MENANT, Delphine. Cherbourg 16.10.1850 — Paris 29.7.1932. Mlle. French Iranian Scholar. Daughter of the Assyriologist —> Joachim Menant (1820–1899). Studied under Darmesteter. Ph.D. She worked from 1900 in Musée Guimet, as “chargée de mission dans l’Inde”, where she travelled, together with her mother, in 1900–01, studying Parsis in Bombay and…
MEISEZAHL, Richard Othon. Weissenburg (now Wissembourg, Alsace) 16.8.1906 — Schladean, Sieg 27.4.1992. German (of Alsace) Tibetologist. For health reasons interrupted gymnasium in 1920 in Cologne, obtained practical education and worked in a merchant firm until 1940. Being on business in Paris in 1927-28 he started studies of Indology and Tibetology.…
MEES, Gualtherus Hendrik (Sadhu Ekarasa). Rotterdam 6.8.1903 — Orsett, Essex 5.6.1955. Dutch Scholar of Religion. Son of Abraham Cornelis Mees (1864–1950) and Louisa Hen van Rijnberk (1873–1949). M.A. 1928 Cambridge, in Law. Then student of Vogel. LL.D. 1935 (?) Leiden. He became a follower of Ramana Maharshi, went to India…
MAUSS, Marcel. Épinal (Vosges) 10.5.1872 — Paris 10.2.1950. French Sociologist and Anthropologist. Born in an Alsatian Jewish family, son of merchant Gerson Mauss and Rosine Durkheim. He had religious education, but abandoned religion when 18. Studied philosophy at Bordeaux under his famous uncle É. Durkheim. After agregation (1895) studied Sanskrit…
MASSON-OURSEL, Paul Louis. Paris 5.9.1882 — Paris 17.3.1956. French Indologist. Studied in Paris Indology (Foucher and Lévi), philosophy (Bergson) and sociology (Durkheim and Mauss), also some Chinese (Chavannes). Agrégé 1906, Ph.D. 1923. Participated in WW I as sergeant. From 1919 chargé de conférences, from 1927 Directeur d’études at É.P.H.É., sciences…
MASSON, Joseph. Montegnée, prov. Liège 21.9.1908 — Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Brussels 1998. Father, S.J. Belgian Indologist, Catholic Priest and Theologian (Scholar of Religions and Missions). Studies at Collège Saint-Servais in Liège and at Jesuit College of Louvain (Leuven). Ordained 1938. Studies at Louvain University. Dr. en philosophie et histoire orientales 1942 Louvain.…
MASPÉRO, Henri Paul Gaston. Paris 15.12.1883 — Buchenwald 17.3.1945. French Sinologist. Son of the Egyptologist Gaston Maspéro (1846–1916, of Italian ancestry) and Louise Balluet d’Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (1856–1953). After school in Paris he began himself with a study on Hellenistic Egypt, but soon turned into Sinology under Chavannes…
MASON, Francis. York 2.4.1799 — Rangoon 3.3.1874. Rev. British Missionary in Burma, a Scholar of Pāli and Karen, lay Botanist. Son of Thomas Mason, a shoemaker and Baptist lay preacher, born in York where his grandfather had founded a Baptist Society. Worked himself as shoemaker with his father, but in…
MARSHMAN, Joshua. Westburg Leigh, Wiltshire 20.4.1768 — Serampur 5.12.1837. British Missionary and Pioneer of Indology and Sinology in India. Son of John Marshman, a weaver, and Mary Couzener, educated at the village school of Westbury Leigh. Apprenticed to a bookseller he read extensively. In 1794-99 Master of a Baptist school…
MARCO DELLA TOMBA (lay Pietro Girolamo Agresti). Tomba (now Castel Colonna) near Senigallia in prov. Urbino 1726 — Bhagalpur (Patna) 13.3. (or 7.6.) 1803. Father. O.F.M. Italian Capuchin Missionary, in India 1757-73 & 1783-1803. Son of Crisostomo Agresti and Vittoria Luzietti, a peasant family, Capuchin novice 1745, gave his vows…