DE GUBERNATIS, Angelo. Turin 7.4.1840 — Rome 26.12.1913. Count. Italian Indologist. Professor in Florence and Rome. Born in a noble family, son of Giambattista De Gubernatis, a revenue official, and Maria Cleofe Turchetti; his brother was the diplomat and geographer Enrico De Gubernatis (1836–1914), his sister the educator Teresia De…
DAVID-NÉEL, Alexandra (née Louise Eugènie Alexandrine Marie David). St.Mandé (Seine) 24.10.1868 — Digne (Basses-Alpes) 8.9.1969. French Bauddha and Traveller. The only child of Louis Pierre David, a huguenot freemason and ardent republican, also a journalist and teacher , and Alexandrine Borleman, a Catholic Belgian. From 1873 grew up in Belgium.…
DAUMAL, René. Boulzicourt (Ardennes) 16.3.1908 — Paris 21.5.1944. French Poet interested in India. Son of anticlerical socialist teacher Lon Daumal. Educated at Lycée de Reims and Lycée Henri-IV, studies at Sorbonne. Born in rural milieu he became a socialist and active anticlerical, but at the same time he was also…
DARMESTETER, James. Château-Salins (Meurth, Lorraine) 28.3.1849 — Maisons-Laffitte near Paris 19.10.1894. French Iranian Scholar. Professor in Paris. Son of Calmann Darmesteter, a Jewish bookbinder, and Rosalie Brandeis, younger brother of the philologist Arsène Darmesteter (1846–1888). Educated in Paris, matriculated from Lycée Concordet in 1866. Then studied philology (lic. 1868) and…
DANIÉLOU, Alain (nom-de-plume Shiva Sharan). Neuilly-sur-Seine (Seine) 4.10.1907 — Lonay, Switzerland 27.1.1994. French Musicologist deeply interested in India. Son of Charles Daniélou (1878–1953), an anticlerical Breton journalist and politician, and Madeleine Clamorgan (1880–1956), an ardent catholic, his brother Jean Daniélou (1905–1974) was a jesuit and cardinal. Educated at Institution de…
DANDARON, Bidija Dandarovič. Kižinga, Buryatia 15.12.1914 — Vydrino, Buryatia 26.10.1974. Russian Buryat Lama, Tibetologist and Buddhist Scholar. Son of Dorji Badmaev, a Tantric practitioner, and Balžima Abudueva. In 1921 he was declared the heir of Lobsang Samdan and in 1924 succeeded him as formal head of the Vajrayānic Balagat movement.…
DAHLMANN, Joseph. Koblenz 14.10.1861 — Tokyo 22.6.1928. Father. S.J. German Indologist, later in Japan. Son of a tailor, Johann Simon Dahlmann (1831–1905), and Catharina Schulten, educated in 1873-78 at Feldkirchen Jesuit College, joined the S.J. in the age of 17 in 1878. Studies in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Puerto…
DAHLKE, Paul Wilhelm Eduard. Osterode, Ostpreussen (now Ostróda, Poland) 25.1.1865 — Berlin-Frohnau 29.2.1928. German Bauddha, Physician in Berlin. Son of a civil servant, August Dahlke and Wilhelmine Reinholz, a big and poor family. Gymnasium in Osnabrück, Hannover and Frankfurt a.M., from 1883 studied medicine in Berlin and specialized in homeopathy.…
CZERNY, Gerhard. Pettau (Ptuj in Slovenia) 12.4.1904 — 1936?. Austrian/Yugoslavian student of Comparative Religion. Born in Austria (now Slovenian territory), son of a Gerichtsofficial (d. 1908), then German-speaking Yugoslavian citizen. School at Pettau, Obergymnasium in Graz, matriculated 1923. Studied Theology (ev.) and Philosophy at Vienna 1923–25, 1925 Theology at Rostock,…
CUMONT, Franz Valéry Marie. Aalst 3.1.1868 — Brussels 20.8.1947. Belgian Scholar of Ancient Religions, History and Archaeology. Son of Florent Cumont (1830–1912), a textile factory owner, and Augustine Faider (1837–1890), educated in Brussels. Studies at Ghent, Ph.D. 1887. Then further studies at Bonn, Berlin, Vienna and Paris. From 1892 taught,…