Peter von Bohlen (9 March 1796, in Wüppels, in the

Wangerland Wangerland is a municipality in the district of Friesland, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the North Sea coast, approximately 20 km northwest of Wilhelmshaven, and 10 km north of Jever Jever () is the capital of the district o ...

Gemeinde – 6 February 1840, in Halle) was a German Orientalist and

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 o ...

. He was a professor at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg (german: Albertus-Universität Königsberg) was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke Albert of Prussi ...

. He spent the first 20 years of his life in strained circumstances. His talents and perseverance attracted attention, and he obtained admission to the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

gymnasium. He afterward studied the Eastern languages at Halle and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. He then obtained an appointment at Königsberg, first in 1825 as extraordinary, and afterward in 1830 as ordinary professor of oriental literature.

Works

Bohlen has left many works which fully support his title to the high place which he held among Oriental scholars. One of his most important works is entitled ''Das alte Indien'' (Old India, 2 vols., 1830–31). Other publications of his are ''Die Genesis historisch-kritisch erläutert'' (Genesis explained critically and historically, 1835) and editions of Bhartrihari's ''Sententiae'' (1833) and

Kalidasa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

's ''Ritusanhara'' (1840). The details of Bohlen's life are given with great minuteness and honesty in his ''Autobiography'' (Königsberg, 1841), which is full of interest, and cannot be read without producing a full conviction that he was no less distinguished by his amiability in private life than by his literary acquirements.

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* Balticists 1796 births 1840 deaths German orientalists University of Bonn alumni German Indologists People from Oldenburg (state) Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni University of Königsberg faculty German male non-fiction writers {{Germany-academic-bio-stub