CORBIN, Henry (born Henri Eugène Corbin). Paris 14.4.1903 — Paris 7.10.1978. French Philosopher, Theologian and Scholar of Iranian Religion and Islam. Son of Henri Arthur Corbin and Eugénie Fournier (d. 1903), grew up with an aunt. Born in a Protestant family, but had catholic education. Studied philosophy in Paris (degree…
COOMARASWAMY, Ananda Kentish (Kumārasvāmi). Colombo 22.8.1877 — Needham, MA 9.9.1947. Sri Lankan/British Art Historian and Indologist in the U.S.A. Son of Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy (1834–1879, a noted Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and statesman) and Elizabeth Clay Beeby (1851–1939, she came from Kent, therefore “Kentish”), lost early his father and grew…
CONZE, Edward (Eberhard Julius Dietrich Conze). Forest Hill (London) 18.3.1904 — Yeovil, Somerset 24.9.1979. British (German-born) Indologist and Buddhist Scholar. Son of Ernst Conze (1872–1935), a lawyer, and Adelaide Louise Charlotte Köttgen (1882–1962). Born in England where his father was German Vice-Consul (he was thus entitled to British citizenship). Studies…
CONIO, Caterina. Santo Stefano al Mare (Liguria) 1929 — Milano 1996. Italian Indologist. Daughter of a bank director, grew up in Florence. Graduated 1964 from Catholic University of Milano. Further studies at Banaras Hindu University (T. R. V. Murthy) and Münster (Hacker). From 1974 until death taught Indian religion and…
CONGER, George Perrigo. Genoa, N.Y. 18.5.1884 — Minneapolis 14.8.1960. U.S. Scholar of Indian Philosophy. Professor in Minneapolis. Son of Willis Nathaniel Conger and Mary Estelle Perrigo. Educated at Cornell University (A.B. 1907) and Union Theological Seminar (B.D. 1910). Further studies at Berlin, Jena, Heidelberg and Sorbonne. Ordained as Presbyterian priest…
COLEBROOKE, Henry Thomas. London 15.6.1765 — London 10.12.(or 10.3. or 18.3. or 10.4.)1837. British Pioneer of Indology, Lawyer and Mathematician. 1782-1814 in India. Third son of Sir George Colebrooke (1729–1809), 2nd Bart., a banker and later the chairman of the E.I.C.’s directors (in 1769), and Mary Gaynor. Privately educated at…
COHEN, Sulman Samuel. Basra, Iraq 1895 — Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai 1980. A Baghdadi Jew in India. Eldest of the eleven children of a very poor Jewish family he came to Bombay as a young man, worked as shop assistant and trained as accountant. There he also joined Theosophical Society and…
CARUS, Paul. Ilsenburg am Harz 18.7.1852 — La Salle, Ill. 11.2.1919. German Philosopher and Scholar of Comparative Religion in the U.S.A. Son of a pastor, school in Posen and Stettin (where Grassmann was his teacher), studied philosophy, classics and science at Greifswald, Strassburg and Tübingen. Ph.D. 1876 Tübingen. Worked as…
BURCH, George Bosworth. Hartford, Conn. 12.7.1902 — 4.6.1973. U.S. Philosopher interested in Indian Thought. Son of George Washington Burch and Mary Bosworth, educated at Harvard (A.B. 1923, A.M. 1927, Ph.D. 1939). Graduate studies also at the universities of Geneva (1933-34) and Paris (1935-36). In 1942-46 Professor of philosophy and psychology…
BUITENEN, Johannes (Hans) Adrianus Bernardus van (U.S. Van B.). the Hague 21.5.1928 — Champaign, Ill. 21.9.1979. Dutch Indologist in the U.S.A. Professor in Chicago. As a schoolboy in the Hague learned some Sanskrit from —> Ali Beth, then studies at Utrecht 1946-51 under Gonda, in 1951-53 his assistant. Ph.D. 1953…