Swami Swami (; ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to an Asceticism#Hinduism, ascetic who has chosen the Sannyasa, path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas ...

Agehananda Bharati (;

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, April 20, 1923 –

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, May 14, 1991) was the

monastic Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...

name of Leopold Fischer, professor of anthropology at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

for over 30 years. He was an academic

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 ...

ist, a writer on religious subjects, and a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

in the Dasanami Sannyasi

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Early life

Fischer was born in Vienna,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, on April 20, 1923, to Hans and Margarete Fischer. Growing up, he joined the Indian Club and began to study

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

and classical

, which led to his decision to become an

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 ...

. Later, Fischer became a member of Germany's "

Free India Legion The Indian Legion (), officially the Free India Legion () or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment (), was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the ''Waffen-SS'' from August 1944. Intended ...

", a military unit raised during the Second World War part of the Waffen-SS which intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India, and converted to Hinduism, taking on the name Ramachandra.

Career

Although he attended the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, Bharati kept up his studies as a monk and took up teaching as well. Agehananda Bharati's travels were as extensive as his teachings were impressive. He was a professional expert in cultural anthropology, South Asian studies, linguistics, and comparative philosophy. Most of these subjects he taught in

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

, and Nalanda Institute in India. He also taught in a Buddhist academy in Bangkok, Thailand, where he first began his teachings on comparative religion. Bharati became a visiting professor of Indian philosophy at the

University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several pre-westernisation era ins ...

and

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. In 1956, Bharati came to the U.S. as a research associate for

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. A year later he transferred to Syracuse and joined the anthropology faculty. He settled down in Syracuse and became Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies. It wasn't long before he became the chairman of his department. He was granted

U.S. citizenship Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constit ...

in 1968. Although he lived in Syracuse that didn't mean that he had stopped traveling. He managed to go to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, Britain,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Germany, and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

for research and as a visiting professor. Bharati had become a member of numerous organizations including:

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States that was founded in 1915 in New York City and is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAUP membership inc ...

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...

(fellow),

Association for Applied Anthropology Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(fellow),

American Linguistic Society The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

, International Association for General Semantics,

Mensa International Mensa International is the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test. Mensa ...

Mind Association The Mind Association is a philosophical society whose purpose is to promote the study of philosophy. The association publishes the journal ''Mind'' quarterly. It was established in 1900 on the death of Henry Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (; 31 M ...

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

, Royal Philosophical Society,

Royal Siam Society The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' (JSS) is a scholarly journal published by the Siam Society in Bangkok since 1904. History The ''Journal of the Siam Society'' is published by Siam Society, The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage in Bangkok, Th ...

, International Academy of Human Rights, and

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...

. (''

Contemporary Authors ''Contemporary Authors'' is a reference work that has been published by Gale since 1962. The work provides short biographies and bibliographies of contemporary and near-contemporary writers and is a major source of information on over 116,000 liv ...

'', 2003) Agehananda Bharati died on May 14, 1991, of cancer at the age of 68, in a friend's house in

Pittsford, New York Pittsford is an incorporated town in Monroe County, New York. A suburb of Rochester, its population was 30,617 at the time of the 2020 census. Formerly part of the town of Northfield, Pittsford was settled in 1789 and incorporated in 1796. T ...

. By the time he died, Bharati had over 500 published works, including an autobiography called ''The Ochre Robe''.

Works

*''The Tantric Tradition.'' London: Rider, 1966. Revised Edition: Red Wheel Weiser, 1975.
''The Light at the Center: Context and Pretext of Modern Mysticism''
Santa Barbara, CA: Ross-Erikson. 1976. *''The Ochre Robe: An Autobiography.'' Second Revised Edition, with New Epilog. Santa Barbara, CA: Ross-Erikson, 1980.

References

External links

An inventory of his papers at the Syracuse University Archives, with biography and bibliography

Biography

Brief academic biography
at the homepage of th

*

Bibliography and book review

at the homepage of the

Maxwell School Maxwell School () is an single-sex school, all-boys secondary school, located north of Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1916, the school is believed to be the oldest school in north of Kuala Lumpur as well as one of the oldest in Kuala Lumpur and ...

Review of ''The Light at the Center''
by Brad Darrach, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

''. September 13, 1976.

Articles available online

''Fictitious Tibet: The Origin and Persistence of Rampaism''
an article published in the ''Tibet Society Bulletin'' (Bloomington, Ind.), Vol. 7, 1974

on LSD and zero-experiences

by Agehananda Bharati {{DEFAULTSORT:Bharati, Agehananda Writers from Vienna Anthropologists of religion American Hindus 1923 births 1991 deaths Austrian Indologists Linguists from Austria Linguists of Sanskrit Bharati, Agehanananda Syracuse University faculty Austrian emigrants to the United States American Sanskrit scholars Austrian expatriates in India Austrian expatriates in Japan University of Vienna alumni Academic staff of the University of Tokyo