BHARATI, Agehananda (Leopold Fischer), Swami. Vienna 20.4.1923 — Rochester, NY 14.5.1991. Austrian-born Indologist, Tantric Scholar and Anthropologist, for a long time in India, then in the U.S.A. Naturalised 1968 as U.S. citizen. Professor in Syracuse. Son of Hans Fischer and Margarethe von May. Grew up in Vienna, during war served in Hitler’s Free India Legion. Studied Sanskrit and Hindī at Vienna in 1941-47, adopted early Hinduism, then at Samnyasi Mahavidyalaya University 1948-51. In 1951 Lecturer in German and Philosophy at Delhi University, 1951-54 Reader of Philosophy at Banaras Hindu University, 1954-55 guest Professor at Nalanda Institute of Buddhist Research. In 1955-56 visiting Professor of Comparative Religion at Royal Mahamubuta Buddhist Academy in Bangkok, 1956-57 visiting Professor of Indian Philosophy at the universities of Tokyo and Kyoto. In 1957 came to the U.S.A. In 1957-61 Research Associate for Indian Studies at University of Washington, then at Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY: 1961-64 Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 1964-68 Associate Professor, and from 1968 Professor of Anthropology (Asian Studies; until 1991, then Ford Maxwell Professor of Asian Studies, but died soon), in 1971-80 also chairman of Department of Anthropology. He belonged to Dasanami Sannyasi Order.
Publications: Articles on Anthropology, Linguistics, and Sri Lankan Buddhism.
– The Ochre robe (an autobiography). 1961, 2nd rev. ed. 300 p. Calif. 1980; The Tantric tradition. 350 p. 1965, German tr. Freiburg 1977.
– “Pilgrimage in the Indian Tradition”, Hist. of Rel. 3, 1963, 135-167.
– Esthetical Norm and Value Modification in Modern India. 44 p. 1962; Functional Analysis of Indian thought and its social margins. 183 p. Chowkh. Skt. Studies 37. Varanasi 1964; The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism. 254 p. 1976; Great Tradition and Little Traditions: Indological Investigations in Cultural Anthropology. 384 p. Varanasi 1978.
– The Asians in East Africa: Jaihind and Uhuru. 362 p. Chicago 1972; Hindu Views and Ways and the Hindu-Muslim Interface. 107 p. Santa Barbara 1982.
Sources: American Men and Women of Science: Social and Behavioral Sciences. 12th ed. 1973; D.G.K. 9th ed. 1961 (gives the original name), new ed. 1992; Who Was Who in America 10; Wikipedia.
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