NURMEKUND, Pent (until 1936 Arthur Roosman). Kilingi near Pärnu 16.12.1906 — Tartu 26.12.1996. Estonian Linguist, Polyglot and Oriental Scholar, specialized in Chinese and Indian languages and literatures. Born in a poor family as the son of an agrarian worker, Peet Roosman, and Julie Rüütel, he could only proceed slowly with…
NICHOLL, George Frederick. Tipton, Staffordshire 5.11.1832 — 28.7.1913. British Semitic Scholar also interested in Indology. Son of John Nicholls (1811–1893, his sons dropped the final s) Studies at Balliol College, Oxford, M.A. 1878, Hon. Fellow 1888. As a schoolteacher in London he taught Sanskrit to Bendall in the beginning of…
MODE, Heinz Adolf. Berlin 15.8.1913 — Halle 6.6.1992. German (East) Indologist and Art Historian. Professor in Halle. Son of pharmacist Hugo Mode and Erna Kassel. Gymnasium in 1919-31 in Berlin, then studies of art history, archaeology, ethnology, prehistory and Indology at Berlin. As Jew forced to emigrate. From 1933 studies…
MILNE, William Stanley. 1875 — 1917. British Civil Servant in India, where he stayed c. 1900-1917, in Bengal. Letters and papers in British Library. Married Jessie Elizabeth, at least one son. Possibly the same W.S.M. who came to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1895 from Manchester. Publications: A practical Bengali grammar.…
MEYER-BENFEY, Heinrich (born H. Meyer). Liebenburg, Harzvorland 14.3.1869 — Buxtehude 30.12.1945. German Germanist and Indologist. A specialist of Tagore. Studies of German, English and Sanskrit at Göttingen. He supported actively the women’s liberation movement and could not habilitate at conservative Göttingen (1910, hab.diss. on Kleist), instead he became PD 1919…
MARSHMAN, Joshua. Westburg Leigh, Wiltshire 20.4.1768 — Serampur 5.12.1837. British Missionary and Pioneer of Indology in India. Son of John Marshman, a weaver, and Mary Couzener, educated at the village school of Westbury Leigh. Apprenticed to a bookseller he read extensively. In 1794-99 Master of a Baptist school in Bristol,…
MARSHMAN, John Clark. Bristol 18.8.1794 — Kensington, London 8.7.1877. British Lay Missionary in India, then Politician in England. Son of —> Joshua Marshman (1768–1834) and Hannah Shepherd (1768–1847), came to India with them in 1799. Educated at the Baptist Missionary station in Serampore, formally joined the brotherhood in 1819 and…
LONG, James. Bandon, Cork 1814 — 23.3.1887. Rev. British (Anglo-Irish) Missionary in India. While earlier sources claim that of his background little is known, but in any case he passed some time in Russia, Wikipedia referring to Oddie knows that he was the son of John and Anne Long and…
LESNÝ, Vincenc. Komárovice (Moravia) 3.4.1882 — Prague 9.4.1953. Czech Indologist. Professor in Prague. Born in a poor family, son of Baltazar Lesný and Victorie Sujerlova. After school first in a naval academy at Pula, from 1903 studies at Prague, of classical philology, IE and Indology (Zubatý and Winternitz). Ph.D. 1907/08…
LENZ, Robert (Robert Hristianovič Lenc). Dorpat (Tartu) 23.1./4.2.1808 — St. Petersburg 30.7./11.8.1836. Russian (German from Estonia) Indologist. Son of Christian Lenz (1770–1817), the secretary of municipal council of Dorpat, and Luise Elisabeth Wolff (d. 1830), brother of the physicist Academician Heinrich Emil Lenz (1804–1865). After Gymnasium in Dorpat in 1820-24…