Willibald Kirfel (29 January 1885 – 16 October 1964) was a German
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 ...
. He is known for his scholarly work on Indian
cosmography
The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-sca ...
, medicine and religion.
Biography
Kirfel studied Indology in
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 ...
from 1904 – 1908 and worked as a librarian at the University library, before becoming a full professor, acceding to the Chair of his teacher
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 ...
.
Even at an early stage he dedicated himself to his most important field of research, i.e. the cosmography of the
Brahmins
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
,
Jainas
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and ...
and
Buddhists
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...
. In 1920 he published his postdoctoral thesis titled ''The Cosmography of the Indians'', which was published as a reprint in 1967.
Kirfel also studied intensively the
, especially focussing on those passages which appear in numerous texts in different variants. The result of his research was published in his title ''Das Purânapancalakshana. Versuch einer Textgeschichte'' (''The Puranapancalakshana. Attempt at a textual history.''). He wrote many more articles on Puranic subjects as well as books on the symbolism of
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
,
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
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...
. Together with H. Hilgenburg, he also translated the ''Ashtângahridayasamhitâ'', an important treatise on medicine.
Literature
* Valentina Stache-Rosen: ''German Indologists. Biographies of scholars in Indian studies written in German.'' Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi 1981.
Works
* ''Die Kosmographie der Inder, nach den Quellen dargestellt'' (1920)
* ''Die Religion der Jaina's'' (1928)
* '' Bhâratavarsa (Indien)'' (1931)
* ''Der Hinduismus'' (1934)
* ''Kultur der orientalischen Völker'' (1936) with Erich Schmitt, Oskar Kressler and others
* ''Ashtanga Hridaya Samhita'' (1941), translator with Luise Hilgenberg
* ''Die dreikopfige Gottheit. Archaeologisch-ethnologischer Streifzug durch die Ikonographie der Religionen'' (1948)
* ''Der Rosenkranz'' (1949)
* ''Symbolik des Buddhismus'' (1959)
* ''Symbolik des Hinduismus und des Jinismus'' (1959)
* ''Zur Eschatologie von Welt und Leben. Ein puranischer Text nebst Übertragung in textgeschichtlicher Darstellung'' (1959)
References
External links
The Bonn School of German Indology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirfel, Willibald
1885 births
1964 deaths
German Indologists
German male non-fiction writers