POŘÍZKA, Vincenc. Drahany na Morave 9.11.1905 — Prague 22.8.1982. Czech Indologist (Scholar of Hindi/Urdu). Professor in Prague. Born in Central Moravian mountain area, educated in Kroměříž. He studied Catholic theology at Olomouc. Ordained, Theol.Dr. From 1938 studies of Indology at Prague (under Pertold and Lesný). From 1942 taught Hindustani at Oriental Institute, from 1943 also Bengali, continued after the war. In 1945 he became member of the revolutionary committee of Oriental Institute and worked eagerly to reform teaching there. Ph.D. 1951/52 Prague under Pertold. From 1951 first Professor of Hindi at Prague University. In 1960-67 also guided the doctorands of Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Retired in 1967. Only twice briefly in India, 1956 and 1958.
With Pořizka’s new chair Hindi was accepted as a subject of higher studies at Prague and much of his time was spent in preparing teaching material. His major scholarly work dealt with verbal aspects in Hindi, in his later years he also prepared a dictionary, where this minute and industrious scholar attempted to describe the meanings and uses of words with much more details than his predecessors. Also interested in Bengali. Among his students was O. Smékal.
Publications: Diss. on the Bhagavadgita and the New Testament. Manuscript, Prague 1951/52.
– Articles on the Bhagavadgītā in Acta Acad. Velehradensis 1937 & 1938, ArO 1940.
– Učebné archy hindské. 1946-49 (grammar & reader); Krátká mluvnice spisovné hindštiny. 206 p. Prague 1952 (grammar); Hindština / Hindi Language Course. 1. Prague 1963, rev. 2nd ed. 703 p. 1972.
– Articles on Hindi grammar in ArO 18:4, 1950 & 1952 etc., in Acta Univ. Carol. 1960 & 1970; also “Deictic Demonstratives in Indo-Aryan”, ArO 31, 1963, 198-215; “On the Perfective Verbal Aspect in Hindi”, ArO 35-37, 1967-69, c. 110 p. & 45, 1977, 65-78.
– Revised, completed and edited O. Friš’s Sanskritska čítanka. 1-2. 1956.
– Opera minora. Studies in the Bhagavadgītā and New Indo-Aryan Languages. 1. Ed. by J. Strnad. 277 p. Prague 2000.
Sources: Sv. Kostic, “Teaching Hindi in the Czech Republic. A historic overview”, Acta Univ. Carolinae Philologica 1, 2011, 145-153; Jan Marek, ArO 43, 1975, 353-358 with bibliography; *M. Pořizková, V.P. 1905–1982: zakladatel hindistiky ve středni Evropĕ. 2013; ArO 52, 1984, 78f.; Kdo byl kdo – čeští a slovenští orientalist.
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