BABINGTON, Benjamin Guy. London 5.3.1794 — London 5/8.4.1865. British Physician interested in Tamil Language and Literature. Son of a London physician, William Babington (1756–1833, of Irish origin), and Martha Elizabeth Hough (1766–1849). Educated at Charterhouse 1803-07. He served in the navy until 1810, got then an appointment in India and…
AZEVEDO, Francisco de. Lisbon 1578 — Goa 12.8.1660. S.J. Portuguese Missionary in India and Tibet. Came to India as a boy and never returned. Joined S.J. in Goa, when 19. After studies served at Diu (1614) and Rachol, from 1620 Visitor of Monomotapa Mission in South Africa. In 1627 joined…
AYRTON, Edward Russell. Wuhu, prove. Anhui, China 17.12.1882 — Tissamaharama 18.5.1914. British Archaeologist in Sri Lanka. Son of William Scrope Ayrton (1849–1904), of China Consular Service, and Ellen Louisa McClatchie (1855–1897). The family came from Yorkshire. Educated at St.Paul’s School in London. Archaeological training in Europe and Egypt (as Flinders…
AYMONIER, Étienne-François. Le Châtelard (Savoie) 26.2.1844 — Paris 21.1.1929. French Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar (the first European Specialist of Khmer and great pioneer of archaeology and epigraphy). Served in South-East Asia in 1869-88. Born in a family of agriculturalists in the then still Sardinian Savoy, son of Claude…
AVITABILE, Paolo Crescenzo Martino (called Abu Tabela). Agerola near Sorrento 25.10.1791 — Agerola 28.3.1850. Neapolitan Officer and Traveller in India. Son of farmer Bartolomeo Avitabile and Angela di Fortunato. From 1807 served in Neapolitan militia and from 1809 in army (artillery) under Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat. In 1815 second…
AVERY, John. Conway, Mass. 18.9.1837 — North Bridgetown, Maine 1.9.1887. U.S. Indologist, Linguist and Ethnologist. Professor of Classics in U.S. Universities. Son of Joseph Avery (1789–1870) and Sylvia Clary (1793–1851). Graduated 1861 from Amherst College, then further studies at the Leicester Academy (Mass.) in 1861-62. In 1862 tutor at Amherst,…
AUTRAN, Charles Georges Marcel. Saint-Estèphe (Gironde) 29.10.1879 — Bois-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) 17.8.1952. French Oriental Scholar. Son of Fréderick Charles Marie Autran (1853–1915), a Protestant lawyer, and Therèse Marguerite Merman. After studies in Paris (É.P.H.É.) and at Institute d’archéologie orientale in Cairo he became Professor at Faculté des lettres, University of Aix-en-Provence.…
AUSTERLITZ, Robert Paul. Bucharest, Romania 13.12.1923 — New York 9.9.1994. U.S. (born in Romania) Linguist and Uralic Scholar in the U.S.A. (naturalised 1946), wrote on Dravidian in the 1960s. Son of Austrian Jewish father, Otto Austerlitz from Brünn (Brno), and American mother, Rose Zellenka (with Bohemian roots), grew up in…
AUFRECHT, Simon Theodor. Leschnitz, Upper Silesia (now Leśnica, Poland) 7.1.1822 (1821?) — Bonn 3.4. 1907. German Indologist. Professor in Edinburgh and Bonn. Born in a Jewish merchant family, took later Christianity. Gymnasium in Oppeln, where he already became interested in Old German. In 1843 started the study of Classical Philology…
AUDOUIN, Édouard-Marie. Candé (Maine-et-Loire) 1864 — 1933. French Classical Philologist, Linguist and Historian. Agrégé 1887, Ph.D. 1898 Paris. From the 1890s Professor of Greek and Roman antiquities at Faculté des lettres, Université de Poitiers, still there in the 1920s. Married 1896 Jeanne Marie Eugénie Champigny. Publications: Diss. I. De la…