CAPPELLER, Carl Johann Wilhelm. Alexkehmen, Ostpreussen 22.3.1840 — Jena 17.7.1925. German Indologist. Professor in Jena. Son of an estate owner from East Prussia, Wilhelm C., and Amalie Knochenhauer, educated at Glumbinnen Gymnasium. In 1860-64 studies of classical philology, soon also of Sanskrit (under Bopp and Weber), IE and Lithuanian at Berlin. Ph.D. 1868 Leipzig. In 1872 habilitation at Jena. With the Bopp Scholarship visited Paris, London and Oxford studying manuscripts. Back in Jenaworked as schoolteacher and, nominated 1875 ao. Professor at university, also continued at school until 1905 to supplement his meagre salary.Never promoted to ordinarius.Hofrat 1908. Married 1889 Anna Lengning, three sons.
In Jena Cappeller represented the philological side of Indology beside the linguist Delbrück. He was one of the best specialists of Indian drama and knew Sanskrit remarkably well. As a philologist he followed eclectic method without giving much attention to recensions. Thus e.g. his Śakuntalā is an eclectic text based on the Devanāgarī recension. His dictionary was prepared to offer the gist of Böhtligk’s large works to students and it has been very much used. Translated Western poetry in Sanskrit. He was popular as a teacher, but as he never got ordinary position all students finished their doctorate under others.
Publications: Diss. Observationes ad Kālidāsae Mālavikāgnimitram. 33 p. Königsberg 1868; habil.diss. Die Gaṇachandas. Ein Beitrag zur indischen Metrik. 4+122 p. Lp. 1872.
– Edited: Harṣa, Ratnāvalī in Böhtlingk, Sanskrit-Chrestomathie, 2nd ed. St.Petersburg 1877, 290-340.
– Edited: Kāvyālañkāravṛttiḥ. Vāmanas Lehrbuch der Poetik. 11+87 p. Jena 1875; translated: Vâmana’s Stilregeln. 12+38+24 p.Strassburg 1880.
– Edited: Zwei indische Lustspiele: Kaviśekhara’s Dhūrtasamāgama & Jagadīśvara’s Hāsyārṇava. 44 p. Jena 1883; Pracaṇḍapāṇḍava. Ein Drama des Rājaçekhara. 9+50 p. Strassburg 1885; Kālidāsa’s Śakuntalā (kürzere Textform). 20+160 p. Lp. 1909.
– Sanskrit-Wörterbuch. 8+541 p. Strassburg 1887; A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Strassburg 1891.
– Bhāravi’s Poem Kirātārjunīya or Arjuna’s Combat with Kirāta. H.O.S. 15. Cambridge Mass. 1912 (tr. in German); Bālamāgha. Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha im Auszüge bearbeitet. 20+188 p. B.–St.–Lp. 1915.
– Yavanaśatakam, 1000 Sanskrit-Strophen nach griechischen Dichter. 14 p. Jena 1903 and IA 1905; Subhāṣitamālikā, ein Auswahl von Sprüchen deutscher Dichter in Sanskrit nachgebildet. 28 p. Jena 1908 and IA 1903.
– Translated: Buddhas Wandel (Açvaghosha’s Buddhacarita). Jena 1922; Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, Drama. 91 p. Lp. 1922.
– Edited: Kaip senëji Lëtuvinki gyveno. 1904 (transl. by J. Charpentier, “Hur de gamla litauerna levde”, MO 1, 1906, 101-133); transl. Litauische Märchen und Geschichten. 8+168 p. B. 1924.
– Kleine Schriften und Sanskrit-Gedichte. Hrsg. von S. Lienhard. 9+433 p. Glasenapp-Stiftung 14. Wb. 1977.
Sources: W. Kirfel, N.D.B. 3, 1957, 133; *Margot & Martin Kraatz, Carl Capeller, Moriz Winternitz und Theodor Zachariae. Indologica Marpurgensia 2. Munich 2010, 1-33; Krollmann, Altpreuss. Biogr. 1, 1941, 99; Stache-Rosen 1990, 87f.; Stache-Weiske 2017, 263-267, 512; Windisch 381-384; briefly in D.B.E. 2, 1995, 277.
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