POUCHA, Pavel. Vienna 29.12.1905 — Prague 15.1.1986. Czech Indo-Iranian, Mongolian and Tocharian Scholar. Son of tailot František Poucha. After early years in Vienna, where his parents lived for a while, he came in the age of seven to Neuhaus (now Jindřichův Hradec in Southern Bohemia) and attended classical gymnasium there. In 1924-29 studied at Prague Germanic and Slavic, soon also IE and Baltic linguistics, classical philology, Sanskrit, Avesta, Hindi and Bengali, Hebrew and Hittite (under (Hrozný), Turkish and Persian (Rypka). Ph.D. 1929 Prague, under Hujer and Lesný. During 20 years he worked as teacher of German and Czech at schools in Prague. From 1947 taught at Oriental Institute in Prague, from 1948 as Docent, in 1948-58 also director of the Indology department. Retired in 1970. He visited Mongolia in 1955, 1959 and often, Chinese Central Asia (Dunhuang and Turfan) and Inner Mongolia in 1957-58.
In addition to Indology (epics, philosophy, astrology, etc., Sanskrit, Pāli and Tamil) Poucha had an early interest in Tocharian. Later he started with Tibetan and soon also became engaged in Mongolian and Oirat studies. His teaching included, i.al., Tibetan, Mongolian, Old Javanese, Altaic linguistics, Central Asian history and texts.
Publications: Diss. Příspěvky k tocharskému jazykozpytu a literatuře. Manuscript, Prague 1929.
– “The problem of the Age of the Mahābhārata”, ArO 6, 1934, 53-57; “Vedische Volksetymologie und das Nirukta”, ArO 7, 1935, 423-436.
– “Īśāvasyopaniṣad. Über die Entwicklung eines upanischadischen Textes”, ZDMG 94, 1940, 409-417; “Īśāvāsjopanišad (Jaǰurvedaḥ XL)”, Listy fiologicé 68, 1941, 351-364; “Schichtung des Ṛigveda. Bestimmung des Relativen Alters der Lieder des Ṛigveda mit Hilfe Zahlenmässiger Berechnung”, ArO 13, 1942, 103-141, 225-269 & 15, 1946, 65-86; “Cārvākadehātmadarśanam (Iz istorii indijskoj filosofij)”, ArO 16, 1948, 185-193.
– Transl.: Kálidásah: Ṛtusaṁhāra, Šestero ročních počasů. 56 p. Praha 1942; Příhody indického šaška. Tennáliráman katäi. 50 p. Prague 1944 (from Tamil); Lu Ḏub: Šerab Dongbu to jest strom moudrosti. 99 p. Prague 1952; Dandí: Dobrodružství deseti princů. Daśakumaracaritam. 250 p. Praha 1959.
– Edited & transl.: “La Jyotiṣaratnamālā ou guirlande des joyaux d’astrologie de Śrīpatibhaṭṭa”, ArO 16, 1948, 277-309; “The Vaiṣṇavagītā and its social ideas”, Anantapāram … Słuszkiewicz 1974, 181-190 (with text).
– “Syntactical Relationship of Some Asiatic Languages (the sentence structure in Tibetan, Newārī, Burmese, Mongolian, Manchu, Turkish, Tamil and Malayāḷam in comparison with Indo-Aryan Languages. A Linguistic study from the synchronic standpoint)”, ArO 17:2, 1949 (Hrozný Vol.), 265-292, 1 pl.
– “Le vers tibétain”, ArO 18:4, 1950, 188-235 & 22, 1954, 563-585.
– Institutiones linguae Tocharicae. 1. Thesaurus Linguae Tocharicae Dialecti A. 2. Chrestomathia Tocharica. 15+466+44 p. Monogr. ArO 15. Prague 1955-56.
– Transl. from Mongolian: Tajná Kronika Mongolů. 279 p. Prague 1955; Nejlepši z mučů Dzáng-Dzalúdaj. 48 p. Prague 1957; Rinčen: Slunce vychází. 546 p. Prague 1958; etc.
– Die Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen als Geschichtsquelle und Literaturdenkmal. 247 p. 6 pl. ArO Suppl. 4. Prague 1956.
– Třináct tisíc kilometrů Mongolskam antem. 326 p. Prague 1957, tr. 13 000 Kilometer durch die Mongolei. Lp. 1960; Do nitra Asie. 282 p. Prague 1962.
– “Rang und Titel bei den Völkern des Mongolischen Raumes”, PIAC 9, Naples 1970, 169-258.
– A number of smaller articles in ArO, Listy fil., CAJ, ZDMG, OLZ, AOHu, etc.
Sources: J. Kolmaš & J. Šíma, ArO 44, 1976, 54-62, with selected bibliography; *M. Schwarz & V. Blážek, life and fullbibliography in Tocharian Studies 1. Brno 2011, 173-210; R. Webb, Buddhist Studies Review 6, 1989, 47f.; Kdo byl kdo – čeští a slovenští orientalisté; Czech Wikipedia with photo; photo also in http://biblio.hiu.cas.cz/authorities/267286.
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