Christian Lassen

Christian Lassen ( born October 22, 1800 Bergen, † 8 May 1876 in Bonn) was a Norwegian Indologist, who deciphered include the Old Persian cuneiform.

Life

Christian Lassen was born on November 22, 1800, the son of the jurist Nicolai Christian Vendelboe Lassen ( 1748-1818 ) and Frederikke Elisabeth Frisch ( 1761-18? ) In Bergen. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother in 1819 to his sister's then Danish Altona.

Let studied in Heidelberg and Bonn, where he studied Sanskrit under August Wilhelm von Schlegel ( 1767-1845 ). This soon fell on letting extraordinary philological talent and he entrusted him with the task to take copies of Indian manuscripts in London and Paris, for which Schlegel got a travel grant by the Prussian Ministry of Culture and probably also contributed privately. From autumn 1823 until May 1825 Let worked in London and then in Paris at the holdings of the Bibliothèque royale (now National Library ). From songs in London and Paris, he made many copies of Schlegel and for themselves. In Paris, the then Mecca of Sanskrit studies in Europe, he made acquaintance with the first professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de France, Antoine- Léonard de Chezy (1773-1832) and his contemporaries and later successor Chézy, Eugène Burnouf (1801-1851 ), with which he soon joined a friendship and with whom he arranged at the suggestion of sinologist and former leaders Jean -Pierre Abel - Rémusat (1788-1832), the Indian manuscripts of the Paris collection. The edited by Kirfel correspondence of Schlegel and Lassen mainly contains letters that omission was written at this time from Paris.

After leave with the applied von Schlegel work was finished, he returned to Bonn, where he received his doctorate in 1827 with his dissertation Commentatio Geographic atque historica de pentapotamia indica ( Geographical and historical execution on the Panjab ) and set as a lecturer at the University of Bonn been. In the same year, Schlegel and Lassen Visits Goethe in Weimar. 1830 Let the extraordinary professor ( associate professor ) was appointed in 1840 and promoted to full professor of " ancient Indian language and literature ". 1841 hit Let out a chair at the University of Copenhagen. Among his students was Johannes Gildemeister (1812-1890), who was to assist him later and also appeared in the 1865 edition of omission Sanskritchrestomatie edited. In 1849 he married Caroline Auguste Wiggers ( 1808-1879 ).

In his later years of life leave was hit by an eye disease that prevented him more and more in the works and according to some sources even led to blindness. He died at Bonn on May 8, 1876. He is, like Schlegel, buried at the old cemetery in Bonn.

Lassen's successor on the chair in Bonn was Theodor Aufrecht ( 1822-1907 ).

For his scientific achievements Christian Lassen was included in the Prussian order pour le Mérite for Arts and Science on 31 May 1857. In the district of Bonn bush village is named after him since 1983 a road; Already since 1937, remembers a street in Berlin -Grunewald at him.

Research interests and publishing activities

At work on the Paris manuscripts of the time and let Burnouf also encountered some drafted in mittelindoarischen Pali pieces that were reached by French missionaries from Siam to Paris. Although the Pali language and its literature in the West have been mentioned earlier, the elaborate of Lassen and Burnouf Essai sur le Pali from 1826, however, is because the first scientific treatise on the subject, and is therefore to be regarded as the foundation stone of the Pali philology. It continues to Let dealt with the Mittelindoarischen which constantly met him in the dramas of Indian classical art and poetry in numismatics. In 1837 he published Institutiones lingua pracriticae out a Prakrit grammar, which also contains an edition of parts of Vararucis classical Prakrit grammar Prākṛtaprakāśa and comments to her. This grammar quickly replaced that of Albert Hoefer as a standard work.

Even the omission dissertation on the history of Punjab shows his interest in Indian history. This Wissenschaftsdiziplin time was significantly enriched by the work of James Prinsep (1799-1840) to the coins that had accumulated in the possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. What had been done up to this point in the field of Indian Numismatics, took leave in his 1838 published book History of indoscythischen kings in Bactria, Kabul and India, which can be seen as a preparation for his later Indian archeology. It is in this publication is one of the first Western scientific contributions on the history of India. In this book, Let succeeded parallel to Prinsep also the deciphering of parts of the Kharosthi font.

Leave was also active in the field of Ancient Iranian. He participated in early publications on the Persian cuneiform inscriptions by a monograph on this topic from 1836 and through various essays.

Let issued in the course of his life some Sanskrit texts, as among others, along with Schlegel Hitopadesa and the Singspiel Gitagovinda with a Latin translation. Another pioneer was letting edition and translation of the Sāṃkhyākārikās Īśvarakṛṣṇa under the title Gymnosophia immersive indicae philosophiae documenta in 1832.

The magazine for the customer of the East

The time before the appearance of letting magnum opus of Indian archeology was largely shaped by the publication of the magazine for the customer of the East, of the Göttingen orientalist Heinrich Ewald (1803-1875) had been suggested and first of this and other scholars, including Lassen, were issued. This first interdisciplinary research collective and produced magazine plays a special role in German history research. Precursor for this periodical were on the field of Indology, so to speak, August Wilhelm Schlegel, published by Indian Library and by Othmar Frank (1770-1840) Vyasa. The first issue was published in 1837, but shortly thereafter Ewald had his authoritative editorship Once set, because he had been driven in the same year as one of the Göttingen Seven of the local university.

Issue two appeared in 1839, number three in 1840. Starting number four of 1842, the editorship fell solely on Lassen, who was thus heavily loaded. Still three more issues of the journal published, number five in 1844, six in 1845 and seven in 1850. Finally Let gave up the magazine, probably to concentrate fully on his work on the archeology to. That new magazines were available, Albrecht Weber in 1849, first published in Indian studies and especially in 1847, first published in Journal of the German Oriental Society ( ZDMG ), may have encouraged Let in making its decision. The ZDMG today is widely recognized as the successor of the Journal of the customer of the East.

The Indian archeology

Christian Lassen's extensive oeuvre Indian archeology for the first time is because the entire previous state of research in ancient Indian philology and archeology and is the entire Indian history is to the end of the empire of Vijayanagara. Windisch referred to the work almost as total completion of the first period of the Western scientific research on India. Not random The work follows the historic program, which has been operated at that time in the classics. With this approach to the at that time very influential discipline classics you also at this time attempted to legitimize the Indology as yet is emerging academic subject further.

A detailed Table of Contents and remarks to those used by Let be found in the first part of Windisch's history of Sanskrit philology in Chapter XXII -XXVI, in which each also the scientific advances by the year of their appearance in 1917 are noted. Unfortunately, there is very extensive Antiquity until today an index.

Although sections such as those on the geography of India (Vol. 1, pp. 1-414 ) to this extent until today can claim to be valid as sources of education, the archeology is today but especially in terms of the history of science relevant and the majority of the research results has become obsolete.

Selected Bibliography

• With Eugène Burnouf: Essai sur le Pali ou langue sacrée de la peninsula au- delà du Gange. Paris in 1826.
• Commentatio Geographic atque historica de pentapotamia india (dissertation). Bonn 1827.
• About Mr. Bopp's grammatical system of the Sanskrit language [ review of Franz Bopp's Comprehensive Teaching Building of Sanskrita language, Berlin 1827 ]. In: Indian library. Band 3.1, 1830, pp. 1-113.
• Gymnosophista immersive indicae philosophiae Documenta I, 1: Isvaracrishnae Sankhya caricam tenens. Bonn 1832.
• The Old Persian inscriptions of Persepolis wedge. Deciphering the alphabet and explanation of the content. Bonn 1836.
• Institutiones linguae pracriticae. Bonn 1837.
• History of the Greek and Indoscythischen kings in Bactria, Kabul and India by deciphering the altkabulischen legends on their coins. Bonn 1838.
• Indian Archaeology I: geography and ancient history. Bonn 1847 (2nd edition 1867).
• Indian Archaeology II: History of the Buddha to the Ballabhi and younger Gupta dynasty. Bonn 1849-52 (2nd edition 1873).
• Indian Archaeology III: history of trade and the Greco-Roman knowledge of India and History of Northern India from 319 after the birth of Christ to the Mohammedans. Bonn 1857/58.
• Indian Archaeology IV: History of Dekkhans, Farther India and the Indian archipelago of 319 after Christ's birth to the Mohammedans and the Portuguese. In addition to outline the history of culture and the commercial history of this period. Bonn 1861.