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 Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

who, in large part, was responsible for laying the foundations in the Western world for the scholarly study of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy is the ancient Indian Indian philosophy, philosophical system that developed within the religio-philosophical tradition of Buddhism. It comprises all the Philosophy, philosophical investigations and Buddhist logico-episte ...

. He was born in

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

(

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

), and died at the Borovoye Resort in northern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Stcherbatsky studied in the famous Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (graduating in 1884), and later in the Historico-Philological Faculty of Saint Petersburg University (graduating in 1889), where Ivan Minayeff and Serge Oldenburg were his teachers. Subsequently, sent abroad, he studied Indian poetry with

Georg Bühler Professor Johann Georg Bühler (19 July 1837 – 8 April 1898) was a German 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 Hanove ...

in Vienna, and Buddhist philosophy with

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 ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. In 1897, he and Oldenburg inaugurated ''Bibliotheca Buddhica'', a library of rare Buddhist texts. Returning from a trip to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, in 1903 Stcherbatsky published (in Russian) the first volume of ''Theory of Knowledge and Logic of the Doctrine of Later Buddhists'' ( 2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1903–1909 ). In 1928 he established the Institute of Buddhist Culture in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. His ''The Conception of Buddhist

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

'' (Leningrad, 1927), written in English, caused a sensation in the West. He followed suit with his main work in English, ''Buddhist Logic'' (2 vols., 1930–32), which has exerted an immense influence on Buddhology. Although Stcherbatsky remained less well known in his own country, his extraordinary fluency in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and

Tibetan languages The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the H ...

won him the admiration of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

and

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

. According to

Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (19 November 1918 – 8 May 1993) was an Indian Marxist philosopher. He made contributions to the exploration of the materialist current in ancient Indian philosophy. He is known for '' Lokayata: A Study in Ancient I ...

,Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (Nov. 19, 1918 – May 8, 1993 ) – Indian Marxist philosopher. This quote appears to be from the "Introduction" Chattopadhyaya wrote to ''Papers of Th. Stcherbatsky'' (1969)(Calcutta: Indian Studies, Past & Present – Soviet Indology Series, No. 2). "Stcherbatsky did help us – the Indians – to discover our own past and to restore the right perspective of our own philosophical heritage." The

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

(2004 edition) acclaimed Stcherbatsky as "the foremost Western authority on Buddhist philosophy".

References

Bibliography

* Bapat, P. V. (1943)
Fedore Ippolitorich Stcherbatsky
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 24 (3/4), 284–285 * Ruegg, D. Seyfort (1971)
Dedication to Th. Stcherbatsky
Journal of Indian Philosophy 1 (3), 213–216

External links

in English) * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120717104231/http://www.300.years.spb.ru/eng/3_spb_3.html?id=73 Bibliotheca Buddhica(in English)
Stcherbatsky's biography
(in Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shcherbatskoy 1866 births 1942 deaths Russian logicians Russian Indologists Russian scholars of Buddhism Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Full Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925) Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian philosophers Russian scientists