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 (1825–1905), and Betzy Emilie Wennevold (1838–1889). After meeting —> L. O. Skrefsrud in his father’s shop he decided to…
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 (born Blumenfeld, 1853–1918) and Carola Buber, a Jewish family of German background, nephew of —> Maurice Bloomfield (1855–1928). Elementary school in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where his father had…
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, 1830–1900) castle, Château de Grandson, in an old Vaudian family, whose ancestor had founded the castle of Blonay in Vaud in c. 1175, his…
BLOCH, Ernst Theodor. Christiansfeld, Schleswig (now Slesvig, Denmark) 8.5.1867 — Calcutta 20.10.1909. German Indologist. Born as the son of a dyer master, Bernhard Bloch, in the Herrnhutian colony of Christiansfeld in the then German North Schleswig, went there to school. In 1880-82 at Unitätsanstalt and 1882-87 at Pädagogium of the…
BIESE, Yrjö Moses Jalmari. Helsinki 4.1.1903 — Helsinki 7.11.1983. Finnish Indologist and Linguist (Classical Philology and English). Professor in Turku. Son of Ernst Hjalmar Biese (1864–1925), a procurator, and Helmi Katarina Ahlman, a painter. Matriculated 1921 from Helsingin Normaalilyseo. Studies of classical and modern languages and Sanskrit at Helsinki: Kand.phil.…
BHARATI, Agehananda (Leopold Fischer), Swami. Vienna 20.4.1923 — Rochester, NY 14.5.1991. Austrian-born Indologist, Tantric Scholar and Anthropologist, for a long time living in India, then in the U.S.A. Naturalised 1968 as U.S. citizen. Professor in Syracuse. Son of Hans Fischer and Margarethe von May. Grew up in Vienna, during war…
BÉNISTI (Monié-Bénisti, also Bénisti-Monié, née Sarfati), Mireille. Algier 10.10.1909 — 11.12. 1993. French Art Historian (Buddhist and Khmer Art). Born in Algeria came early to Paris. Suffered of ill health, but in November 1943 she joined the Comité Français de la Liberation Nationale in Algier, and worked after the war…
BENFEY, Theodor. Nörten bei Göttingen 28.1.1809 — Göttingen 26.6.1881. German Indologist and IE Scholar. Professor in Göttingen. Born in a Jewish family, son of Isaak Benfey (1763–1832), a merchant and Talmud scholar, who also taught Hebrew to his son, and Caroline Salomon (1774–1838). School and from 1824 studies in Göttingen…
BELLONI-FILIPPI, Ferdinando. Buti near Pisa 7/17.7.1877 — Florence 24.1. 1960. Italian Indologist. Professor in Florence and Pisa. A student of Pullé and Formichi, graduated in 1901 at Pisa. From 1904 libera docenza in filologia sanscrita at Pisa, taught there 1905-09. In 1909 further studies of German and Sanskrit (Jacobi) at…
BEAMES, John William. Greenwich 21.6.1837 — Clevedon, Somerset 24.5.1902. British Civil servant and Indologist in India, a Pioneer of Comparative NIA Studies. Served in India in 1858-93. The eldest son of the Rev. Thomas Beames (1815–1864) and Susanna Amelia Dewsnap (1811–1868). Educated first at Merchant Taylor’s School, then 1856-57 at…