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.…
BAER, Emil. Rifferswil in Loo, Canton Zürich 23.12.1884 — Dielsdorf, Canton Zürich 8.11.1945. Swiss Priest and Student of Indology. Son of the factory owner Theodor Baer and Anna Leuthold. School at home village, in Affoltern and in Zürich, from 1906 studies at Zürich: theology, classical languages, Arabic and Sanskrit (under…
CYBIKOV, Gombožab Cèbekovič (G. Tsöbikov, G. Tsèbègèj, born G. Montuev). Urdo-Aga, district Čita, Transbaikalia 20.4.1873 — Aginskoe, Burjatia 20.9.1930. Russian Buryat Scholar of Buddhism. Son of Cèbek Montuev, a literate and well-to-do Buryat, and his wife Dolgor Šugdarova, a Lamaist Buddhist family. After gymnasium in Čita (one of the first…
CUNNINGHAM, Alexander. Westminster 23.1.1814 — Cranley Mansions, South Kensington (London) 28.11.1893. Sir. British (Scots) Colonial Officer and Archaeologist in India. The great pioneer of Indian archaeology and the first Director-General of the A.S.I. General-major. Born in England of Scots parents, poet Allan Cunningham (1784–1842) and Jean Walker (1791–1864), brother of…
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),…
CROSBY, Josiah. Falmouth, Cornwall 25.5.1880 — 4.12.1958. Sir. British Diplomat interested in South-East Asian History. Son of Captain J. P. Crosby and his wife Christina, educated in Newcastle. Studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (B.A. 1902, M.A. 1928). Came to Thailand as young cadet in 1904, spent many years…
COWELL, Edward Byles. Ipswich 23.1.1826 — Cambridge 9.2.1903. British Indologist. Professor in Cambridge. In 1856-64 in India. Son of Charles Cowell (a merchant and maltster, d. 1842) and Marianne Byles. Educated in Ipswich, as a schoolboy of 15 already attracted to Sir William Jones’ Persian grammar and soon began translating…
COUVREUR, Walter. Antwerpen 25.7.1914 — Edegem, Prov. Antwerpen 17.9.1996. Belgian Linguist and Scholar of Tocharian. Son of Dr. Louis Lepold Fidèle Couvreur (1891–1960), a paediatrician, and Cornelia Biestraeten (1884–1947). After school in Antwerpen studies at Leuven (A. Carnoy), also under Sieg at Göttingen (now also Tocharian). Ph.D. Leuven 1936 in…
COPLESTON, Reginald Stephen. Barnes, London 26.12.1845 — Wandsworth, London 19.4.1925. Most Rev. British Priest in Sri Lanka and India. Son of Rev. Reginald Edward Copleston (1811–1878), Rector at Barnes, Surrey, and Anne Elizabeth Sharpe (d. 1898). Educated at Merchant Taylor’s school, studies from 1864 at Exeter or Merton College, Oxford…
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, from thistle name “Kentish”), lost early his father…