NORMAN, Harry Campbell. Winkleigh, Devonshire 19.12.1878 — Benares (Varanasi) 11.4.1913. British Indologist (Pāli Scholar) in India. Son of James Norman (d. 1910), a physician, and his wife Elizabeth Campbell, educated in Edinburgh. From 1896 studies at Edinburgh of Greek (under Butcher), Latin (Hardie) and Sanskrit (Eggeling). After M.A. in Classics moved in October 1899 to Oxford, Trinity College, where further studies of Sanskrit under Macdonell, also continued classical languages, Spanish and French (B.A.). With the expiring of scholarship in 1904 he had financial difficulties, but obtained a new scholarship and proceeded to Paris and Berlin. From 1905 until his death Professor of English Literature at Queen’s College in Benares (Varanasi). During vacations travelled in India and Ceylon.
Norman was a philologist mainly interested in Pāli language and literature. He started the editing of commentaries for the P.T.S. In Sanskrit he could not achieve much, although collated the Vājasaneyi-Saṁhitā and a few other texts in order to provide grammatical material to Macdonell. He was characterized as a popular teacher and keen sportsman (who was accidentally shot to death).
Publications: Edited: Dhammapadatthakatha. The commentary on the Dhammapada. 1-5. L. 1906-15 (P.T.S. Text Series 26-30; vol. 5 Indexes by L. S. Tailang).
– “A Defence of the Chronicles of the Southern Buddhists”, JRAS 1908, 1-11; “Gandhakuṭī – the Buddha’s Private Abode”, JASB N.S. 4, 1908 (1910), 1-5; “Sinhalese Historical Documents and the Maurya Inscriptions of Sārnāth”, JASB N.S. 4, 1908 (1910), 7-10; “The seven Sahajātā of the Buddha”, JASB N.S. 4, 1908 (1910), 95f.
Sources: A.A. Macdonell, JRAS 1913, 1101-1108; stray notes in Internet.
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