Wilhelm Ludwig Geiger (; ; 21 July 1856 – 2 September 1943) was a German Orientalist in the fields of

Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Iranian languages (also Indo-Iranic languages or Aryan languages) constitute the largest and southeasternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family (with over 400 languages), predominantly spoken in the geographical subre ...

and the history of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkme ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. He was known as a specialist in

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhi ...

Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also sp ...

and the Dhivehi language of the

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipela ...

. He is especially known for his work on the Sri Lankan chronicles

Mahāvaṃsa The ''Mahāvaṃsa'' (, Sinhala: මහාවංශය, Pali: ''මහාවංස (Mahāvaṃsa)'' – written in the 5th century CE) is the meticulously kept historical chronicle of Sri Lanka written in the style of an epic poem written in t ...

and Cūlavaṃsa and made critical editions of the Pali text and English translations with the help of assistant translators.

Life

He was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, the son of an evangelical clergyman, and was educated especially at the

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

under the scholar

Friedrich von Spiegel Friedrich (von) Spiegel (11 July 1820 in Kitzingen – 15 December 1905 in München) was a German orientalist. He was one of the pioneers in the field of Iranian philology. Biography He was born in Kitzingen, studied at Erlangen, Leipzig ...

. During his studies, he joined the fraternity Uttenruthia. After completing his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

thesis in 1878, he became a lecturer on ancient Iranian and Indian philology and then a master at a gymnasium. In 1891 he was offered a chair in Indo-European Comparative Philology at the University of Erlangen, succeeding Spiegel. His first published works were on ancient Iranian history, archaeology and philology. He travelled to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1895 to study the language.He appeared on a stamp in

, in 1989 (se
Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka
. He died in

Neubiberg Neubiberg is a municipality and a village in south-east of Munich, Germany, founded in 1912. It used to have an airport that was used as a Luftwaffe-base in the Third Reich and after the war as a U.S. airbase and in the following years as the Germ ...

. Among his children were included the physicist

Hans Geiger Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Geiger (; ; 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945) was a German physicist. He is best known as the co-inventor of the detector component of the Geiger counter and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment which discover ...

, inventor of the

Geiger counter A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental p ...

, and the meteorologist

Rudolf Geiger Rudolf Oskar Robert Williams Geiger (; ; 24 August 1894 – 22 January 1981) was a German meteorologist and climatologist. He was the son of Indologist Wilhelm Geiger and the brother of physicist Hans Geiger. He worked with Wladimir Köppen on cli ...

Works

English works and translations

* ''The Age of the

Avesta The Avesta () is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the litu ...

and

Zoroaster Zoroaster,; fa, زرتشت, Zartosht, label=Modern Persian; ku, زەردەشت, Zerdeşt also known as Zarathustra,, . Also known as Zarathushtra Spitama, or Ashu Zarathushtra is regarded as the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism. He is s ...

'', co-authored with Friedrich Spiegel, translated into English by Dārāb Dastur Peshotan Sanjānā, London 1886
Google-US
* ''Civilization of the eastern Iranians in ancient times, with an introduction on the Avesta religion'', translated into English by

Darab Dastur Peshotan Sanjana Darab Dastur Peshotan Sanjana (18 November 1857 – 5 August 1931) was an Indian scholar and Zoroastrian head-priest (Dastur). He is known for his translations of works from Central Asia, in languages including Bactrian, Pahlavi, and Avestan. ...

, London 1885–1886. * ''Zarathushtra in the Gathas, and in the Greek and Roman classics'', co-authored with

Friedrich Heinrich Hugo Windischmann Friedrich Heinrich Hugo Windischmann (13 December 1811 in Aschaffenburg 23 August 1861 in Munich) was a German orientalist, exegete and Catholic leader. Biography Son of the philosopher Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann, he studied philos ...

; translated into English by Dārāb Dastur Peshotan Sanjānā, Leipzig 1897. * ''The Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa and their historical development in Ceylon'', translated into English by Ethel M. Coomaraswamy, Colombo 1908
Google-US
* ''The Mahavāmsa or the Great Chronicle of Ceylon'', English translation assisted by

Mabel Haynes Bode Mabel Haynes Bode (28 October 1864 – 20 January 1922) was one of the first women to enter the academic fields of Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist studies. She lectured in Pali and Sanskrit, made an edition of the Pali text Sāsanavaṃsa, and hel ...

, Pali Text Society, London 1912
Internet Archive
* ''Maldivian Linguistic Studies'', Colombo 1919. * ''The Language of the Väddās'', Calcutta 1935. * ''A Grammar of the Sinhala language'', Colombo 1938. * ''Pali Literature and Language'', translated by

Batakrishna Ghosh Batakrishna Ghosh (1905-1950) was an Indian linguist, who specialised in Indo-European linguistics. He was born in 1905 and died at the age of 45 in 1950. He wrote a number of books and articles on Sanskrit and Indo-European linguistics. He transl ...

from the German original, Calcutta 1943. Revised by

K. R. Norman Kenneth Roy Norman FBA (1925–2020) was a British philologist. He was Professor Emeritus of Indian Studies at the University of Cambridge, and was a leading authority on Pali and other Middle Indo-Aryan languages. Life Norman was educated at ...

under the title ''A Pali Grammar'', Oxford 1994. * ''Cūlavamsa : being the more recent part of the Mahāvamsa'', English translation assisted by Christian Mabel Duff Rickmers, Colombo 1953. * ''Culture of Ceylon in mediaeval times'', edited by

Heinz Bechert Heinz Bechert (26 June 1932, Munich – 14 June 2005, Göttingen) was a German Indologist and Buddhologist. Life The son of lawyer Rudolf Bechert and his wife, Herta ( Bade), from 1965 to 2000, Heinz Bechert held the Chair of Indology at the ...

, Wiesbaden 1960.

German works

* ''Das Yātkār-i Zarirān und sein Verhältnis zum Šāh-nāme'' he Yātkār-i Zarirān and its Relation to the Šāhnāme von W. Geiger. München: Druck der Akademischen Buchdrukerei von F. Straub. 1890 * ''Die Pehleviversion des Ersten Capitels des Vendîdâd herausgegeben nebst dem Versuch einer ersten Uebersetzung und Erklärung.'' Erlangen, 1877
Google
* ''Handbuch der Awestasprache. Grammatik, Chrestomathie und Glossar.'' Erlangen, 1879
Google-US
* ''Etymologie des Balūčī. Aus den Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akademie der Wiss. I. Cl. XIX. Bd. I. Abth.'' München, 1890
Google-US
* ''Etymologie des Singhalesischen. Aus den Abhandlungen der k. bayer. Akademie der Wiss. I. Cl. XXI. Bd. II. Abth.'' München, 1897
Google-US
* ''Ceylon. Tagebuchblätter und Reiseerinnerungen.'' Wiesbaden, 1898
Google-US
* Wilhelm Geiger &

Ernst Kuhn Ernst Wilhelm Adalbert Kuhn (7 February 1846, in Berlin – 21 August 1920, in Munich) was a German Indologist and Indo-Europeanist. He was the son of philologist Adalbert Kuhn. He studied at the universities of Berlin and Tübingen, receiv ...

(Hrsg.): ''Grundriß der iranischen Philologie.'' 1. Bd., 1. Abt., Straßburg 1895–1901
Google-USGoogle-US
; Anhang zum 1. Bd., Straßburg, 1903
Google-US
; II. Bd., Straßburg, 1896–1904
Google-US
* ''Litteratur und Sprache der Singhalesen.'' Straßburg, 1900
Google-US
* ''Dīpavamsa und Mahāvamsa, die beiden Chroniken der Insel Ceylon. Sonderabdruck aus der Festschrift der Universität Erlangen zur Feier des achtzigsten Geburtstages Sr. königlichen Hoheit des Prinzregenten Luitpold von Bayern.'' Erlangen & Leipzig, 1901
Google-US
* ''Dīpavaṃsa und Mahāvaṃsa und die geschichtliche Überlieferung in Ceylon'', Leipzig, 1905
Google-US
* Wilhelm Geiger & Magdalene Geiger: ''Pāli Dhamma vornehmlich in der kanonischen Literatur'', München, 1920. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Elementarbuch des Sanskrit'', de Gruyter, Berlin und Leipzig, 1923. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Besprechung zu Heinrich Junker, Arische Forschungen'', um 1930. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Singhalesische Etymologien.'' Stephen Austin and Sons, 1936. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Beiträge zur singhalesischen Sprachgeschichte'', Bayerischen Akad. der Wiss., München 1942. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Kleine Schriften zur Indologie und Buddhismuskunde'', hrsg. von Heinz Bechert. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1973. * Wilhelm Geiger: ''Die Reden des Buddha: Gruppierte Sammlung, Saṃyutta-nikāya'', translation of Saṃyutta-nikāya, Beyerlein-Steinschulte, Stammbach, 1997.

Notes

External links