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 (1815–1904), 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. The youngest son of Cerf (Calmann) Darmesteter (d. 1867), a Jewish bookseller and bookbinder, and Rosalie Brandeis (d. 1880), younger brother of the philologist Arsène Darmesteter (1846–1888). The surname refers to family background…
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 from Normandy, his brother Jean Daniélou (1905–1974) was a jesuit and cardinal. Educated at…
DANDARON, Bidija Dandarovič. Kižinga, Buryatia 14.12.(28.12.)1914 — Vydrino Camp, Buryatia 26.10.1974. Russian Buryat Lama, Tibetologist and Buddhist Scholar. Son of Dorži Badmaev, a Tantric practitioner, and Bal’žima Abudueva. Educated in Kižinga and Kjahta, learned early Sanskrit and Tibetan (from his father and from Lama Lubsan Sandan Cydenov). In 1921 he…
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 (1827–1892), 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…
DAHLKE, Paul Wilhelm Eduard. Osterode, Ostpreussen (now Ostróda, Poland) 25.1.1865 — Berlin-Frohnau 29.2.1928. German Bauddha, Physician in Berlin. The eldest child of a civil servant, August Dahlke and Wilhelmine Reinholz, a 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), after WW I German-speaking Yugoslavian citizen. School at Pettau, Obergymnasium in Graz, matriculated 1923. Studied Theology (ev.) and Philosophy at Vienna 1923-25, 1925 Theology…
CUMONT, Franz Valéry Marie. Aalst, East Flanders 3.1.1868 — Woluwe-Saint Pierre near 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…
CSOMA DE KŐRÖS, Alexander (Kőrösi Csoma Sándor, Skander Beg). Kőrös, Kovászna, Háromszék, Transylvania (now Chiuruş, Covasna in Romania) 27.3.1784 — Darjeeling 11.4.1842. Hungarian Tibetologist, in Ladakh and India 1822-42. Born of poor parents, András Csoma (d. c. 1801), a peasant and soldier, and Krisztina Getse (Ilona Göcz, d. c. 1807),…