MARCO DELLA TOMBA (lay Pietro Girolamo Agresti). Tomba (now Castel Colonna) near Senigallia in prov. Urbino 1726 — Bhagalpur (Patna) 13.3. (or 7.6.) 1803. Father. O.F.M. Italian Capuchin Missionary, in India 1757-73 & 1783-1803. Son of Crisostomo Agresti and Vittoria Luzietti, a peasant family, Capuchin novice 1745, gave his vows…
MAINWARING, George Byres. Banda, U.P., India 18.7.1825 — Serampore 16.1.1893. British Colonial Officer in India. Son of George Mainwaring (1791–1865) of I.C.S. and Isabella Byres. Educated in Aberdeen and Wimbledon. He became ensign in Bengal Army in 1842, Captain 1856, from 1868 Lieutenant-Colonel in Bengal Staff Corps, finally 1884 Major-General.…
MACNAGHTEN, William Hay. Antrim, North Ireland ?.8.1793 — Kabul 23.12.1841. Sir, first Bart. British Civil Servant, Diplomat, and Orientalist in India. Second son of the lawyer Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten (1763–1843, served in India 1809–25, Sir 1809, chief of the clan 1832, Bart. 1836, publ. Considerations on the Hindu Law,…
MACAN, Turner. Kilbrogan, Bandon, county Cork 30.9.1792 — Calcutta 24.7.1836. Irish Colonial Officer and Oriental Scholar in India. Major. Son of Robert Macan (1750–1808) and Hannah Bagwell. The grandfather had simplified his name from McCann to Macan. In 1795 the family moved to Carriff (now Carrive), county Armaghan. Joined army…
LYALL, Charles James. London 9.3.1845 — London 1.9.1920. Sir. British Civil Servant and Oriental (Arabic and Urdu) Scholar. Son of Charles L., a banker, and Harriet Matheson. Educated at King’s College School and College, studies at Balliol College, Oxford (B.A. 1867). Joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1867 and served…
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 Šuckerlová. 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 (1781?–1830), brother of the physicist Academician Heinrich Emil Lenz (1804–1865). After Gymnasium in Dorpat in 1820-24 he…
LEITNER, Gottlieb Wilhelm. Pest 14(17?).10.1840 — Bonn 22.3.1899. Austro-Hungarian Indologist and Anthropologist in the U.K. and India. Professor in Lahore. Son of Leopold Saphir, a physician, of Austrian Jewish family living in Hungary. Father died early and his mother, Marie Henriette Herzberg, remarried Johann Moritz Leitner (a Protestant Christian convert)…
LEES, William Nassau. Dublin County (Wikipedia) or Kilanny, co. Louth (Grokipedia & D.I.B.) 26.2.1825 — London 9.3.1889. British (Irish) Colonial Officer and Oriental Scholar in India, Specialist of Arabic, Persian and Hindustani. Fourth son of Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart. (1776–1852), a Protestant clergyman from Ireland, and Sophia Lyster, educated at…
LEBEDEV, Gerasim Stepanovič (Herasim Lebedeff). Jaroslavl 1749 (not 1746) — St.Petersburg 15.7.(27.7.)1817. Russian Musician, Traveller and Pioneer of Indology. Son of Stepan Lebedev and his wife Paraskov’a. Father was a poor Orthodox clergyman, who did not allow him to obtain higher education. The family moved to St.Petersburg, where he studied…