STASIAK, Stefan Bołeslaw. Warsaw 22.2.1884 — London 9.2.1962. Polish Indologist. Professor in Lwów (now L’viv in Ukraina). Son of Adam Stasiak and Waleria Tuchowska. Studies of Philosophy, then of Indology at Vienna (under L. von Schroeder), Munich (Simon), Zürich (Kaegi) and Paris. Ph.D. with a dissertation on the unicorn legend. Worked in St.Petersburg reading proofs of the Bibliotheca Buddhica, studied Buddhist manuscripts with Ščerbatskoj. In 1920 returned to Poland, then further studies in Paris, for a brief while taught Sanskrit in Portugal. Back in Poland in 1925 he became the deputy of Gawroński, 1926 PD and in 1928 his successor at Lwów. In 1935-36 visited India. In 1941 he had to interrupt teaching and in 1942 to move to Warsaw. Leaving Poland in 1947 he settled down in London and spent the rest of his life there. Died in a traffic accident.
Stasiak published very little, but he was popular as a teacher. At Lwów he started the teaching of Hindi and Urdu in Poland. Among his students were Altuchow, Kunst, Machalski, Sternbach, Skurzak, Szajan and Tokarz.
Publications: “Le cātaka (étude comparative)”, RO 2, 1925, 33-117 (Cātakāṣṭaka); “Notes et excursions”, RO 4, 1928 & 5, 1929; “Fallacies and their classification according to the Early Hindu Logicians”, RO 6, 1928, 191-198.
– “Les Indes Portugaises à la fin du VIe siècle d’après la Relation du voyage fait à Goa en 1596 par Christophe Pawłowski, gentilhomme polonais”, RO 3, 1925 (1927), 1-56; 4, 1926 (1928), 283-302; 5, 1927 (1929), 21-44.
– Polish translations of Subhāṣitas and Rigvedic hymns in Wielka Literatura Powszechna. Warsaw 1931, also translated from other languages.
Sources: N. Altuchow, “Prof. Dr. St.St. (1884-1962)”, Cultura Sánscrita. Memoria del Primer Simposio Internacional de Lengue Sánscrita. México 1984, 173-185; L. Sternbach, JAOS 82, 1962, 283; *Machalski & *Reychman in Przegląd Orient. 1963/1; *R. Tarnavskyi, “The Final Stage of Indologist Stefan Stasiak’s Science and Organization Activity at the Department of Oriental Studies at Lviv University”, Shidnij svit 4 (117), 2022, 130-162 (in Ukrainian); *Polish Wikipedia; photo in Sardesai.
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