Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and

cultures Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor ...

, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of

Asian studies Asian studies is the term used usually in North America and Australia for what in Europe is known as Oriental studies. The field is concerned with the Asian people, their cultures, languages, history and politics. Within the Asian sphere, Asian ...

. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is often associated with German scholarship, and is used more commonly in departmental titles in German and continental European universities than in the anglophone academy. In the Netherlands, the term ''Indologie'' was used to designate the study of Indian history and culture in preparation for colonial service in the Dutch East Indies. Classical Indology majorly includes the linguistic studies of

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as som ...

, Pāli and

Tamil literature Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from ...

, as well as study of

Dharmic religions Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification o ...

(like Hinduism,

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, Jainism, etc.). Some of the regional specializations under South Asian studies include: *

Bengali studies Bengal studies ( bn, বঙ্গবিদ্যা; ''Bangabidya'') is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the Bengali people, culture, language, literature, and history. The focus of this field, which qualifies as area st ...

— study of culture and languages of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predo ...

Dravidology Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature, and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of South Asian studies. Early missionaries The 16th to 18th century mission ...

— study of Dravidian languages of

Southern India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

Tamil studies Tamilology, a subset of the larger field of Dravidian studies, denotes study of the Tamil language, Tamil literature and the culture of the Tamil people Definition The term denotes the process of examining the study and contributions of Tamil ...

* Pakistan studies * Sindhology — the study of the historical Sindh region Some scholars distinguish ''Classical Indology'' from ''Modern Indology'', the former more focussed on Sanskrit, Tamil and other ancient language sources, the latter on contemporary India, its politics and sociology.

History

Precursors

The beginnings of the study of India by travellers from outside the subcontinent date back at least to

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; grc, Μεγασθένης, c. 350 BCE– c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but h ...

(ca. 350–290 BC), a Greek ambassador of the Seleucids to the court of Chandragupta (ruled 322-298 BC), founder of the

Mauryan Empire The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

. Based on his life in India Megasthenes composed a four-volume ''Indica'', fragments of which still exist, and which influenced the classical geographers

Arrian Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; ) was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period. ''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best so ...

Diodor Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which ...

and Strabo. Islamic Golden Age scholar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Biruni (973–1048) in Tarikh Al-Hind (''Researches on India'') recorded the political and

military history of India The predecessors to the contemporary Army of India were many: the sepoy regiments, native cavalry, irregular horse and Indian sapper and miner companies raised by the three British presidencies. The Army of India was raised under the British Ra ...

and covered India's cultural,

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence f ...

, social and religious history in detail. He studied the

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

of India, engaging in extensive

participant observation Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural an ...

with various Indian groups, learning their languages and studying their primary texts, and presenting his findings with

objectivity Objectivity can refer to: * Objectivity (philosophy), the property of being independent from perception ** Objectivity (science), the goal of eliminating personal biases in the practice of science ** Journalistic objectivity, encompassing fai ...

and neutrality using cross-cultural comparisons.

Academic discipline

Indology as generally understood by its practitioners began in the later Early Modern period and incorporates essential features of

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " Age of Reaso ...

, including critical self-reflexivity, disembedding mechanisms and globalization, and the reflexive appropriation of knowledge. An important feature of Indology since its beginnings in the late eighteenth century has been the development of networks of academic communication and trust through the creation of learned societies like the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the creation of learned journals like the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' and ''Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute''. One of the defining features of Indology is the application of scholarly methodologies developed in European

Classical Studies Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

or "Classics" to the languages, literatures and cultures of South Asia. In the wake of eighteenth century pioneers like William Jones, Henry Thomas Colebrooke,

Gerasim Lebedev Gerasim Stepanovich Lebedev (russian: Гера́сим Степа́нович Ле́бедев; 1749 – July 27, 1817), also spelled Herasim Steppanovich Lebedeff ( bn, হেরাসিম স্তেপানোভিচ লেবেদ� ...

August Wilhelm Schlegel August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...

, Indology as an academic subject emerged in the nineteenth century, in the context of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, together with

in general affected by the romantic Orientalism of the time. The Asiatic Society was founded in Calcutta in 1784, Société Asiatique founded in 1822, the Royal Asiatic Society in 1824, the

American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society encourages basic ...

in 1842, and the German Oriental Society (

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (, ''German Oriental Society''), abbreviated DMG, is a scholarly organization dedicated to Oriental studies, that is, to the study of the languages and cultures of the Near East and the Far East, the broa ...

) in 1845, the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies in 1949. Sanskrit literature included many pre-modern dictionaries, especially the '' Nāmaliṅgānuśāsana'' of Amarasiṃha, but a milestone in the Indological study of

was publication of the St. Petersburg ''Sanskrit-Wörterbuch'' during the 1850s to 1870s. Translations of major Hindu texts in the

Sacred Books of the East The ''Sacred Books of the East'' is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts ...

began in 1879.

Otto von Böhtlingk Otto von Böhtlingk (russian: Оттон Николаевич Бётлингк, ''Otton Nikolayevich Byotlingk''; 30 May 1815 – 1 April 1904) was a Russian-German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. His ''magnum opus'' was a Sanskrit-German dict ...

's edition of Pāṇini's grammar appeared in 1887. Max Müller's edition of the Rigveda appeared in 1849–75.

Albrecht Weber Friedrich Albrecht Weber (; 17 February 1825 – 30 November 1901) was a Prussian - German Indologist and historian who studied the history of Jainism in India. Some older sources have the first and middle names interchanged. Weber was born in B ...

commenced publishing his pathbreaking journal ''Indologische Studien'' in 1849, and in 1897

Sergey Oldenburg Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Ольденбу́рг; 26 September 1863, in Byankino, Transbaikal Oblast – 28 February 1934, in Leningrad) was a Russian orientalist who specialized in Buddhist stud ...

launched a systematic edition of key Sanskrit texts, "Bibliotheca Buddhica".

Professional literature and associations

Indologists typically attend conferences such as the American Association of Asian Studies, the American Oriental Society annual conference, the

World Sanskrit Conference The World Sanskrit conference is an international conference organised at various locations globally. It has been held in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The Delhi International Sanskrit Conference of 1972 is considered to be the first ...

, and national-level meetings in the UK, Germany, India, Japan, France and elsewhere. They may routinely read and write in journals such as '' Indo-Iranian Journal'', '' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', ''

Journal of the American Oriental Society The ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' is a quarterly academic journal published by the American Oriental Society since 1843.Journal asiatique'', the ''

Journal of the German Oriental Society A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

'' (ZDMG), '' Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens'', ''

Journal of Indian Philosophy The ''Journal of Indian Philosophy'' (print: , online: ) is an academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular list of academic disciplines, ...

'', ''

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on 6 July 1917 and named after Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925), long regarded as the founder of Indology (Orientalism) in Ind ...

'', ''

Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization * Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, ...

'' (Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu), '' Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême Orient'', and others. They may be members of such professional bodies as the American Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Société Asiatique, the Deutsche Morgenlāndische Gesellschaft and others.

List of indologists

The following is a list of prominent academically qualified Indologists.

Historical scholars

(350-290 BC) * Al-Biruni (973-1050) *

Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux (; french: Cœurdoux ; 18 December 1691, Bourges, France – 15 June 1779, Pondicherry, French India) was a French Jesuit missionary in South India and a noteworthy Indologist. Early training Cœurdoux entered the novitia ...

(1691–1779) *

Anquetil Duperron Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 173117 January 1805) was the first professional French Indologist. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the École française d'Extrême-Orien ...

(1731–1805) * William Jones (1746–1794) *

Charles Wilkins Sir Charles Wilkins (1749 – 13 May 1836) was an English typographer and Orientalist, and founding member of The Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of ''Bhagavad Gita'' into English, He supervised Panchanan Karmakar to c ...

(1749–1836) *

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...

(1753–1821) *

Dimitrios Galanos __NOTOC__ Dimitrios Galanos or Demetrios Galanos ( el, Δημήτριος Γαλανός; 1760–1833) was the earliest recorded Greece, Greek Indology, Indologist. His translations of Sanskrit texts into Greek (language), Greek made knowledge of t ...

(1760–1833) * Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765–1837) *

Jean-Antoine Dubois Abbé J. A. Dubois or Jean-Antoine Dubois (January 1765 – 17 February 1848) was a French Catholic missionary in India, and member of the '' Missions Etrangères de Paris''; he was called Dodda Swami by the local people. In his work on Hindu ma ...

(1765–1848) *

(1767–1845) *

James Mill James Mill (born James Milne; 6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote ''The History of Briti ...

(1773–1836). * Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860) * Franz Bopp (1791–1867) *

Duncan Forbes (linguist) Duncan Forbes (28 April 1798 – 17 August 1868) was a Scottish linguist. Forbes was born in Kinnaird, Perthshire and was brought up by his grandfather from the age of three after his parents and younger brother emigrated to the United States. I ...

(1798–1868) * James Prinsep (1799-1840) * Hermann Grassmann (1809-1877) *

John Muir (indologist) John Muir CIE FRSE DCL LLD (5 February 1810 – 7 March 1882) was a British Sanskrit scholar, Indologist and judge in India. Biography Muir was born in Glasgow, the son of William Muir (1783–1820), a merchant of Kilmarnock and magistra ...

(1810–1882) *

Edward Balfour Edward Green Balfour (6 September 1813 – 8 December 1889) was a Scottish surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist in India. He founded museums at Madras and Bangalore, a zoological garden in Madras and was instrumental in raising ...

(1813–1889) *

Robert Caldwell Robert Caldwell (7 May 1814 – 28 August 1891) was a missionary for London Missionary Society. He arrived in India at age 24, studied the local language to spread the word of Bible in a vernacular language, studies that led him to author a tex ...

(1814–1891) *

Alexander Cunningham Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly ...

(1814–1893) * Hermann Gundert (1814–1893) * Otto von Bohtlingk (1815–1904) *

Monier Monier-Williams Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especially ...

(1819–1899) *

Henry Yule Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. ...

(1820-1889) *

Rudolf Roth Rudolf von Roth (born Walter Rudolph Roth, 3 April 1821 – 23 June 1895) was a German Indologist, founder of the Vedic philology. His chief work is a monumental Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in collaboration with Otto von Böhtlingk. Biography ...

(1821–1893) *

Theodor Aufrecht Simon Theodor Aufrecht (7 January 1822 – 3 April 1907) was a German Indologist and comparative linguist. He was the first Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently spent two decades as Profe ...

(1822–1907) * Max Müller (1823–1900) *

(1825–1901) * Ralph T. H. Griffith (1826–1906) * William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) *

Ferdinand Kittel Reverend Ferdinand Kittel was a Lutheran priest and indologist with the Basel Mission in south India and worked in Mangalore, Madikeri and Dharwad in Karnataka. He is most famous for his studies of the Kannada language and for producing a Kannada ...

(1832–1903) *

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (6 April 1833 – 4 July 1917) was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H. Kern or Hendrik Kern; a few other scholars bear the same surname. Life Hendrik Kern was born to ...

(1833–1917) *

Gustav Solomon Oppert Gustav Solomon Oppert, (30 July 1836 – 1 March 1908) was a German Indologist and Sanskritist. He was a professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Presidency College, Madras, a Telugu translator to government, and a curator in the Govern ...

(1836–1908) *

Georg Bühler Professor Johann Georg Bühler (July 19, 1837 – April 8, 1898) was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law. Early life and education Bühler was born to Rev. Johann G. Bühler in Borstel, Hanover, attended grammar school in Hanover, wh ...

(1837–1898) *

Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya (18 October 1861– 20 April 1938) was a Marathi-language historian and writer from Maharashtra, India. He was Chief Justice of Gwalior State for a period. He was born in a Chitpavan Brahmin family. In 1908, Vaidya chai ...

(1861–1938) *

Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar ( mr, रामकृष्ण गोपाळ भांडारकर) (6 July 1837 – 24 August 1925) was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer. Early life Ramakrishna Bhandarkar was b ...

(1837–1925) *

Arthur Coke Burnell Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 184012 October 1882) was an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency who was also a scholar in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. He catalogued the Sanskrit manuscripts in southern India, particularly ...

(1840-1882) *

Julius Eggeling Hans Julius Eggeling (1842–1918) was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh from 1875 to 1914, second holder of its Regius Chair of Sanskrit, and Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Eggeling was translator and edito ...

(1842–1918) * Paul Deussen (1845–1919) * Vincent Arthur Smith (1848–1920) * James Darmesteter (1849–1894) *

Hermann Jacobi Hermann Georg Jacobi (11 February 1850 – 19 October 1937) was an eminent German Indologist. Education Jacobi was born in Köln (Cologne) on 11 February 1850. He was educated in the gymnasium of Cologne and then went to the University of Be ...

(1850–1937) *

Kashinath Trimbak Telang Kashinath Trimbak Telang (20 August 1850, Bombay – 1 September 1893, Bombay) was an Indologist and Indian judge at Bombay High Court. Early life and education Telang was born in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family. At the age of five Telang was se ...

(1850–1893) *

Alois Anton Führer Alois Anton Führer (26 November 1853 – 5 November 1930) was a German indologist who worked for the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). He is known for his archaeological excavations, which he believed proved that Gautama Buddha was born i ...

(1853–1930) *

Jacob Wackernagel Jacob Wackernagel (11 December 1853 – 22 May 1938) was a Swiss linguist, Indo-Europeanist and scholar of Sanskrit. He was born in Basel, son of the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel (1806–1869). Biography Jacob Wackernagel was born on 11 ...

(1853-1938) *

Arthur Anthony Macdonell Arthur Anthony Macdonell, FBA (11 May 1854 – 28 December 1930) was a noted Sanskrit scholar. Biography Macdonell was born at Muzaffarpur in the Tirhut region of the state of Bihar in British India, the son of Charles Alexander Macdonell ...

(1854-1930) * Hermann Oldenberg (1854–1920) *

Maurice Bloomfield Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D. (February 23, 1855 – June 12, 1928) was an Austrian-born American philologist and Sanskrit scholar. Biography He was born Maurice Blumenfeld in Bielitz ( pl, Bielsko), in what was at that time Austrian S ...

(1855–1928) * E. Hultzsch (1857-1927) *

Mark Aurel Stein Sir Marc Aurel Stein, ( hu, Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at ...

(1862–1943) *

P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar Pillaipundagudi Thiruvengadattaiyangar Srinivasa Iyengar (1863–1931) was an Indian historian, linguist and educationist who wrote books on the history of South India. Academic career Srinivasa Iyengar served as the Principal of A. V. N. ...

(1863–1931) *

Moriz Winternitz Moriz Winternitz (Horn, December 23, 1863 – Prague, January 9, 1937) was a scholar from Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the ...

(1863–1937) *

Fyodor Shcherbatskoy Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky (Фёдор Ипполи́тович Щербатско́й) (11 September (N.S.) 1866 – 18 March 1942), often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, ...

(1866–1942) * F.W. Thomas (1867–1956) *

Jadunath Sarkar Sir Jadunath Sarkar (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty. Academic career Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar ...

(1870-1958) *

S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar Diwan Bahadur Sakkottai Krishnaswamy Aiyangar (15 April 1871 – 26 November 1946) was an Indian historian, academician and Dravidologist. He chaired the Department of Indian History and Archaeology at the University of Madras from 1914 to ...

(1871–1947) * Percy Brown (1872–1955) *

John Hubert Marshall Sir John Hubert Marshall (19 March 1876, Chester, England – 17 August 1958, Guildford, England) was an English archaeologist who was Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928. He oversaw the excavations of Ha ...

(1876–1958) *

Arthur Berriedale Keith Arthur Berriedale Keith (5 April 1879 – 6 October 1944) was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist. He became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the Brit ...

(1879–1944) *

Pandurang Vaman Kane Pandurang Vaman Kane (pronounced ''Kaa-nay'') (7 May 1880 – 18 April 1972) was a notable Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. He received India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1963 for his scholarly work that spanned more than 40 years ...

(1880–1972) *

Pierre Johanns Pierre Johanns (1 April 1882, Heinerscheid, Luxembourg – 8 February 1955, Arlon, Belgium) was a Luxembourg, Luxemburger Jesuit priest, missionary in India and Indology, Indologist. Education Johanns was ordained priest on 1 August 1914 at Lou ...

(1882–1955) * Andrzej Gawronski (1885–1927) *

Willibald Kirfel Willibald Kirfel (29 January 1885 – 16 October 1964) was a German Indologist. He is known for his scholarly work on Indian cosmography, medicine and religion. Biography Kirfel studied Indology in Bonn from 1904 – 1908 and worked as a librar ...

(1885–1964) * Johannes Nobel (1887–1960) * Betty Heimann (1888-1961) *

Alice Boner Alice Boner (22 July 1889 – 13 April 1981) was a Swiss painter and sculptor, art historian, and an Indologist. In her drawings she used pencil, charcoal, sepia, red chalk, ink, and sometimes pastel. Her early works focused on drawings, sculpt ...

(1889–1981) *

Heinrich Zimmer Heinrich Robert Zimmer (6 December 1890 – 20 March 1943) was a German Indologist and linguist, as well as a historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization'' and ''Philosophies of India ...

(1890–1943) * Ervin Baktay (1890–1963) *

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...

(1890–1976) *

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served a ...

(1891–1956) *

K. A. Nilakanta Sastri Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri (12 August 1892 – 15 June 1975) was an Indian historian who wrote on South Indian history. Many of his books form the standard reference works on the subject. Sastri was acclaimed for his scholarship and ...

(1892–1975) *

Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan Rahul Sankrityayan (born Kedarnath Pandey; 9 April 1893 – 14 April 1963) was an Indian writer and a polyglot who wrote in Hindi. He played a pivotal role in giving travelogue a 'literary form'. He was one of the most widely travelled scholars ...

(1893–1963) *

Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi (1893–1985) was a Sanskrit scholar and a prominent Indologist of the 20th century who hailed from Maharashtra, India. He was an expert of his times on stone and copper inscriptions and the coinage of ancient India. For ...

(1893–1985) *

V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar Vishnampet R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (16 April 1896 – 24 November 1953) was a historian, Indologist and Dravidologist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was professor of history and archaeology at the University of Madras and is the auth ...

(1896–1953) *

Dasharatha Sharma Dasharatha Sharma (1903–1976) was an Indologist with particular interest in the history of the Rajasthan region of India. Born in the Rajasthani city of Churu, he studied in the city of Bikaner and at the University of Delhi. He had degrees ...

(1903–1976) *

Shakti M. Gupta In Hinduism, especially Shaktism (a theological tradition of Hinduism), Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy, female in aspect, and re ...

(1927- *

S. Srikanta Sastri Sondekoppa Srikanta Sastri (5 November 1904 – 10 May 1974) was an Indian historian, Indologist, and polyglot. He authored around 12 books, over two hundred articles, several monographs and book reviews over four decades in English, Kannada, ...

(1904-1974) * Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) *

Murray Barnson Emeneau Murray Barnson Emeneau (February 28, 1904 – August 29, 2005) was the founder of the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Early life and education Emeneau was born in Lunenburg, a fishing town on the east coast ...

(1904–2005) * Jan Gonda (1905–1991) * Paul Thieme (1905–2001) *

Jean Filliozat Jean Filliozat (4 November 1906 in Paris – 27 October 1982 in Paris) was a French writer. He studied medicine and was a physician between 1930 and 1947. He learned Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Tamil. He wrote some important works on the histo ...

(1906–1982) *

Alain Danielou Alain may refer to: People * Alain (given name), common given name, including list of persons and fictional characters with the name * Alain (surname) * "Alain", a pseudonym for cartoonist Daniel Brustlein * Alain, a standard author abbreviation ...

(1907–1994) * F B J Kuiper (1907–2003) *

Thomas Burrow Thomas Burrow (; 29 June 1909 – 8 June 1986) was an Indologist and the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1976; he was also a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford during this time. His work includes ''A Dravidi ...

(1909–1986) * Jagdish Chandra Jain (1909–1993) *

Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar (1909–2001) was an Indologist and Vedic scholar from Maharashtra, India. He was born in Satara on 17 March 1909 and died in Pune on 11 December 2001. Education Dandekar earned an M.A. in Sanskrit in 1931, and an ...

(1909-2001) *

Arthur Llewellyn Basham Arthur Llewellyn Basham (24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a noted historian, Indologist and author of a number of books. As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of fa ...

(1914–1986) *

Richard De Smet Richard De Smet (16 April 1916 – 2 March 1997) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, and missionary in India. As Indologist he became a renowned Sankara specialist. Life Born at Montignies-sur-Sambre, near Charleroi in Belgium, he came to India a ...

(1916–1997) * P. N. Pushp (1917–1998) *

Ahmad Hasan Dani Ahmad Hassan Dani (Urdu: احمد حسن دانی) FRAS, SI, HI (20 June 1920 – 26 January 2009) was a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He was among the foremost authorities on Central Asian and South Asian archaeology ...

(1920–2009) * Frank-Richard Hamm (1920—1973) *

Madeleine Biardeau Madeleine Biardeau (16 May 1922 Niort - 1 February 2010 Cherveux) was an Indologist from France. Early life Madeleine Biardeau was born into a middle-class family of small entrepreneurs. She was educated at the Ecole normale supérieure in S ...

(1922–2010) * Awadh K. (AK) Narain (1925-2013) *

V. S. Pathak Vishwambhar Sharan Pathak (1926–2003) was a historian, Sanskrit scholar and an Indologist who authored several books. Pathak was born at Narmadapuram in 1926. He completed his first PhD from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in the mid fiftie ...

(1926–2003) * Kamil Zvelebil (1927–2009) * J. A. B. van Buitenen (1928–1979) * Tatyana Elizarenkova (1929–2007) *

Bettina Baumer Bettina Sharada Bäumer (born 12 April 1940) is an Austrian-born Indian scholar of religion. Vandana Parthasarathy, writing in The Hindu, described Baumer as a "renowned Indologist, one of the foremost expounders of Kashmir Saivism and a well ...

(1940–) * Anncharlott Eschmann (1941–1977) *

William Dalrymple William Dalrymple may refer to: * William Dalrymple (1678–1744), Scottish Member of Parliament * William Dalrymple (moderator) (1723–1814), Scottish minister and religious writer * William Dalrymple (British Army officer) (1736–1807), Scott ...

(1965–present) *

Arvind Sharma Arvind Sharma is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University. Sharma's works focus on Hinduism, philosophy of religion. In editing books his works include ''Our Religions'' and ''Women in World Religions,'' ''Feminism in ...

(1940–present) *

Harilal Dhruv Harilal Harshadrai Dhruv (10 May 1856 – 19 June 1896) ( gu, હરિલાલ ધ્રુવ) was a lawyer, poet, editor, indologist and scholar of Sanskrit literature. Educated in Arts and Law, he served as a teacher and later as a judge of Ba ...

(1856—1896) * Ram Swarup (1920–1998) * Mikhail Konstantinovich Kudryavtsev (1911–1992) *

Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr. Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls Sr. (May 4, 1916 – July 17, 1999) was the Wales Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University. Early life Ingalls was born in New York City and raised in Virginia. He received his A.B. in 1936, at Harvard major ...

(1916-1999), Wales Professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University *

Sita Ram Goel Sita Ram Goel (16 October 1921 – 3 December 2003) was an Indian historian, religious and political activist, writer, and publisher in the late twentieth century. He had Marxist leanings during the 1940s, but later became an outspoken anti-co ...

(1921–2003) *

Natalya Romanovna Guseva Natalya Romanovna Guseva (russian: Наталья Романовна Гусева, translit=Natalya Romanovna Guseva; March 21, 1914 – April 21, 2010) was a Russian ethnographer, historian, Indologist and writer. Born at a village in the Kiev ...

(1914–2010) * Ram Sharan Sharma (1919–2011), Founding Chairperson of Indian Council of Historical Research; Professor Emeritus,

Patna University Patna University is a public state university in Patna, Bihar, India. It was established on 1 October 1917 during the British Raj. It is the first university in Bihar and the seventh oldest university in the Indian subcontinent in the modern ...

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (19 June 1928 – 11 August 2012) was an Indian linguist, specialized in Dravidian languages. He was born in Ongole (Andhra Pradesh). He was Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad Central University from 1986 to 1993 and founded the ...

(1928–2012),

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

Fida Hassnain Fida Muhammad Hassnain (Urdu فدا حسنین; Srinagar, 1924 – 2016) was a Kashmiri writer, lecturer and Sufi mystic. __NOTOC__ He was born in 1924 in Srinagar, Kashmir, as the child of schoolteachers. His father fought with the British Indi ...

(1924-2016) Sri Pratap College, Srinagar *

Heinrich von Stietencron Heinrich von Stietencron (18 June 1933 in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland – 12 January 2018) was a German Indologist. He was a Professor and the Director of the Institute of Indology and Comparative Religion at the University of Tübingen. He ...

(1933–2018),

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, Germany * Iravatham Mahadevan (1930–2018)- Indian Council of Historical Research * Stanley Wolpert (1927–2019)- University of California, Los Angeles (emeritus) *

Karel Werner Karel Werner (12 January 1925 – 26 November 2019) was an indologist, orientalist, religious studies scholar, and philosopher of religion born in Jemnice in what is now the Czech Republic. Life Werner has described his childhood in the smal ...

(1925–2019) *

Stanley Insler Stanley Insler (June 23, 1937 – January 5, 2019) was an American philologist. Early life He was born in New York City on June 23, 1937, to parents Clara and Frank, and attended the Bronx High School of Science until the age of sixteen, when he ...

(1937–2019), Edward E. Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Yale University *

Bannanje Govindacharya Bannanje Govindacharya (3 August 1936 – 13 December 2020) was an Indian philosopher and Sanskrit scholar versed in Veda Bhashya, Upanishad Bhashya, Mahabharata, Puranas and Ramayana. He wrote Bhashyas (commentaries) on Veda Suktas, Upanishads, S ...

(1936–2020), scholar in Tatva-vada school of philosophy and Vedic tradition

Contemporary scholars with university posts

* Romila Thapar (1931–present), Professor of Ancient History, Emerita, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University *

Hermann Kulke Hermann Kulke (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German historian and Indologist, who was professor of South and Southeast Asian history at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988–2003). After receiving his PhD in Indology from Freiburg Univer ...

(1938–present) *

Asko Parpola Asko Parpola (born 12 July 1941, in Forssa) is a Finnish Indologist, current professor emeritus of South Asian studies at the University of Helsinki. He specializes in Sindhology, specifically the study of the Indus script. Biography Parpola i ...

(1941–present)- Professor Emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki * Michael Witzel (1943–present)-

Wales Professor of Sanskrit The position of Wales Professorship of Sanskrit in Harvard University is the first endowed chair for Sanskrit studies established in the United States. Henry Ware Wales (18181856; Harvard, 1838) by a will dated April 24, 1849, provided for the end ...

at Harvard University *

Ronald Inden __NOTOC__ Ronald B. Inden is a professor emeritus in the Departments of History and of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and is a major scholar in South Asian and post-colonial studies. Inden has been a lifelong ...

- Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago *

George L. Hart George Luzerne Hart, III (born c. 1942) is Professor Emeritus of Tamil language at the University of California, Berkeley. His work focuses on the classical Tamil literature and on identifying the relationships between the Tamil and Sanskrit li ...

(1945–present)- Professor Emeritus of Tamil at the University of California, Berkeley * Stephanie Jamison (1948–present), Distinguished Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures and of Indo-European Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles *

Alexis Sanderson Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson (born 1948) is an indologist and Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. Early life After taking undergraduate degrees in Classics and Sanskrit at Balliol College from 1968 to 1971, Alexis Sande ...

(1948–present) Emeritus Fellow and former Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at

All Souls College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

* Patrick Olivelle (1942–present) Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin * Michael D. Willis (

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

) * Edwin Bryant (1957–present)

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, New Jersey *

Gérard Fussman Gérard Fussman (17 May 1940 – 14 May 2022) was a French indologist who was a professor at the Collège de France. Fussman was born in Lens, Pas-de-Calais on 17 May 1940. He died in Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, ...

(1940–present)

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ...

Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...

(1940-)

University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any s ...

, as Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions *

Thomas Trautmann Thomas Roger Trautmann is an American historian, cultural anthropologist, and Professor Emeritus of History and Anthropology at the University of Michigan. He is considered a leading expert on the ''Arthashastra'', the ancient Hindu text on sta ...

(1940-), former Head of the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan * Kapil Kapoor, well known scholar of English Literature, Linguistics, Paninan Grammar, Sanskrit Arts and Aesthetics, Director of

Indian Institute of Advanced Studies The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) is a research institute located in Shimla, India. It was set up by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 1964 and started functioning from 20 October 1965. History and establishment The ...

, Shimla *

Shrivatsa Goswami __NOTOC__ Shrivatsa Goswami (born 27 October 1950) is an Indian Indologist scholar as well as Gaudiya Vaishnava religious leader. He was born in the holy Vaishnava pilgrimage site of Vrindavan, into a brahmin family whose members were caretak ...

, Indian scholar of Hindu philosophy and art (

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Re ...

), as well as Vaishnava acharya

Other indologists

Michel Danino Michel Danino (born 4 June 1956) is a French-born Indian writer. He is a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and has been a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research. In 2017, Government of India conferred Padma Shri, the fourth-highe ...

, French-Indian author and

historical negationist Historical negationism, also called denialism, is falsification or distortion of the historical record. It should not be conflated with ''historical revisionism'', a broader term that extends to newly evidenced, fairly reasoned academic reinterp ...

* Koenraad Elst (1959–present), Hindutva author and, supporter of the

Out of India Indigenous Aryanism, also known as the Indigenous Aryans theory (IAT) and the Out of India theory (OIT), is the conviction that the Aryans are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homela ...

theory *

Georg Feuerstein Georg Feuerstein (27 May 1947 – 25 August 2012) was a German Indologist specializing in the philosophy and practice of Yoga. Feuerstein authored over 30 books on mysticism, Yoga, Tantra, and Hinduism. He translated, among other traditional t ...

David Frawley David Frawley (born 1950) is an American author, astrologer, teacher (''acharya'') and a proponent of Hindutva. He has written numerous books on topics spanning the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology. His works have been popul ...

, American Hindutva author, astrologer, and

historical revisionist In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

Rajiv Malhotra Rajiv Malhotra (born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born American Hindutva ideologue, author and founder of Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies, and also funds projects such as Columbia University's project to translate the T ...

, Indian-American Hindutva author and activist * Shrikant Talageri,

proponent and Hindu nationalist *

Hans T. Bakker Hans T. Bakker (born 1948) is a cultural historian and Indologist, who has served as the Professor of the History of Hinduism and Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He currently works in the British Museum as a researcher in project ...

* Steven J. Rosen, American ISKCON author, founding editor of ''The

Journal of Vaishnava Studies The ''Journal of Vaishnava Studies'', also known as ''Journal of Vaiṣṇava Studies'', is an academic journal that was established in 1992 by Steven J. Rosen (Satyaraja Dasa), a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It ...

Indology organisations

* Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan, Banaras Hindu University *

Adyar Library The Adyar Library and Research Centre was founded in 1886 by theosophist Henry Steel Olcott. The library is at the Theosophical Society Adyar in Adyar, near Chennai. History Henry Steel Olcott founded the "library Olcott" in December 1886. Olco ...

and Research Centre, Chennai *

, Pune *

Oriental Research Institute Mysore Formerly known as the Oriental Library, the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) at Mysore, India, is a research institute which collects, exhibits, edits, and publishes rare manuscripts written in various scripts like Devanagari ( Sanskrit), Br ...

* Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, Thiruvananthapuram *

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum, abbreviated L. D. Museum, is a museum of Indian sculptures, bronzes, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, miniature paintings, woodwork, bead work and ancient and contemporary coins in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Histor ...

along with Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum which is adjacent to the Institute, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India *

American Institute of Indian Studies The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), founded in 1961, is a consortium of 90 universities and colleges in the United States that promotes the advancement of knowledge about India in the U.S. It carries out this purpose by: awarding fello ...

French Institute of Pondicherry The French Institute of Pondicherry (french: Institut français de Pondichéry) UMIFRE 21 is a French research centre in Puducherry, India, under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Centre ...

The Oxford Centre For Hindu Studies

References

Library guides

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Asian studies