BESANT, Annie (née Wood). London 1.10.1847 — Adyar (Madras) 19.9.1933. British Theosophist. Daughter of William Burton Persse Wood (1816–1852) and Emily Morris, an English-Irish family. Lost early her father, educated privately in England, Germany and France. Married Rev. Frank Besant (d. 1917) in 1867, but was legally separated from him…
BERTHOLET(-SCHMID), Alfred Robert Felix. Basel 9.11.1868 — Münsterlingen, Thurgau 24.8.1951. Swiss Reformed Theologian and Scholar of Comparative Religion in Germany. Professor in Göttingen and Berlin. Son of David Bertholet, a school director, and Sabine Wagner. Studies of Theology at Basel, also briefly at Strasbourg and Berlin (under B. Duhm). From…
BERTHELOT, Pierre-Eugène-Marcellin. Paris 25.10.1827 — Paris 18.3.1907. French Chemist, famous for his work on Organic Chemistry. Also a Scholar of the History of Chemistry and Alchemy. Son of a physician, Jacques-Martin Berthelot (1799–1864), educated at Lycée Henri IV (classsmate of Renan). Studies in Paris, dr. ès sciences 1854. From 1859…
BERNŠTAM, Aleksandr Natanovič. Kerch (Kerč), Crimea 1.(14.)10.1910 — Leningrad 10.12.1956 (when 47). Russian Central Asian Archaeologist. Educated in Sevastopol. Graduated 1931 from Leningrad Institute of History, Philology and Linguistics. Kand. ist. nauk 1935, Dr. ist. nauk 1943. In 1932-35 naučnyj sotrudnik at Hermitage, 1934-56 at Academy of History of Material…
BERNHEIMER, Carlo. Leghorn 3.9.1877 — 1966. Italian (Jewish) Indologist and Palaeographist. From Leghorn, studies at Bologna (Pullé), graduated 1896/97. Taught from 1906 as Docent of Sanskrit at University of Bologna, also taught palaeography, dismissed in 1938 because of Fascist racial laws, restored 1945. Stopped publication after the heavy criticism of…
BERNHARD, Franz. Schweidnitz in Silesia (now Świdnica in Poland) 31.5.1931 — Mustang/Nepal 5.9. 1971. German Indologist. Professor in Hamburg. Son of a butcher from Silesia. Studiedin 1952-60 at Göttingen classical philology, Indology (under W. Thomas and Waldschmidt), IE, and even Finno-Ugric philology. Ph.D. 1958 Göttingen. In 1956-60 worked at Tübingen…
BERNET KEMPERS, August Johan. ’s-Hertogenbosch 7.10.1906 — Arnhem 2.5.1992. Dutch Art Historian and South-East Asian Scholar, long time in Indonesia. Son of Karel Jan Willem Bernet Kempers, a notary, and Anna den Doesschate. After school in Middelburg studies of Indo-Iranian and Indonesian from 1926 at Leiden, Ph.D. 1933 (under Krom).…
BERNER, Vil’gel’m Mihajlovič. v Baranovič, Minskoj gub. (now in Belarus) 1903 — Leningrad 1958. Russian Indologist. After school from 1917 apprenticed in north-western railway, in 1920 volunteer in Red Army and member of Communist Party. In 1922-26 machinist in Soviet Navy, 1926-29 fireman in the factory Krasnaja Zarja, Leningrad, 1929-31…
BERNEKER, Erich. Königsberg 3.2.1874 — Munich 15/20.3.1937. German Linguist, mainly Slavic, but also IE Scholar. Professor in Munich. Son of bank director Richard B. and Johanna Glum. Studies of Germanic at Freiburg i.Br. and of Slavic at Leipzig and Moscow. Ph.D. 1895 (under Leskien) and PD 1899 Berlin. In 1896-99…
BERNARD, Theos Casimir Hamati. Los Angeles 10.12.1908 — Kosar, Pakistan ?.9.1947. U.S. Bauddha and Yogi. Son of Glen Agassiz Bernard and Aura Georgina Crable, nephew of the yogi Pierre Arnold Bernard (born P. A. Baker, 1875–1955). After parents’ divorce grew up with his mother in Tombstone, Arizona. Graduated from the…