Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

and

cultures Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylo ...

, languages, and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is often associated with German scholarship, and is used more commonly in departmental titles in German and continental European universities than in the anglophone academy. In the Netherlands, the term ''Indologie'' was used to designate the study of Indian history and culture in preparation for colonial service in the Dutch East Indies. Classical Indology majorly includes the linguistic studies of Sanskrit literature,

Pāli 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 ...

and Tamil literature, as well as study of Dharmic religions (like

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...

, etc.). Some of the regional specializations under South Asian studies include: *

Bengali studies Bengal studies ( bn, বঙ্গবিদ্যা; ''Bangabidya'') is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the Bengali people, culture, language, literature, and history. The focus of this field, which qualifies as area st ...

— study of culture and languages of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

Dravidology Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature, and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of South Asian studies. Early missionaries The 16th to 18th century mission ...

— study of

Dravidian languages The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant ...

Southern India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...

** Tamil studies * Pakistan studies * Sindhology — the study of the historical Sindh region Some scholars distinguish ''Classical Indology'' from ''Modern Indology'', the former more focussed on Sanskrit, Tamil and other ancient language sources, the latter on contemporary India, its

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

History

Precursors

The beginnings of the study of India by travellers from outside the subcontinent date back at least to

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; grc, Μεγασθένης, c. 350 BCE– c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but ha ...

(ca. 350–290 BC), a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ambassador of the

Seleucids The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the M ...

to the court of Chandragupta (ruled 322-298 BC), founder of the Mauryan Empire. Based on his life in India Megasthenes composed a four-volume ''Indica'', fragments of which still exist, and which influenced the classical geographers Arrian, Diodor and Strabo.

Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...

scholar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Al-Biruni (973–1048) in Tarikh Al-Hind (''Researches on India'') recorded the

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

military history of India The predecessors to the contemporary Army of India were many: the sepoy regiments, native cavalry, irregular horse and Indian sapper and miner companies raised by the three British presidencies. The Army of India was raised under the British R ...

and covered India's cultural,

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, social and

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

history in detail. He studied the

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

of India, engaging in extensive participant observation with various Indian groups, learning their languages and studying their primary texts, and presenting his findings with objectivity and neutrality using cross-cultural comparisons.

Academic discipline

Indology as generally understood by its practitioners began in the later Early Modern period and incorporates essential features of

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reas ...

, including critical self-reflexivity, disembedding mechanisms and globalization, and the reflexive appropriation of knowledge. An important feature of Indology since its beginnings in the late eighteenth century has been the development of networks of academic communication and trust through the creation of learned societies like the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the creation of learned journals like the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' and ''Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute''. One of the defining features of Indology is the application of scholarly methodologies developed in European Classical Studies or "Classics" to the languages, literatures and cultures of South Asia. In the wake of eighteenth century pioneers like William Jones, Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Gerasim Lebedev or

August Wilhelm Schlegel August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...

, Indology as an academic subject emerged in the nineteenth century, in the context of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, together with Asian studies in general affected by the romantic Orientalism of the time.

The Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

was founded in Calcutta in 1784,

Société Asiatique The Société Asiatique (Asiatic Society) is a French learned society dedicated to the study of Asia. It was founded in 1822 with the mission of developing and diffusing knowledge of Asia. Its boundaries of geographic interest are broad, ranging ...

founded in 1822, the

Royal Asiatic Society The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society (RAS), was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the en ...

in 1824, the

American Oriental Society The American Oriental Society was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned societies in America, and is the oldest devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society encourages basi ...

in 1842, and the German Oriental Society (

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (, ''German Oriental Society''), abbreviated DMG, is a scholarly organization dedicated to Oriental studies, that is, to the study of the languages and cultures of the Near East and the Far East, the broa ...

) in 1845, the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies in 1949. Sanskrit literature included many pre-modern dictionaries, especially the '' Nāmaliṅgānuśāsana'' of Amarasiṃha, but a milestone in the Indological study of Sanskrit literature was publication of the St. Petersburg ''Sanskrit-Wörterbuch'' during the 1850s to 1870s. Translations of major Hindu texts in the

Sacred Books of the East The ''Sacred Books of the East'' is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious texts, edited by Max Müller and published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts ...

began in 1879.

Otto von Böhtlingk Otto von Böhtlingk (russian: Оттон Николаевич Бётлингк, ''Otton Nikolayevich Byotlingk''; 30 May 1815 – 1 April 1904) was a Russian-German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. His '' magnum opus'' was a Sanskrit-German dict ...

's edition of Pāṇini's grammar appeared in 1887.

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...

's edition of the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only one ...

appeared in 1849–75. Albrecht Weber commenced publishing his pathbreaking journal ''Indologische Studien'' in 1849, and in 1897 Sergey Oldenburg launched a systematic edition of key Sanskrit texts, "Bibliotheca Buddhica".

Professional literature and associations

Indologists typically attend conferences such as the American Association of Asian Studies, the American Oriental Society annual conference, the World Sanskrit Conference, and national-level meetings in the UK, Germany, India, Japan, France and elsewhere. They may routinely read and write in journals such as ''

Indo-Iranian Journal ''Indo-Iranian Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on aspects of Indo-Iranian cultures. The journal was started by Jan Willem de Jong and Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper in 1957 with Ludwig Alsdorf, Harold Walter Bailey, L ...

'', ''

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' is an academic journal which publishes articles on the history, archaeology, literature, language, religion and art of South Asia, the Middle East (together with North Africa and Ethiopia), Central Asi ...

'', '' Journal of the American Oriental Society'', ''

Journal asiatique The ''Journal asiatique'' (full earlier title ''Journal Asiatique ou Recueil de Mémoires, d'Extraits et de Notices relatifs à l'Histoire, à la Philosophie, aux Langues et à la Littérature des Peuples Orientaux'') is a biannual peer-reviewed ac ...

'', the '' Journal of the German Oriental Society'' (ZDMG), '' Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens'', '' Journal of Indian Philosophy'', ''

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on 6 July 1917 and named after Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925), long regarded as the founder of Indology (Orientalism) in Ind ...

'', '' Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies'' (Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu), '' Bulletin de l'École française d'Extrême Orient'', and others. They may be members of such professional bodies as the American Oriental Society, the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Société Asiatique, the Deutsche Morgenlāndische Gesellschaft and others.

List of indologists

The following is a list of prominent academically qualified Indologists.

Historical scholars

(350-290 BC) *

Al-Biruni Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973 – after 1050) commonly known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian in scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been called variously the "founder of Indology", "Father of Co ...

(973-1050) * Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux (1691–1779) * Anquetil Duperron (1731–1805) * William Jones (1746–1794) *

Charles Wilkins Sir Charles Wilkins (1749 – 13 May 1836) was an English typographer and Orientalist, and founding member of The Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of ''Bhagavad Gita'' into English, He supervised Panchanan Karmakar to c ...

(1749–1836) *

Colin Mackenzie Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...

(1753–1821) * Dimitrios Galanos (1760–1833) * Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765–1837) * Jean-Antoine Dubois (1765–1848) *

(1767–1845) *

James Mill James Mill (born James Milne; 6 April 1773 – 23 June 1836) was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He is counted among the founders of the Ricardian school of economics. He also wrote ''The History of Brit ...

(1773–1836). * Horace Hayman Wilson (1786–1860) *

Franz Bopp Franz Bopp (; 14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages. Early life Bopp was born in Mainz, but the political disarray in the Republic of Mai ...

(1791–1867) * Duncan Forbes (linguist) (1798–1868) * James Prinsep (1799-1840) *

Hermann Grassmann Hermann Günther Grassmann (german: link=no, Graßmann, ; 15 April 1809 – 26 September 1877) was a German polymath known in his day as a linguist and now also as a mathematician. He was also a physicist, general scholar, and publisher. His mat ...

(1809-1877) * John Muir (indologist) (1810–1882) * Edward Balfour (1813–1889) *

Robert Caldwell Robert Caldwell (7 May 1814 – 28 August 1891) was a missionary for London Missionary Society. He arrived in India at age 24, studied the local language to spread the word of Bible in a vernacular language, studies that led him to author a tex ...

(1814–1891) * Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893) *

Hermann Gundert Hermann Gundert (Stuttgart, 4 February 1814 – 25 April 1893 in Calw, Germany) was a German missionary, scholar, and linguist, as well as the maternal grandfather of German novelist and Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. Gundert is chiefly know ...

(1814–1893) *

Otto von Bohtlingk Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded ...

(1815–1904) *

Monier Monier-Williams Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especiall ...

(1819–1899) *

Henry Yule Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. ...

(1820-1889) * Rudolf Roth (1821–1893) *

Theodor Aufrecht Simon Theodor Aufrecht (7 January 1822 – 3 April 1907) was a German Indologist and comparative linguist. He was the first Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently spent two decades as Profe ...

(1822–1907) *

(1823–1900) * Albrecht Weber (1825–1901) * Ralph T. H. Griffith (1826–1906) *

William Dwight Whitney William Dwight Whitney (February 9, 1827June 7, 1894) was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer known for his work on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic philology as well as his influential view of language as a social institution. He was ...

(1827-1894) * Ferdinand Kittel (1832–1903) * Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) * Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (1833–1917) *

Gustav Solomon Oppert Gustav Solomon Oppert, (30 July 1836 – 1 March 1908) was a German Indologist and Sanskritist. He was a professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Presidency College, Madras, a Telugu translator to government, and a curator in the Governm ...

(1836–1908) *

Georg Bühler Professor Johann Georg Bühler (July 19, 1837 – April 8, 1898) was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law. Early life and education Bühler was born to Rev. Johann G. Bühler in Borstel, Hanover, attended grammar school in Hanover, whe ...

(1837–1898) * Chintaman Vinayak Vaidya (1861–1938) *

Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar ( mr, रामकृष्ण गोपाळ भांडारकर) (6 July 1837 – 24 August 1925) was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer. Early life Ramakrishna Bhandarkar was b ...

(1837–1925) *

Arthur Coke Burnell Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 184012 October 1882) was an English civil servant who served in the Madras Presidency who was also a scholar in Sanskrit and Dravidian languages. He catalogued the Sanskrit manuscripts in southern India, particularl ...

(1840-1882) * Julius Eggeling (1842–1918) * Paul Deussen (1845–1919) *

Vincent Arthur Smith Vincent Arthur Smith, , (3 June 1843 – 6 February 1920) was an Irish Indologist, historian, member of the Indian Civil Service, and curator. He was one of the prominent figures in Indian historiography during the British Raj. In the 1890s, he ...

(1848–1920) * James Darmesteter (1849–1894) *

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 Ber ...

(1850–1937) *

Kashinath Trimbak Telang Kashinath Trimbak Telang (20 August 1850, Bombay – 1 September 1893, Bombay) was an Indologist and Indian judge at Bombay High Court. Early life and education Telang was born in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family. At the age of five Telang was se ...

(1850–1893) * Alois Anton Führer (1853–1930) * Jacob Wackernagel (1853-1938) * Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854-1930) *

Hermann Oldenberg Hermann Oldenberg (31 October 1854 – 18 March 1920) was a German scholar of Indology, and Professor at Kiel (1898) and Göttingen (1908). Work Oldenberg was born in Hamburg. His 1881 study on Buddhism, entitled ''Buddha: Sein Leben, seine Lehr ...

(1854–1920) * Maurice Bloomfield (1855–1928) * E. Hultzsch (1857-1927) * Mark Aurel Stein (1862–1943) * P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar(1863–1931) *

Moriz Winternitz Moriz Winternitz ( Horn, December 23, 1863 – Prague, January 9, 1937) was a scholar from Austria who began his Indology contributions working with Max Müller at the Oxford University. An eminent Sanskrit scholar, he worked as a professor i ...

(1863–1937) *

Fyodor Shcherbatskoy Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky (Фёдор Ипполи́тович Щербатско́й) (11 September (N.S.) 1866 – 18 March 1942), often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, ...

(1866–1942) *

F.W. Thomas Frederick William Thomas (21 March 1867 – 6 May 1956), usually cited as F. W. Thomas, was an English Indologist and Tibetologist. Life Thomas was born on 21 March 1867 in Tamworth, Staffordshire. After schooling at King Edward's School, Birm ...

(1867–1956) * Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958) * S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1871–1947) * Percy Brown (1872–1955) * John Hubert Marshall (1876–1958) * Arthur Berriedale Keith (1879–1944) * Pandurang Vaman Kane (1880–1972) * Pierre Johanns (1882–1955) * Andrzej Gawronski (1885–1927) * Willibald Kirfel (1885–1964) *

Johannes Nobel Johannes Nobel (25 June 1887 – 22 October 1960) was a German indologist and Buddhist scholar. Early life and education Johannes Nobel was born on 25 June 1887 in Forst (Lausitz). He studied Indo-European languages, Arabic, Turkish and Sanskri ...

(1887–1960) * Betty Heimann (1888-1961) * Alice Boner (1889–1981) *

Heinrich Zimmer Heinrich Robert Zimmer (6 December 1890 – 20 March 1943) was a German Indologist and linguist, as well as a historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, ''Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization'' and ''Philosophies of India ...

(1890–1943) *

Ervin Baktay Ervin Baktay (1890–1963; born Ervin Gottesmann) was an author noted for popularizing Indian culture in Hungary.Mortimer Wheeler (1890–1976) * B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) * K. A. Nilakanta Sastri (1892–1975) * Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963) * Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi (1893–1985) *

V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar Vishnampet R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (16 April 1896 – 24 November 1953) was a historian, Indologist and Dravidologist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He was professor of history and archaeology at the University of Madras and is the auth ...

(1896–1953) *

Dasharatha Sharma Dasharatha Sharma (1903–1976) was an Indologist with particular interest in the history of the Rajasthan region of India. Born in the Rajasthani city of Churu, he studied in the city of Bikaner and at the University of Delhi. He had degrees ...

(1903–1976) * Shakti M. Gupta (1927- *

S. Srikanta Sastri Sondekoppa Srikanta Sastri (5 November 1904 – 10 May 1974) was an Indian historian, Indologist, and polyglot. He authored around 12 books, over two hundred articles, several monographs and book reviews over four decades in English, Kannada, ...

(1904-1974) * Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) * Murray Barnson Emeneau (1904–2005) *

Jan Gonda Jan Gonda (14 April 1905 – 28 July 1991) was a Dutch Indologist and the first Utrecht professor of Sanskrit. He was born in Gouda, in the Netherlands, and died in Utrecht. He studied with Willem Caland at Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht (since 1990 ...

(1905–1991) * Paul Thieme (1905–2001) * Jean Filliozat (1906–1982) * Alain Danielou (1907–1994) *

F B J Kuiper Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper (July 7, 1907 – November 14, 2003) was a distinguished scholar in Indology, and "one of the last great Indologists of the past century ... His very innovative work covers virtually all the fields of Indo-Irania ...

(1907–2003) *

Thomas Burrow Thomas Burrow (; 29 June 1909 – 8 June 1986) was an Indologist and the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1976; he was also a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford during this time. His work includes ''A Dravidi ...

(1909–1986) *

Jagdish Chandra Jain Jagdish Chandra Jain (20 January 1909 – 28 July 1993) was a scholar, indologist, educationist, writer, and freedom fighter during the freedom struggle of India. He authored over 80 books on a variety of subjects, including Jain philosophy, Pra ...

(1909–1993) * Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar (1909-2001) *

Arthur Llewellyn Basham Arthur Llewellyn Basham (24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a noted historian, Indologist and author of a number of books. As a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in the 1950s and the 1960s, he taught a number of fa ...

(1914–1986) *

Richard De Smet Richard De Smet (16 April 1916 – 2 March 1997) was a Belgian Jesuit priest, and missionary in India. As Indologist he became a renowned Sankara specialist. Life Born at Montignies-sur-Sambre, near Charleroi in Belgium, he came to India ...

(1916–1997) * P. N. Pushp (1917–1998) *

Ahmad Hasan Dani Ahmad Hassan Dani (Urdu: احمد حسن دانی) FRAS, SI, HI (20 June 1920 – 26 January 2009) was a Pakistani archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He was among the foremost authorities on Central Asian and South Asian archaeology ...

(1920–2009) * Frank-Richard Hamm (1920—1973) * Madeleine Biardeau (1922–2010) * Awadh K. (AK) Narain (1925-2013) * V. S. Pathak (1926–2003) * Kamil Zvelebil (1927–2009) *

J. A. B. van Buitenen Johannes Adrianus Bernardus van Buitenen (21 May 1928 – 21 September 1979) was a Dutch Indologist at the University of Chicago where he was the George V. Bobrinskoy Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizat ...

(1928–1979) * Tatyana Elizarenkova (1929–2007) * Bettina Baumer (1940–) *

Anncharlott Eschmann Anncharlott Eschmann (September 24, 1941, Munich – April 6, 1977, New Delhi) was a scholar of religion. She was born in Munich, the first daughter of Professor Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann, a renowned Professor of Philosophy, and Mrs. Charlott Esc ...

(1941–1977) * William Dalrymple (1965–present) * Arvind Sharma (1940–present) * Harilal Dhruv (1856—1896) * Ram Swarup (1920–1998) * Mikhail Konstantinovich Kudryavtsev (1911–1992) * Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Sr. (1916-1999), Wales Professor of Sanskrit,

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

* Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) * Natalya Romanovna Guseva (1914–2010) *

Ram Sharan Sharma Ram Sharan Sharma (26 November 1919 – 20 August 2011) was an Indian historian and Indologist who specialised in the history of Ancient and early Medieval India. He taught at Patna University and Delhi University (1973–85) and was visiting ...

(1919–2011), Founding Chairperson of Indian Council of Historical Research;

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

, Patna University *

Bhadriraju Krishnamurti Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (19 June 1928 – 11 August 2012) was an Indian linguist, specialized in Dravidian languages. He was born in Ongole (Andhra Pradesh). He was Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad Central University from 1986 to 1993 and founded the ...

(1928–2012),

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate university, collegiate Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farma ...

Fida Hassnain Fida Muhammad Hassnain (Urdu فدا حسنین; Srinagar, 1924 – 2016) was a Kashmiri writer, lecturer and Sufi mystic. __NOTOC__ He was born in 1924 in Srinagar, Kashmir, as the child of schoolteachers. His father fought with the British Indi ...

(1924-2016) Sri Pratap College, Srinagar *

Heinrich von Stietencron Heinrich von Stietencron (18 June 1933 in Ronco sopra Ascona, Switzerland – 12 January 2018) was a German Indologist. He was a Professor and the Director of the Institute of Indology and Comparative Religion at the University of Tübingen. He ...

(1933–2018),

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-W� ...

, Germany *

Iravatham Mahadevan Iravatham Mahadevan (2 October 1930 – 26 November 2018) was an Indian epigraphist and civil servant, known for his decipherment of Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and for his expertise on the epigraphy of the Indus Valley civilisation. Early lif ...

(1930–2018)- Indian Council of Historical Research * Stanley Wolpert (1927–2019)-

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(emeritus) *

Karel Werner Karel Werner (12 January 1925 – 26 November 2019) was an indologist, orientalist, religious studies scholar, and philosopher of religion born in Jemnice in what is now the Czech Republic. Life Werner has described his childhood in the small ...

(1925–2019) * Stanley Insler (1937–2019), Edward E. Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Yale University * Bannanje Govindacharya (1936–2020), scholar in Tatva-vada school of philosophy and Vedic tradition

Contemporary scholars with university posts

* Romila Thapar (1931–present), Professor of Ancient History, Emerita, at the Jawaharlal Nehru University *

Hermann Kulke Hermann Kulke (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German historian and Indologist, who was professor of South and Southeast Asian history at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988–2003). After receiving his PhD in Indology from Freiburg Univer ...

(1938–present) * Asko Parpola (1941–present)- Professor Emeritus of Indology and South Asian Studies at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

* Michael Witzel (1943–present)- Wales Professor of Sanskrit at

Ronald Inden __NOTOC__ Ronald B. Inden is a professor emeritus in the Departments of History and of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and is a major scholar in South Asian and post-colonial studies. Inden has been a lifelong ...

- Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

* George L. Hart (1945–present)- Professor Emeritus of Tamil at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

* Stephanie Jamison (1948–present), Distinguished Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures and of Indo-European Studies at the

* Alexis Sanderson (1948–present) Emeritus Fellow and former Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at All Souls College, Oxford * Patrick Olivelle (1942–present) Professor Emeritus of Asian Studies at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

* Michael D. Willis ( The British Museum) * Edwin Bryant (1957–present)

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

* Gérard Fussman (1940–present)

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...

(1940-)

University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any s ...

, as Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions * Thomas Trautmann (1940-), former Head of the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan * Kapil Kapoor, well known scholar of English Literature, Linguistics, Paninan Grammar, Sanskrit Arts and Aesthetics, Director of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla * Shrivatsa Goswami, Indian scholar of Hindu philosophy and art (

Banaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU) IAST: kāśī hindū viśvavidyālaya IPA: /kaːʃiː hɪnd̪uː ʋɪʃwəʋid̪jaːləj/), is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916 ...

), as well as Vaishnava acharya

Other indologists

* Michel Danino, French-Indian author and historical negationist *

Koenraad Elst Koenraad Elst (; born 7 August 1959) is a Flemish right wing Hindutva author, known primarily for his support of the Out of India theory and the Hindutva movement. Schola ...

(1959–present), Hindutva author and, supporter of the Out of India theory * Georg Feuerstein *

David Frawley David Frawley (born 1950) is an American author, astrologer, teacher (''acharya'') and a proponent of Hindutva. He has written numerous books on topics spanning the Vedas, Hinduism, Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology. His works have been popula ...

, American Hindutva author, astrologer, and historical revisionist *

Rajiv Malhotra Rajiv Malhotra (born 15 September 1950) is an Indian-born American Hindutva ideologue, author and founder of Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies, and also funds projects such as Columbia University's project to translate the ...

, Indian-American Hindutva author and activist * Shrikant Talageri, Out of India proponent and Hindu nationalist * Hans T. Bakker * Steven J. Rosen, American

ISKCON The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu religious organization. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York City by A. C. Bhaktiv ...

author, founding editor of ''The Journal of Vaishnava Studies''

Indology organisations

* Faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan, Banaras Hindu University * Adyar Library and Research Centre, Chennai *

, Pune * Oriental Research Institute Mysore * Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library, Thiruvananthapuram * Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology along with Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Museum which is adjacent to the Institute, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India * American Institute of Indian Studies *

French Institute of Pondicherry The French Institute of Pondicherry (french: Institut français de Pondichéry) UMIFRE 21 is a French research centre in Puducherry, India, under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Centre ...

The Oxford Centre For Hindu Studies

References

Library guides

* * * * * * * {{Authority control Asian studies