DUMONT, Louis Charles Jean. Thessaloniki (Osman Empire) 11.8.1911 — Paris 19.11.1998. French Sociologist and Indologist. Son of a railway engineer, lost early his father. After restless youth (he left school when 18 and tried various odd jobs) he studied ethnology under Mauss. The plans of a doctorate about Celtic survivals…
DUMÉZIL, Georges Edmond Raoul. Paris 4.3.1898 — Paris 11.10.1986. French Linguist. Professor in Paris. Son of Jean Anatole D. (1857–1929), general of artillery, and Marguérite Dutier (1860–1945), grew up in garrison towns. Thus attended collège in Neufchâteau, lycée in Troyes, Paris (Louis-le-Grand) and Tarbes. He read Bréal and started with…
DUFF (Mrs. Rickmers), Christian Mabel. Calcutta 7.12.1866 — Munich 24.12.1939. British (Scottish) Traveller and Indologist. Daughter of William Pirie Duff, a merchant in Calcutta, granddaughter of the pioneer of Scottish mission in India, Dr. Alexander Duff (1806–1876). Educated in London and Berlin, she studied Sanskrit at Kiel under Deussen. From…
DÜNTZER, Johann Heinrich Joseph. Cologne 12.7.1813 — Cologne 16.12.1901. German Schoolteacher and Philologist. Son of merchant Johann Joseph D. and Maria Cäcilia Seydlitz. After Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Cologne studied from 1830 at Bonn and from 1835 at Berlin classical philology and Sanskrit (under Bopp). PD 1837 Bonn. Noting that his changes…
DUBOIS, Jean-Antoine. Saint-Remèze (Ardèche) bapt. 10.1.1766 — Paris 17.2.1848. Abbé. French Missionary and Pioneer of Indology in South India. Educated at College de Bourg-Saint-Andéol and the seminary of Missions etrangères in Paris. Ordained priest in 1791, in January 1792 left for India. Worked in Pondichéry and Tranquebar, from 1799 in…
DUBEUX, J. Louis. Lisbon, Portugal 2.11.1798 — Paris 4.10.1863. French Oriental Scholar. Professor in Paris. Son of a clerk of the French embassy in Lisbon, in 1808 the family returned with French troops from Portugal. From 1816 worked in Royal Library, in 1835-48 as conservateur adjoint. From 1848 Jaubert’s successor…
DREW, William Hoyles. Plymouth 21.12.1805 — Plicate (Pazhaverkadu) May 1856. Rev. British Missionary in South India. Son of William Dr., a merchant, who died when he was three. Grew up in Dartmouth and early entered the service of a local trading company, which involved two or three trips to Newfoundland.…
DRESDEN, Mark Jan. Amsterdam 26.4.1911 — Philadelphia 16.8.1986. Dutch Indologist and Iranian scholar in the U.S.A. Citizen of the U.S.A., Professor in Philadelphia. Son of the composer Sem Dr. (1881–1957) and Jacoba Dhont, educated in Amsterdam. Studies of classical and especially Indo-Iranian philology at Amsterdam, B.A. 1933, M.A. 1937 (under…
DOWSON, John. Uxbridge near London 1820 — Sandhurst, Buckinghamshire 23.8.1881. British Indologist. Professor in Sandhurst. In the age of 16 came to London to assist his uncle —> Edwin Norris, the secretary of R.A.S. He became soon interested in Oriental languages. He was a self-made scholar, but very able. Tutor…
DOW, Alexander. Crieff, Perthshire 1735/36 — Bhagalpur 31.7.1779. British (Scottish) Colonial Officer, Historian and Persian Scholar in India. Son of a customs officer. He had mercantile education, but had to leave Scotland after a fatal duel. He came to Bencoolen (Sumatra) as a sailor and entered in 1760 the E.I.C.’s…