BOWER, Henry. Madras 17.1.1813 — Palayankottah 1885. Rev. Anglo-Indian Missionary in South India. D.D. Son of Francis Bower (François Bouverie, 1780–1824), a French soldier and British war prisoner, and his Indian wife Justinia (1782–1872). After school in Madras in 1832-37 in London studying theology for missionary career (Wikipedia: studied at…
BORECKÝ, Jaromír. Buddies (now České Budějovice) 6.8.1869 — Prague 8.5.1951. Czech Poet, Translator and Librarian, listed as an Oriental scholar by Heyne and apparently knew some Sanskrit and certainly Persian. Son of Jan Ludvik Borecký (1827–1912) and Anna Isáková. He is said (by Bečka) to have been a student of…
BOPP, Franz. Mainz 14.9.1791 — Berlin 23.10.1867. German Indologist and Linguist. Professor in Berlin. Born in a Roman Catholic family, son of a civil servant, Andreas Bopp (1765?–1840), and Regina Linck (d. 1820). Grew up in Aschaffenburg, where he had K. Windischmann as his teacher at the local Gymnasium, then…
BOLLENSEN, Georg Friedrich (in Russia known as Fëdor Fëdorovič Bolenzen). Rossdorf, Kreis Göttingen 12.1.1809 — Wiesbaden 29.2.1896. German Indologist in Russia. The only child of a farmer, Johann Friedrich Bollensen and Christiane Sophia Behrens. Gymnasium in Göttingen. Then studied theology at Göttingen, where Ewald prompted him to take Oriental languages.…
BOHLEN, Peter von. Wüppels, Jeverland (Friesland) 13.3.1796 — Halle 6.2.1840. German Indologist and Orientalist. Professor in Königsberg. Son of a poor farmer, Christian Bohlen (d. 1806), belonging to an old Pomoranian noble family, and Frauke Margaretha Ocken. Parents died early and he had a checquered life. He took up the…
BOGDAN-DUICĂ, Gheorghe (born Gh. Bogdan). Brassó/Kronstadt, Hungary (now Braşov in Romania)) 2.1.1866 — Braşov 21.9.1931. Romanian Literate interested in Indian Literature. Son of a poor merchant, Ioan Bogdan (1832–1906) and Elena Munteanu. After school in Braşov from 1885 studies at Budapest, Jena and Vienna (but degree only at Bucharest 1897).…
BÖHTLINGK, Otto Nikolaus von (Russian Otto Nikolaevič Betlingk). St.Petersburg 11.6.(30.5.)1815 — Leipzig 1.4.1904. Russian (German) Indologist. Born in St.Petersburg as a Dutch citizen in a family (father Nikolaus Dietrich Böhtlingk, 1773–1839, a merchant), which originally came from Lübeck, his mother, Maria Wilhelmina Strahlboin (died soon after his birth), was a…
BLOOMFIELD, Maurice (born Moritz Blumenfeld). Bielitz, Austrian Silesia (now Bielsko-Biała in Poland) 23.2.1855 — San Francisco, CA 13.6.1928. U.S. (of German Jewish Origin) Indologist. Professor in Baltimore. Born in the then Austrian Silesia as the son of Solomon Blumenfeld (then Bloomfield) and Beatha Jaeger he moved in the age of…
BICKELL, Gustav Wilhelm Hugo. Kassel 7.7.1838 — Vienna 25.1.1906. German Oriental (Semitic) Scholar in Austria. Son of Johann Wilhelm Bickel (1799–1848), Professor of Canonical Law at Marburg, and Maria Kaup. Gymnasium in Marburg. From 1857 studies of theology and philology at Marburg and Halle, Ph.D. 1862 Marburg, from the same…
BETH, Ali. Almelo 2.2.1911 — 1989. Dutch Indologist. Daughter of Hermanus Johannes Elisa Beth (1880–1952), a teacher, and Hillegje de Groot. Studied classics and Sanskrit at Utrecht. Wrote her dr. dissertation there on Sanskrit in 1943 (under Gonda). In the mid-1940s taught classical languages in a gymnasium in the Hague…