POPPE, Nicholas N. (Nikolaj Nikolaevič Poppe, Nikolaus). Chefoo (Chih-fu, now Yantai in Shandong), China 27.6.(8.8.)1897 — Seattle 8.6.1991. Russian Mongolian and Altaic Scholar in the U.S.A. Son of Nikolaj Poppe, a diplomat, of a St. Petersburg family of German origin. Came to Russia in 1904, educated in St. Petersburg. Matriculated in…
POPOV, Aleksandr Vasil’evič. Druželjubovka village, Kupjansk dt., Harkiv govt. 16.11.1855 — 26.9.1880. Ukrainian Indologist. Son of a priest, educated at Kupjansk Spiritual Seminary in 1871-75. Studied Sanskrit and comparative linguistics under V. Scherzl at Harkiv, graduated in 1879. His both dissertations about Sanskrit and IE syntax were deemed remarkable and…
POPE, George Uglow. Bedeque, Prince Edward Island 24.4.1820 — Oxford 11.2.1908. British (born in Canada) Missionary Indologist (Tamil Scholar) in India and the U.K. Son of John Pope (1791–1864), a merchant of Cornish origin, and Catherine Uglow, they had come to Canada in 1818. The family moved soon to Nova…
PONS, Jean François. Rodez (Aveyron) 6.12.1698 — Chandernagor 1752/53. Father. S.J. French Missionary in India. Novice 1713, in 1726 arrived at Tanjore, from 1731 Superior of Bengal Mission in Chandernagor. In 1734 he visited the observatories of Delhi and Jaipur together with P. Boudier (1686–1757). Later also travelled in south,…
POLO, Marco. Venice 1254 (or 1250?) — Venice 8.1.1324. Famous Italian (Venetian) Traveller in the Middle Ages, spent many years in China. Born in a wealthy family of nobility, he left Venice in 1271 together with his father Niccolò and uncle Maffeo Polo, who had returned from their earlier commercial…
POLIER, Antoine-Louis-Henri. Lausanne ?.2.1741 — near Avignon 9.2.1795. Swiss Officer and Traveller in India. Born in a French Huguenot noble family naturalized in Switzerland, son of Jacques H. E. Polier (1700–1781) and Jeanne-Francoise Moreau de Brosses. He had a good education and showed interest in mathematics. Invited by his uncle…
POLEY, Karl August Ludwig (Louis, born Karl Heinrich Koch). Hordorf, Sachsen-Anhalt 7.9.1805 (hardly 1809) — Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, Austria 14.8. 1885. German Indologist. Illegitimate son of German judicial officer Johann Friedrich Poley and, according to his own, perhaps not too reliable, account, a Frenchwoman (in fact she was Dorothea Koch). He…
POLEMAN, Horace Irvin. Philadelphia 5.9.1905 — Washington, DC 8.11.1965. U.S. Indologist. Librarian in Washington, D.C. Son of Thomas Bennett Poleman (1868–1944) and Ida Van Zandt. Studies at University of Pennsylvania: 1927 Phi Beta Kappa graduate, A.B. 1927, M.A. 1929 in classical languages, Ph.D. 1933 in Indic Studies (under W. N.…
POKORNY, Aron Julius. Prague 12.6.1887 — Zürich 8.4.1970. Austrian (Bohemian) IE and Celtic Scholar in Swizerland. Professor in Berlin and Zürich. Son of lawyer Samuel Christian Pokorny (1855–1943) and Margarete Riegner (thus Schmitt, German Wikipedia has Anton Pokorny and his wife Rosalia, but as they are called a Jewish family, perhaps…
POHRT, Hermann. 18?? — 19??. German Traveller. Dr. Participated as Grünwedel’s Assistant and Photographer in the Turfan expedition in 1906-08. He spoke Chinese. There is one H. Pohrt, a lawyer, who served in WW I as fighter pilot and in 1919 moved from Berlin to Rheinsberg. He knew Göring and…