lived in A. D. 1845-1919. Paul Deussen of Germany was a great scholar of the Upaniṣads and served as a Professor of Philosophy at the Universities of Berlin and Kiel. He translated nearly 60 Upaniṣads into German. The first volume of his three volume edition of History of Philosophy deals with Indian philosophy only. He had traveled all over India and delivered talks on Vedānta.

John Dowson

He lived in A. D. 1820-1881. He was an assistant in the Royal Asiatic Society of London. He also served as a professor at the University College, London. He edited History of India as told by her own Historians written by H. M. Elliod in 8 volumes. His famous work is "A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History and Literature". It is still in print.

Julius Eggeling

He lived in A. D. 1841-1918. A native of Germany, he served as Professor of Sanskrit in the Universities of London and Edinburgh. He prepared catalogs of Sanskrit manuscripts and edited several grammars. His most famous work was the translation of the Śaṭapatha Brāhmana in 5 volumes in the Sacred Books of the East series.

Richard Karl Von Garbe

He lived in A. D. 1857-1927. A citizen of Germany, Garbe was a Sanskrit scholar. He served as Extraordinary Professor of Sanskrit at the Konigsberg University. In A. D. 1885 he came to Vārāṇasī to study Sanskrit from the pundits. He had specialized in Sāṅkhya philosophy. He wrote two books, one on Sāñkhya and the other on the Bhagavadgītā, both in German.

Theodoe Goldstucker

He lived in A. D. 1821-1872. A German by birth, Goldstucker became the Professor of Sanskrit at the University College, London in A. D. 1850. He was an authority on Sanskrit philology. Some of his works are:

1. Pānini, His Place in Sanskrit Literature
2. Mānava- Kalpasutra

He also edited the Mahābhāsya of Patañjali and got it published.

George Abraham Grierson

He lived in A.D. 1851-1941. He was from Ireland. He joined the Indian Civil Service and worked in Bihar. Later he became the Director of the Linguistic Survey of India in A. D. 1898- 1902. His contributions are:

1. Linguistic Survey of India in 19 volumes
2. Essays on Kashmiri Grammar
3. Piśāca Languages of North-Western India

Ralph Thomas Hotchken Griffith

He lived in A.D. 1826-1906. He was a student of the Oxford University. He was a Boden Sanskrit Scholar. He became the Professor of English first and later the Principal of the Banaras College at Vārāṇasī. Some of his works are:

1. Rāmāyana of Vālmīki
2. The Hymns of the Rgveda
3. The Hymns of the Atharvaveda
4. Text of the White Yajurveda

Griffith was the founder and editor of a Sanskrit journal Pandit for eight years.

Ernest Binfield Havell

He lived in A.D. 1861-1934. Educated at the Royal College of Arts he was the Principal of the Madras Art School for six years. He became the Principal of the Government School of Art at Calcutta later. He tried to revive the Indian Tradition of painting. His works include Indian Architecture and Indian Sculpture and Painting.

Henry Heras

He lived in A.D. 1888-1955. Henry Heras belonged to the Society of Jesus. He came to India in A. D. 1912 and spent the rest of his life here itself. He worked mostly on Medieval India and the Proto-History of India and wrote 17 books and 300 papers on Indian History and Culture. In A. D. 1926, he established the Indian Historical Research Institute which was later renamed Heras Institute of Indian History and Culture. His important work is Beginning of Vijayanagara History.

Augustus Rudolf Frederic Hoerule

He lived in A.D. 1841-1918. Though born in India, Hoerule was educated at the University of Basel in Switzerland. He was a member of the Church Missionary Society. He worked in the Indian Educational Service. After retirement, he lived in Oxford. He was a scholar of archaeology and epigraphy. He contributed a number of articles to The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Indian Antiquary. His books that need mention are:

1. Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India'
2. Report on the British Collection of the Central Asian Antiquities

Edward Washburn

He lived in A.D. 1857-1932. He was the Professor of Greek, Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale, U.S.A. His works are:

1. Caste in Ancient India
2. Manu’s Law Book'
3. Religions of India
4. Legends of India

Eugen Julius Theodor Hultzch

He lived in A.D. 1857-1927. A German scholar, he came to India and worked as Epigraphist to the Indian Archaeological Department in Madras. After returning to Germany he worked as Professor of Sanskrit at Halle. His works include:

1. Baudhāyana Dharmasutra (Ed.)
2. South Indian Inscriptions
3. German translation of Tarkasañgraha of Aṇṇambhaṭṭa

Julius Jolly

He lived in A. D. 1849-1932. A German savant, Jolly had specialized in Indian Linguistics and Ancient Hindu Law. He was the Tagore Law Lecturer at the Calcutta University. For the Sacred Books of the East, he had translated the Dharmasutras of Viṣṇu, Nārada and Bṛhaspati.

William Jones

He lived in A.D. 1746-1794. It was William Jones who gave a fillip to Indological studies in India by establishing the Asiatic Society of Bengal in A. D. 1784. He was its president till his death. He was an Oxford scholar. He came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court in Calcutta. He was the first English scholar to know Sanskrit. He translated some well-known literary works like:

1. Śakuntalā
2. Hitopadeśa
3. Gitagovinda
4. Manusmṛti

Arthur Berriedale Keith

He lived in A.D. 1879-1944. Keith was awarded Boden Sanskrit scholarship and passed out of Oxford as a scholar of Sanskrit and Pālī. He was the Professor of Sanskrit at the Edinburgh University for thirty years. Some of his more well-known works are:

1. The Veda of the Black Yajus School
2. Taittiriya Samhitā
3. The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brāhmanas
4. A History of Sanskrit Literature

The work Vedic Index of Names and Subjects was co-authored by him along with Macdonnel.

Franz Kielhorn

He lived in A. D. 1840-1908. He belonged to Germany. He had passed out four prestigious universities. He was the Principal of the Deccan College, Pune for 15 years. His works include Kātyāyana and Patañjali and Mahābhāsya of Patañjali in three volumes.

Stella Kramrisch

He lived in A. D. 1898-1993. A product of the Vienna University of Austria, she worked as Professor of Indian Art in the Calcutta University for many years. Later she was the Professor of South Asian Art in the University of Pennsylvania. The following are some of her works:

1. Principles of Indian Art
2. Indian Sculpture'
3. The Hindu Temple

Arthur Antony Macdonnel

He lived in A.D. 1854-1930. He was born in India but educated at the Oxford University. He secured his Ph.D. from the Liepzig University for editing the famous work Sarvānukramanī of Kātyāyana. He was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford for 27 years. Among his works significant once are:

1. Sanskrit English Dictionary
2. Vedic Mythology
3. Brhaddevatā - Vedic Index of Names and Subjects in collaboration with A. B. Keith
4. Vedic Hymns

Ernst John Henry Mackay

He lived in A.D. 1880-1943. He was an Englishman by birth. He served as a Special Officer of the Archaeological Survey of India for five years. He was associated with the excavations in the Indus Valley. Two of his well-known works are:

1. Further Excavations at Mohenjodaro
2. Early Indus Civilization

John Hubert Marshall

He lived in A.D. 1876-1958. He is remembered for his pioneering work in the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization. He was the Director General of the newly organised Archaeological Survey of India from A. D. 1902 to 1931. The historical sites excavated by him during the earlier years included Nālandā, Vaiśālī, Pāṭalīputra and Taxila. The last decade of his service was devoted to the excavations which led to the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization. His two final reports which has made his immortal are:

1. Mohenjodaro and Indus Valley Civilization
2. Taxila

Friedrick Max Miller

He lived in A. D. 1823-1900. Max Muller, as he was more popularly known, was the first Western scholar who had studied and translated the entire Ṛgveda with Śāyanabhāsya. He did this during the period A. D. 1849 to 1873 and published it in six volumes. He belonged to Prussia and obtained the Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the Liepzig University. He worked as Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford. He was mainly responsible for the publication of the Sacred Books of the East series in 50 volumes, himself contributing three translations:

1. Upanisads
2. Vedic Hymns
3. Dhammapada

Max Muller wrote books on:

1. Linguistics
2. Mythology
3. Comparative Religion
4. Hinduism
5. Folklore

Monier Williams

He lived in A.D. 1819-1899. Born at Bombay but educated at London and Oxford, Monier Williams was Professor of Sanskrit and Persian at the Haileybury College. He was later elected as the Boden Professor of Sanskrit. In A. D. 1883 he founded the Indian Institute at Oxford as a center of Indian learning and interests. His greatest work was the Sanskrit-English Dictionary. His other works are:

1. English-Sanskrit Dictionary
2. Indian Wisdom
3. Religious life and Thought of India

Gustav Oppert

He lived in A.D. 1836-1908. A native of Germany, Gustav Oppert studied at Leipzig and Berlin. He was made Professor of Sanskrit at the Presidency College, Madras. He was also the Curator of the Government Oriental Manuscript Library. After returning to Germany, he was appointed as the Professor of Sanskrit at the Berlin University in A. D. 1894. Among his works are:

1. The Śukra-nitisāra
2. The Classification of Languages

Friedrich Otto Schrader

He lived in A.D. 1876-1961. A German scholar of Sanskrit, Otto Scharader was Professor of Indology and Linguistics in Kiel in North West Germany. His famous works are:

1. Introduction to Pāñcarātra
2. Ahirbudhnya Samhitā
3. The Minor Upaniṣads
4. The Kashmir Recension of the Bhagavadgitā

George Frederick William Thibaut

He lived in A.D. 1848-1914. He was more popularly known as George Thibaut. He was a German Sanskrit scholar who served as Professor of Sanskrit and later as Principal of the Benares Sanskrit College. For some time, he worked at the Calcutta University also. He edited and/or translated a number of Sanskrit works. The following are some of them:

1. The Śulbasutra of Baudhāyana with translation
2. Vedāntasutra with Śankara’s Commentary
3. Vedāntasutra with Rāmānuja’s Śrībhāsya

Albrecht Friedrick Weber

He lived in A.D. 1825-1901. A Sanskrit scholar from Germany, Weber edited and published the Śukla Yajurveda in two volumes. He also wrote the History of Indian Literature. He prepared a catalog of Sanskrit manuscripts of the Royal Library at Berlin. He was a pioneer in the study of Prākṛt languages and edited many texts of Jainism.

Richard Burton Whitehead

He lived in A.D. 1879-1967. He was a graduate from the Oxford University. He worked in the Indian Civil Service in Punjab. He started taking interest in old coins and inscriptions and soon became an expert in deciphering them. He founded the Numismatic Society of India in A. D. 1910.

William Dwight Whitney

He lived in A.D. 1827-1894. Starting life as a bank clerk, Whitney was attracted by Sanskrit and joined the Yale University to study it. Later, he became the Professor of Sanskrit and also the Professor of Comparative Linguistics, there itself. He published the Atharva Veda Samhitā in collaboration with Roth. He also wrote a Sanskrit Grammar.

Horace Hayman Wilson

He lived in A.D. 1796-1860. An Englishman who came to India in A. D. 1808, became the Secretary of the Asiatic Society in which he continued for 21 years. He was considered the greatest scholar of Sanskrit of his time. The following are his works:

1. The Visnupurāna with translation
2. Religion of the Hindus
3. The Theatre of the Hindus
4. Sanskrit-English Dictionary

John Wilson

He lived in A. D. 1804-1875. Originally from Scotland, John Wilson came to India in A. D. 1829 and spent the rest of his life here itself. He was an archaeologist, epigraphist and antiquarian. He was the President of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society for seven years. Among his works two may be mentioned here:

1. Karla Caves
2. Memoir on Cave Temples

Moriz Winternitz

He lived in A. D. 1863-1937. Born in Austria and educated at the Vienna University where he got his Ph.D. for his work on an aspect of the Āpastamba Gṛhyasutras, Moriz Winternitz helped Max Muller in preparing the second edition of the Ṛgveda. He was a prolific writer. His greatest work is the History of Indian Literature in three volumes. He also helped the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune in preparing the Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata.

Zimmer Robert Heinrich

He lived in A.D. 1890-1943. He was a well-known Indologist from Germany. His father, Heinrich Zimmer, too was an Indologist of a repute. Robert Zimmer’s works are:

1. Hindu Medicine
2. Philosophies of India
3. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

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