VERNER, Karl Adolph (born K. A. Werner). Aarhus 7.3.1846 — Copenhagen 5.11.1896. Danish Linguist and Phonetician. Professor in Copenhagen. Son of a German artisan and his Danish wife. Studied Classics, Germanic and Slavic languagesat Copenhagen, also Sanskrit under Westergaard. Mag. 1873. Further studies at St.Petersburg and Moscow in 1871-75. Librarian…
VENTURA, Giovanni (Jean-Baptiste Ventura, originally Rubino ben Torah). Finale near Modena 25.5.1794 — Lardenne near Toulouse 3.4.1858. Italian Officer in India. Son of Gavriel Massarani (Reuben Ben Torah) and his wife Vittoria. He had traditional Jewish education, but joined army in the age of 17. Rising into colonel of infantry…
VENIS, Arthur (born Arthur Venis Lazarus). Calcutta 4.10.1857 — Uttarkhand 5.6.1918. British (Anglo-Indian) Educator and Indologist in India. Professor in Varanasi and Allahabad. Son of Edward John Lazarus, a converted Jew with Indian background, a physician also interested in Sanskrit. After studies at Edinburgh and Oxford (Balliol College, B.A. 1878,…
VENIERO, Alessandro. 18?? — 19??. Italian Philologist. Perhaps in Sicily. One A.V. was 1918-19 Principal of the lyceum of Macerata in Basilicata. Publications: Transl. Dall’ epopea indiana. Saggio di versione. 74 p. Catania 1912; writings on Classical philology 1892/1916. Sources: Nothing except except the list of peincipals in Macerata and…
VENDRYES, Joseph (Joseph Jean-Baptiste-Marie V.). Paris 13.1.1875 — Paris 30.1.1960. French IE, Celtic and General Linguist. Professor in Paris. Son of a civil servant, Albert Vendryes and Marguerite Lambert. School in Paris (Lycée Louis-le-Grand). Studies in Paris under Meillet et al. (Sanskrit under V. Henry and S. Lévi). Agrégé de…
VAUGHAN, John Luther. Leicester St. Martin 6.3.1820 — Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent 2.1.1911. Sir. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of Rev. Edward Thomas Vaughan (1777–1829) and Agnes Pares (1785–1878), educated at Rugby. Joined Indian Army in 1840, served in Maharajpur. In 1855 in Crimea. In 1857 commanded a Field…
VASIL’EV, Vasilij Pavlovič (Wassilieff). Nižni-Novgorod 20.2.(4.3.)1818 — St.Petersburg 27.4.1900. Russian Sinologist and Buddhist Scholar. Professor in St.Petersburg. Son of a minor civil servant. After school in Nižnij-Novgorod he studied from 1834 Tatar and Mongolian at Kazan University (under Èrdman, Kowalewski, et al.), Kand. 1837. Now studied Chinese under Archimandrite Daniil. Learned…
VASCONCELOS (DE) ABREU, Guilherme Augusto (de). Coimbra 20.5.1842 — Lisbon 1.2.1907. Portuguese Indologist. Professor in Lisbon. Son of Victor Madail de Abreu (1811–1868), an official and liberal activist, and Guilhermina de Vasconcellos Abreu. School in Coimbra and 1854-56 in Porto, then some time in Brazil, also visited India. Then studied then…
VARTHEMA, Ludovico di (Barthema, Vertomannus). Bologna 1470? — Rome before June 1517. Italian Traveller in India. Claiming to have started his travels only in order to win fame he left Italy late in 1502 and travelled on the route Venice–Cairo–Beyrout–Damas–Mecca (the first known non-Muslim there), using Muslim robe (under the…
VANSITTART, Henry. Bloomsbury, Middlesex 3.6.1732 — on sea 1770. British Civil Servant in India. Son of Arthur van Sittart (1691–1760), a wealthy merchant of Dutch origin, and Martha Stonhouse. “Educated at Reading [school] and Winchester [college]; went out as a writer of the E.I.C. to the Madras service, 1745. To…