BRUNNHOFER, Gottlieb Hermann. Aarau 16.3.(21.3.?)1841 — Munich 28.10.1916. Swiss Indo-Iranian Scholar. Son of Gottlieb Brunnhofer, a knifesmith, and Elisabeth Obrist. After Gymnasium in Aarau, from 1861 studies of Philosophy at Zürich, Bonn, and Berlin, where Weber locked him to Indology. In 1866 assistant to Monier Williams in Oxford, 1867 to…
BROWN, William Norman. Baltimore, Md. 24.6.1892 — West Chester PA. 22.4.1975. U.S. Indologist. Son of —> G. W. Brown (1870–1932), through his mother (Virginia Archer, née Clark) half-brother of —> J. C. Archer. At the age of eight he went to Central India with his missionary parents and returned five…
BROUGH, John. Dundee 31.8.1917 — Bishop’s Stortford, near Cambridge 9.1. 1984. British (Scottish) Indologist. Professor in London and Cambridge. Son of Charles and Elizabeth Brough. After Dundee High School he studied classical philology at Edinburgh (M.A. 1939), also Sanskrit under A. B. Keith. During the war he continued his classical,…
BROCKHAUS, Hermann. Amsterdam 28.1.1806 — Leipzig 5.1.1877. German Indologist and Iranian Scholar. Professor in Leipzig. Born in Amsterdam in a German family, son of the famous publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1772–1823) and Sophie Wilhelmine Arnoldine Beurhaus (d. 1809). In 1810 the family returned to Germany after mother’s death. School in…
BOSCH, Frederik (Fritz) David Kan. Potchefstroom, Transvaal 17.6.1887 — Leiden 20.7.1968. Dutch Indologist and Indonesian Scholar. Professor in Leiden. Born in South Africa, son of Hendrik Bosch (1859–1902) and Judith Kan (1862–1889), after his mother’s death came to live with his two aunts in Amsterdam and went to school there.…
BORGSTRØM, Carl Hjalmar. Kristiania (Oslo) 12.10.1909 — Oslo 14.9.1986. Norwegian Celtic and IE Linguist. Professor in Oslo. Son of Hjalmar Botgstrøm (1864–1925), a composer, and Harriet Amalie Müller. From 1928 studies of Celtic and comparative IE at Oslo. M.A. 1936 Oslo. In 1932-35 Lecturer in Comparative Philology at Trinity College…
BÖHTLINGK, Otto Nikolaus von (Russian Otto Nikolaevič Betlingk). St.Petersburg 11.6.(30.5.)1815 — Leipzig 1.4.1904. Russian (German) Indologist. Born in St.Petersburg as a Dutch citizen in a family (father Nikolaus Dietrich Böhtlingk, 1773–1839, a merchant), which originally came from Lübeck, his mother, Maria Wilhelmina Strahlboin (died soon after his birth), was a…
BODDING, Paul Olaf. Gjøvik, Oppland 2.11.1865 — Odense, Denmark 25.9.1938. Rev. Norwegian Missionary and Munda Scholar in India, lived long time among the Santals. Son of a bookseller, Edvard Olsen Bodding, and Betzy Emilie Wennevold. After meeting —> L. O. Skrefsrud in his father’s shop he decided to become a…
BLOOMFIELD, Leonard. Chicago 1.4.1887 — New Haven CT 18.4.1949. U.S. Linguist. Professor in Columbus, Chicago, and New Haven. Son of Sigmund Bloomfield and Carola Buber, a Jewish family of German background, nephew of —> Maurice Bloomfield. Elementary school in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where his father had a hotel, with the…
BLONAY, Godefroy Jean Henry Louis de, baron. Niederschoenthal, Füllingsdorf (Basel-Land) 25.7.1869 — Biskra, Algeria 14.2.1937. Swiss Indologist. Born in his father’s (baron Gustave Louis de Blonay) castle, Château de Grandson, in an old Vaudian family, whose ancestor had founded the castle of Blonay in Vaud in c. 1175, his mother…