HEIMANN, Betty. Wandsbeck bei Hamburg 29.3.1888 — Sirmione at the Lake Garda 19.5.1961. German Indologist in Sri Lanka. British citizen 1939. Daughter of banker Isaac H. and Margarethe Levy, father died when she was 10. After school in Hamburg studied classical philology and Indology at Kiel (Deussen, Sieg), briefly also at Heidelberg. Ph.D. 1920 Kiel (under Sieg), now further studies at Göttingen (Oldenberg), Bonn (Jacobi) and Hamburg (Konow). From 1923 PD at Halle (Hultzsch). In 1931-32 her first visit to India. In 1931-33 nebenbeamtl. ao. Professor at Halle, as a Jew she had to give up this post and leave Germany. From 1933 Senior Lecturer at University of London (S.O.A.S.), for a while also taught at Oxford, from 1945 ord. Professor of Sanskrit at University of Ceylon in Peradeniya. Retired in 1949 and returned to the U.K. In 1957 she was nominated ord. Professor at Halle, counted from 1935. It remains unclear, whether she actually taught there – perhaps she just got the full pension. Died of heart attack during her regular summer holiday in North Italy.
Heimann was an appreciated specialist of Indian philosophy. She was a pioneer of the study of Dvaita Vedānta in a time, when most scholars solely concentrated on Advaita. In her early works she tried to explain Indian thought from geographical and climatic conditions. Later she was also interested in the philosophy of language. Her’s was the first female Indological habilitation in Germany.
Publications: Diss. Madhvas (Ânandatîrthas) Kommentar zur Kâṭhaka-Upaniṣad. Text in Transcription nebst Übersetzung und Noten. Manuscript of 73 p. 1921 (4 p. publ. Bonn 1920); publ. 56 p. Lp. 1922.
– “Die Tiefschlaf-Spekulation der alten Upaniṣaden”, Z. f. Buddhismus 4, 1922, 22 p.
– Hab.diss. publ. as Die Entwicklung des Gottesbegriffes der Upaniṣaden. 1926.
– “Zur Struktur indischer Denkens”, Kant-Studien 30, 1925, 1-22; “Vergleich der Antithesen europäischen und indischen Denkens”, Kant-Studien 31, 1926, 549-562; “Varuṇa–Ṛta–Karma”, Festgabe H. Jacobi 1926, 201-214; “Die Bewegungsvorstellung im indischen Denken”, Festgabe R. Garbe 1927, 95-101; “Indische systematische Logik im Vergleich zur systematischen Logik Europas”, Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 15, 1927-28, 70-85; “Die Dingbezeichnungen in den alten Upaniṣaden”, ZII 6, 1928, 82-91; “Der Begriff der Individualität in indisch-buddhistischer Weltanschauung”, Handbuch der Biologie der Person 4, 1928; “Zur methodischen Betrachtung indischer Kunst”, OLZ 31, 1928, 666-671; “Zur indischen Namenkunde”, Ehrengabe W. Geiger 1931, ??-??.
– Studien zur Eigenart Indischen Denkens. 1-2. 6+328 p. Tübingen 1930-31.
– Indian and Western Philosophy. A Study in Contrasts. 156 p. L. 1937.
– Summary of a lecture on Ahiṁsā, ABORI 13:3-4, 1932, 331-334; “Zur Psychologie der indischen Grammatik”, ArO 7, 1935, 64-73; “Deutung und Bedeutung indischer Terminologie”, Atti del XIX Congresso Intern. degli Orientalisti Roma 1935, Rome 1938, 284-297; “Significance of numbers in Hindu philosophical texts”, JISOA 6, 1938, 57-72; “Nirvāṇa”, New Review (Calcutta) 8, 1938, 491-501; “Plurality, Polarity, and Unity in Hindu Thought: A Doxographical Study”, BSOS 9:4, 1939, 1015-1021; “Reality of Fiction in Hindu Thought”, D. R. Bhandarkar Vol. 1940, 97-101; “Sphoṭa and artha”, P. V. Kane Vol. 1941, 221-227.
– “The philosophy of flux. An analogous study in Heraclitean and Indian Thought”, ABORI 23, 1942, 177-186; “Lila. The divine play”, Univ. Ceylon Review 3:2, 1945, 29-34; “The significance of negation in Hindu philosophical thought”, B. C. Law Vol. 2, 1946, 408-413; “Basic ideas of India and the West”, Indian Arts and Letters 1946; “Kathenotheism and Dānastutis or Kathenotheirm and Iṣṭadevatās“, ABORI 28, 1947, 26-35; “From not ‘apart’ of meaning as exemplified in Sanskrit literature”, Univ. Ceylon Review 6, 1948, 23-28; “Concept of Deva in Hindu Thought”, JISOA 17, 1949, 22-41.
– The Significance of Prefixes in Sanskrit Philosophical Terminology. 99 p. R.A.S. Monogr. 25. L. 1950.
– “Subjectivism and objectivism in Hindu philosophy”, Siddheshwar Varma Vol. 1950, 36-43; “Facets of Hindu thought”, JOR 23, 1953-54, 1-18; “God and man in India: cosmos and person”, Hibbert Journal 53, 1955, 230-237; “Contrasts in Fundamental Postulates: Monotheism or Henotheism?”, Belvalkar Vol. 1957, 219-227; “The Supra-personal process of sacrifice”, RSO 32, 1957, 731-739.
– “Within the framework of Indian religion: the main dogma of Buddhism”, Numen 8, 1961, 1-11; “Opposites: contrasts or complements in early Greek and Indian philosophy”, ALB 25, 1961, 216-228; “The philosophy of the ‘it’”, Purāṇa 3, 1961, 297-308; “Graeco-Latin terms and Indian concepts – contrast exemplified”, Proc. of Intern. Congress of Or., Moscow 1961. Moscow 1963, 476-478.
– Facets of Indian Thought. 117 p. L. 1964.
Sources: *A. Pohlus in E. Labouvie (ed.), Frauen in Sachsen-Anhalt. 2, 2019, 207-209; V. R[aghavan], JOR 28, 1961, 166f.; J. F. Staal, JAOS 81, 1961, 464; D.G.K. 1926 & 1954; Lexikon deutsch-jüdischer Autoren 10, 2002, 353-355; briefly D.B.E. 4, 1996, 501; www.indologie.uni-halle.de/institutsgeschichte/betty_heimann/ with photo; Wikipedia with photo; the same photo also in Sardesai, then in Rau 118 and TITUS Galeria.
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