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 librarian at the University library, before becoming a full professor, acceding to the Chair of his teacher
Hermann Jacobi.
Even at an early stage he dedicated himself to his most important field of research, i.e. the cosmography of the
Brahmins,
Jainas and
Buddhists
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 ...
. 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
Puranas
Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...
, 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,
Buddhism and
Jainism. 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