KAŁUSKI, Antoni. w Nakle, powiat Włoszczowa, województwo Kielce 19.6.1894 — Moscow 20.9.1935. Polish Diplomat and Indologist. Born in a poor farmer family in the then Russian part of Poland, went to Gymnasium in Częstochow, matriculated in 1912. Studies of Polish, linguistics and Sanskrit at Cracow under Rozwadowski and Gawroński. Interrupted in his studies by war in 1915 he had to flee from Poland and after travelling through all Russia ended up in Vladivostok. Relieved from military service because of his poor health and unable to pursue Sanskrit there he turned into Sinology attending the little teaching the Oriental Institute was capable of giving during the war. In 1916 he went to India and spent two years in Calcutta in meagre conditions, giving teaching in Russian and learning English and Sanskrit. Back in Vladivostok in 1918 he tried to continue his studies at Institute, but soon became ill and, advised by his physician, moved to Manchuria and had to remain there when the border was closed. Knowing Chinese and English, he obtained an employment in Chinese customs and in 1922 in the new Polish consulate in Harbin. Served there seven years learnig the consular and diplomat work in practice, but also without abandoning his scholarly pursuits of Sanskrit and Chinese (although much in want of books and scholarly contacts). During the Polish-Chinese negotiations in 1927-28 he was Assistant to the Polish delegation in Peking and was then raised into Secretary to Consulate in Harbin, but after a year was moved to the Oriental Department of Foreign Ministry in Warsaw. Now he was also able to conclude his Sanskrit studies at the university. In 1932 he was sent to Moscow as Secretary to the Ambassador and died there in a car accident in the age of 42. Thus he had never an opportunity to concentrate on scholarly work and his literary output consists of translations only (and many of them in manuscripts only).
Publications: A few translations in the Tygodnik Polski, published in Harbin, in the 1920s.
– Translated into Polish an anthology of Indian poetry (edited by St. Schayer), including extracts from the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, Ṛtusamhāra, and Gītāgovinda: Wielka Literatura Powszechna. 5. Antologia. Warsaw 1932.
– M.A. diss. Pratimānātaka i Kālidāsa. Manuscript.
Sources: K. Symonolewicz, RO 11, 1935 (1936), 270-272 (in Polish, with photo); Internet references to translations.
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