Indology is the academic study of the history

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

 and cultures

Culture of India

India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country, but nevertheless possess a commonality....

, languages

Languages of India

The languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...

, and literature of the Indian subcontinent

Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...

 (most specifically the modern-day states of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, Sri Lanka and Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

), and as such is a subset of Asian studies

Asian studies

Asian studies, a term used usually in the United States for Oriental studies and is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures, languages, history and politics...

.

Indology may also be known as Indic studies or Indian studies, or South Asian studies, although scholars and university administrators sometimes have only partially overlapping interpretations of these terms.

The term Indology or (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 Indonesian history and culture in preparation for colonial service in the Dutch East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

.

Specifically, Indology includes the study of Sanskrit literature

Sanskrit literature

Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...

 and Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 along with the other Indian religions, Jainism

Jainism

Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...

, Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

 and Pāli

Páli

- External links :* *...

 literature, and Sikhism

Sikhism

Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...

.
Dravidology is the separate branch dedicated to the Dravidian languages

Dravidian languages

The Dravidian language family includes approximately 85 genetically related languages, spoken by about 217 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and...

 of South India.

Some scholars distinguish Classical Indology from Modern Indology, the former more focussed on Sanskrit and other ancient language sources, the latter on contemporary India, its politics

Politics of India

The politics of India takes place within the framework of a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of India is head of state and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President and is independent of the legislature...

 and sociology.

Beginnings

The beginnings of the study of India date back to Megasthenes

Megasthenes

Megasthenes was a Greek ethnographer in the Hellenistic period, author of the work Indica.He was born in Asia Minor and became an ambassador of Seleucus I of Syria possibly to Chandragupta Maurya in Pataliputra, India. However the exact date of his embassy is uncertain...

 (ca. 350–290 BC), a Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 ambassador of the Seleucids to the court of Chandragupta

Chandragupta

Chandragupta may refer to:* Chandragupta Maurya, Indian Emperor, Mauryan Empire, 322–293 BCE* Chandragupta I, Indian king, Gupta Empire, 320-335 CE* Chandragupta II, Also known as Chandragupta Vikramaditya. Indian Emperor, Gupta Empire, 375-414 CE...

, founder of the Mauryan Empire. Based on his life in India Megasthenes composed a four-volume Indica, fragments of which still exist, which influenced classical geographers Arrian

Arrian

Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period...

, Diodor and Strabon.

Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) (Researches on India) recorded the political history of India

History of India

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...

 and military history of India

Military history of India

The military history of India dates back several millennia. The first reference to armies is found in the Vedas and the epics Ramayana and Mahabaratha. From the ancient period through to the 19th century, a succession of powerful dynasties rose and fell in India as smaller rulers also struggled for...

 and covered India's cultural

Culture of India

India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country, but nevertheless possess a commonality....

, scientific

Science and technology in ancient India

The history of science and technology in the Indian subcontinent begins with prehistoric human activity at Mehrgarh, in present-day Pakistan, and continues through the Indus Valley Civilization to early states and empires. The British colonial rule introduced some elements of western education in...

, social and religious history in detail. He studied the anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 of India, engaging in extensive participant observation

Participant observation

Participant observation is a type of research strategy. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly, cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology...

 with various Indian groups, learning their languages and studying their primary texts, and presenting his findings with objectivity

Objectivity (philosophy)

Objectivity is a central philosophical concept which has been variously defined by sources. A proposition is generally considered to be objectively true when its truth conditions are met and are "mind-independent"—that is, not met by the judgment of a conscious entity or subject.- Objectivism...

 and neutrality

Neutrality (philosophy)

Neutrality is the absence of declared bias. In an argument, a neutral person will not choose a side.A Neutral country maintains political neutrality, a related but distinct concept.-What neutrality is not:...

 using cross-cultural comparisons

Cross-cultural studies

Cross-cultural studies, sometimes called Holocultural Studies, is a specialization in anthropology and sister sciences that uses field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behavior and test hypotheses about human behavior and culture. Cross-cultural studies is the third form of...

.

Academic discipline

In the wake of 18th century pioneers like Henry Thomas Colebrooke

Henry Thomas Colebrooke

Henry Thomas Colebrooke was an English orientalist.-Biography:Henry Thomas Colebrooke, third son of Sir George Colebrooke, 2nd Baronet, was born in London. He was educated at home; and when only fifteen he had made considerable attainments in classics and mathematics...

 or August Wilhelm Schlegel, Indology as an academic subject emerges in the 19th century, in the context of British India, together with Asian studies

Asian studies

Asian studies, a term used usually in the United States for Oriental studies and is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures, languages, history and politics...

 in general affected by the romantic Orientalism

Orientalism

Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...

 of the time. The Société Asiatique

Société Asiatique

The Société Asiatique 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 from the Maghreb to the Far East. The society publishes the Journal...

 was founded in 1822, the Royal Asiatic Society

Royal Asiatic Society

The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland was established, according to its Royal Charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encouragement of science, literature and the arts in relation to Asia." From its incorporation the Society...

 in 1824, the American Oriental Society

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....

 in 1842, and the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft

The Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft , in English the German Oriental Society, is a scholarly organization dedicated to studies of Asia and the broader Orient....

) in 1845, the Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies in 1949.

Systematic study and editorial activity of Sanskrit literature

Sanskrit literature

Literature in Sanskrit begins with the Vedas, and continues with the Sanskrit Epics of Iron Age India; the golden age of Classical Sanskrit literature dates to late Antiquity . Literary production saw a late bloom in the 11th century before declining after 1100 AD...

 became possible with the St. Petersburg Sanskrit-Wörterbuch during the 1850s to 1870s. Translations of major Hindu texts in the Sacred Books of the East

Sacred Books of the East

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

 began in 1879. Otto von Bohtlingk

Otto von Bohtlingk

Otto von Böhtlingk was a German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. His magnum opus was a Sanskrit dictionary.-Biography:He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia...

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

Max Müller

Friedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...

's edition of the Rigveda

Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns...

 appeared in 1849–75. In 1897, Sergey Oldenburg

Sergey Oldenburg

Sergey Fyodorovich Oldenburg was a Russian orientalist who specialized in Buddhist studies. He is remembered as the founder of Russian Indology and the teacher of Fyodor Shcherbatskoy....

 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, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

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 , Central Asia, East Asia and South-East Asia...

, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal asiatique, the Journal of the German Oriental Society (ZDMG), Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens, Journal of Indian Philosophy, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, "Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies" (Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu), Bulletin de l'Ecole 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.

• Anquetil Duperron (1731–1805)
• William Jones
  William Jones (philologist)
  Sir William Jones was an English philologist and scholar of ancient India, particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among Indo-European languages...
  
   (1746–1794)
• Charles Wilkins
  Charles Wilkins
  Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS , was an English typographer and Orientalist, notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English, and as the creator of the first Devanagari typeface....
  
   (1749–1836)
• Colin Mackenzie
  Colin Mackenzie
  Colonel Colin Mackenzie was Surveyor General of India, and an art collector and orientalist.Mackenzie was born in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides, Scotland...
  
   (1753–1821)
• Dimitrios Galanos
  Dimitrios Galanos
  Dimitrios Galanos was the earliest recorded Greek Indologist. His translations of Sanskrit texts into Greek made knowledge of the philosophical and religious ideas of India available to many Europeans....
  
   (1760–1833)
• Henry Thomas Colebrooke
  Henry Thomas Colebrooke
  Henry Thomas Colebrooke was an English orientalist.-Biography:Henry Thomas Colebrooke, third son of Sir George Colebrooke, 2nd Baronet, was born in London. He was educated at home; and when only fifteen he had made considerable attainments in classics and mathematics...
  
   (1765–1837)
• August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845)
• James Mill
  James Mill
  James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, political theorist, and philosopher. He was a founder of classical economics, together with David Ricardo, and the father of influential philosopher of classical liberalism, John Stuart Mill.-Life:Mill was born at Northwater Bridge, in the parish of...
  
   (1773–1836).
• Horace Hayman Wilson
  Horace Hayman Wilson
  Horace Hayman Wilson was an English orientalist.He studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, and went out to India in 1808 as assistant-surgeon on the Bengal establishment of the British East India Company....
  
   (1786–1860)
• Franz Bopp
  Franz Bopp
  Franz Bopp was a German linguist known for extensive comparative work on Indo-European languages.-Biography:...
  
   (1791–1867)
• Duncan Forbes (linguist) (1798–1868)
• John Muir (indologist)
  John Muir (indologist)
  John Muir was a Scottish Sanskrit scholar and Indologist .-Biography:Muir was born in Glasgow, Scotland, one of four brothers amongst whom was William Muir, and educated at the grammar school of Irvine, the University of Glasgow, and the East India Company College at Haileybury...
  
   (1810–1882)
• Edward Balfour
  Edward Balfour
  Edward Green Balfour was a Scottish surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist in India best known for the Cyclopaedia of India several editions of which were published after 1857.-Life and career:Balfour was the second son of Captain George Balfour of the East India Company marine service...
  
   (1813–1889)
• Robert Caldwell
  Robert Caldwell
  Bishop Robert Caldwell was an Evangelist missionary and linguist, who academically established the Dravidian family of languages. He served as Assistant Bishop of Tirunelveli from 1877. He was described in The Hindu as a 'pioneering champion of the downtrodden' and an 'avant-garde social reformer'...
  
   (1814–1891)
• Alexander Cunningham
  Alexander Cunningham
  Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI was a British archaeologist and army engineer, known as the father of the Archaeological Survey of India...
  
   (1814–1893)
• Hermann Gundert
  Hermann Gundert
  Rev. Dr. Hermann Gundert was a German missionary and scholar, who compiled a Malayalam grammar book, Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam , the first Malayalam-English dictionary , and translated the Bible into Malayalam. He worked primarily at Tellicherry on the Malabar coast, in Kerala, India...
  
   (1814–1893)
• Otto von Bohtlingk
  Otto von Bohtlingk
  Otto von Böhtlingk was a German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. His magnum opus was a Sanskrit dictionary.-Biography:He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia...
  
   (1815–1904)
• Monier Monier-Williams
  Monier Monier-Williams
  Sir Monier Monier-Williams, KCIE was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England...
  
   (1819–1899)
• Rudolf Roth
  Rudolf Roth
  Rudolf von Roth was a German Indologist, founder of the Vedic philology. His chief work is a monumental Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in collaboration with Otto von Böhtlingk.-Biography:He was educated at the universities of Tübingen and Berlin...
  
   (1821–1893)
• Theodor Aufrecht
  Theodor Aufrecht
  Simon Theodor Aufrecht was a German indologist.-Biography:Aufrecht was born in Leschnitz, Prussian Silesia, and was educated in Berlin, graduating in 1847, in which year he also published a treatise on Sanskrit accent . With Kirchhoff, he collaborated in the publication of Die umbrischen Denkmäler...
  
   (1822–1907)
• Max Müller
  Max Müller
  Friedrich Max Müller , more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion...
  
   (1823–1900)
• Albrecht Weber
  Albrecht Weber
  Albrecht Friedrich Weber was a German Indologist and historian.He was born in Breslau, where his father was a Professor of Political Economy. He studied in that town, Bonn, and in Berlin, 1842-1845, busying himself especially with literature and Sanskrit archaeology. He received a doctor's degree...
  
   (1825–1901)
• Ralph T. H. Griffith (1826–1906)
• Ferdinand Kittel
  Ferdinand Kittel
  Reverend Ferdinand Kittel was a priest and indologist with the Basel Mission in south India and worked in Mangalore, Madikeri and Dharwad in Karnataka. He is most famous for his studies of the Kannada language and for producing the first ever Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894...
  
   (1832–1903)
• Edwin Arnold
  Edwin Arnold
  Sir Edwin Arnold CSI CIE was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work, The Light of Asia.-Biography:...
  
   (1832–1904)
• Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
  Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern
  Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern was a Dutch linguist and Orientalist. In the literature, he is usually referred to as H...
  
   (1833–1917)
• Georg Bühler
  Georg Bühler
  Professor Johann Georg Bühler was a scholar of ancient Indian languages and law.Bühler was born to Rev. Johann G...
  
   (1837–1898)
• Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
  Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
  Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer.-Early life:Bhandarkar was born in Malvan in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. After his early schooling in Ratnagiri, he studied at Elphinstone College in Bombay...
  
   (1837–1925)
• Julius Eggeling
  Julius Eggeling
  Hans Julius Eggeling was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh from 1875 to 1914, second holder of its Regius Chair of Sanskrit, and Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, London....
  
   (1842–1918)
• Paul Deussen
  Paul Deussen
  Paul Jakob Deussen was a German Orientalist and Sanskrit scholar. He was influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. He was also a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Swami Vivekananda.In 1911, he founded the Schopenhauer Society...
  
   (1845–1919)
• Vincent Arthur Smith
  Vincent Arthur Smith
  Vincent Arthur Smith was born in 1843 in Dublin which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was an Indologist, historian and art historian who worked in the Indian Civil Service and retired early to devote himself to his writing.His Oxford History of India, covering...
  
   (1848–1920)
• James Darmesteter
  James Darmesteter
  James Darmesteter was a French author, orientalist, and antiquarian.He was born of Jewish parents at Château-Salins, in Alsace. The family name had originated in their earlier home of Darmstadt...
  
   (1849–1894)
• Hermann Jacobi
  Hermann Jacobi
  Hermann Georg Jacobi was an eminent German Indologist.-Education:Jacobi was born in Köln on 11 February 1850...
  
   (1850–1937)
• Kashinath Trimbak Telang
  Kashinath Trimbak Telang
  Kashinath Trimbak Telang was an Indian judge and Indologist.-Biography:By profession an advocate of the high court, he also took a vigorous share in literary, social, municipal and political work, as well as in the affairs of the University of Bombay, over which he presided as vice-chancellor from...
  
   (1850–1893)
• Hermann Oldenberg
  Hermann Oldenberg
  Hermann Oldenberg was a German scholar of Indology, and Professor at Kiel and Göttingen .His 1881 study on Buddhism, entitled Buddha: Sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde, based on Pāli texts, popularized Buddhism and have remained continuously in print since their first publication. With T. W...
  
   (1854–1920)
• Arthur Anthony McDonell (1854–1930)

• Maurice Bloomfield
  Maurice Bloomfield
  Maurice Bloomfield, Ph. D., LL.D. was an American philologist and Sanskrit scholar.-Biography:Bloomfield was born in Bielitz , in what was at that time Austrian Silesia...
  
   (1855–1928)
• Mark Aurel Stein (1862–1943)
• P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar
  P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar
  P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar was an Indian historian, linguist and educationist regarded as one of the greatest Dravidologists of the 20th century.- Academic career :...
  
  (1863–1931)
• Moriz Winternitz
  Moriz Winternitz
  Moriz Winternitz was an eminent Austrian Orientalist.He received his earliest education in the gymnasium of his native town, and in 1880 entered the University of Vienna, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1886...
  
   (1863–1937)
• Fyodor Shcherbatskoy
  Fyodor Shcherbatskoy
  Fyodor Ippolitovich Shcherbatskoy or Stcherbatsky , often referred to in the literature as F. Th. Stcherbatsky, was a Russian Indologist who, in large part, was responsible for laying the foundations in the Western world for the scholarly study of Buddhist philosophy...
  
   (1866–1942)
• F.W. Thomas (1867–1956)
• S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
  S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar
  Diwan Bahadur Sakkottai Krishnaswamy Aiyangar was an Indian historian, academician and Dravidologist. He chaired the Department of Indian History and Archaeology at the University of Madras from 1914 to 1929....
  
   (1871–1947)
• John Hubert Marshall (1876–1958)
• Arthur Berriedale Keith (1879–1944)
• Pandurang Vaman Kane
  Pandurang Vaman Kane
  Bharat Ratna Dr. Pandurang Vaman Kane was a notable Indologist and Sanskrit scholar. He received India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna in 1963. He was born in a conservative Chitpavan Brahmin family in the Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, India. Eminent Historian Professor R.S...
  
   (1880–1972)
• Pierre Johanns
  Pierre Johanns
  Pierre Johanns was a Luxemburger Jesuit priest, missionary in India and Indologist.-Education:...
  
   (1882–1955)
• Andrzej Gawronski
  Andrzej Gawronski
  Andrzej Gawroński was a Polish Indologist, linguist and polyglot...
  
   (1885–1927)
• Willibald Kirfel
  Willibald Kirfel
  Willibald Kirfel was a German Indologist. He is known for his scholarly work on Indian cosmography, medicine and religion.-Works:* Die Kosmographie der Inder, nach den Quellen dargestellt * Die Religion der Jaina's...
  
   (1885–1964)
• Heinrich Zimmer
  Heinrich Zimmer
  Heinrich Robert Zimmer was an Indologist and historian of South Asian art, most known for his works, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization and Philosophies of India. He was the most important German scholar in Indian Philology after Max Müller...
  
   (1890–1943)
• Ervin Baktay
  Ervin Baktay
  Ervin Baktay was an author noted for popularizing Indian culture in Hungary.He had started his career as a painter and he encouraged his niece Amrita Sher-Gil to pursue art. Baktay gave up painting to study eastern religions and art, and became a renowned Indologist.-References:...
  
   (1890–1963)
• Mortimer Wheeler
  Mortimer Wheeler
  Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA , was one of the best-known British archaeologists of the twentieth century.-Education and career:...
  
   (1890–1976)
• B. R. Ambedkar
  B. R. Ambedkar
  Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , popularly also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, political leader, philosopher, thinker, anthropologist, historian, orator, prolific writer, economist, scholar, editor, a revolutionary and one of the founding fathers of independent India. He was also the Chairman...
  
   (1891–1956)
• K. A. Nilakanta Sastri
  K. A. Nilakanta Sastri
  Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri was an Indian historian and Dravidologist who is generally regarded as the greatest and most prolific among professional historians of South India.- Career :...
  
   (1892–1975)
• Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963)
• V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar
  V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar
  Vishnampet R. Ramachandra Dikshitar was a historian, Indologist and Dravidologist from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu...
  
   (1896–1953)
• Dasharatha Sharma
  Dasharatha Sharma
  Professor Dasharatha Sharma was an Indologist and a noted expert in the history of the Rajasthan region in India. He was born in the Rajasthani city of Churu and studied at Churu, the city of Bikaner in Rajasthan and at the University of Delhi. Prof. Sharma had degrees of Master of Arts in...
  
   (1903–1976)
• Joseph Campbell
  Joseph Campbell
  Joseph John Campbell was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience...
  
   (1904–1987)
• Murray Barnson Emeneau
  Murray Barnson Emeneau
  Murray Barnson Emeneau was an emeritus professor and founder of the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.-Early life and education:...
  
   (1904–2005)
• Paul Thieme
  Paul Thieme
  Paul Thieme was a scholar of Vedic Sanskrit. He received his doctorate in Indology in 1928 in Göttingen, and habilitated there in 1932. From 1932 to 1935 he taught German and French at the University of Allahabad...
  
   (1905–2001)
• Jean Filliozat
  Jean Filliozat
  Jean Filliozat was a French author. He studied medicine and was a physician between 1930 and 1947. He learned Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Tamil. He wrote some important works on the history of Indian medicine...
  
   (1906–1982)
• Alain Danielou
  Alain Daniélou
  Alain Daniélou was a French historian, intellectual, musicologist, Indologist, and a noted Western convert to and expert on Shaivite Hinduism.-Life:...
  
   (1907–1994)
• F B J Kuiper
  F B J Kuiper
  Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper was a distinguished scholar in Indology, and "one of the last great Indologists of the past century .....
  
   (1907–2003)
• Thomas Burrow
  Thomas Burrow
  Thomas Burrow was an Indologist and the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1944 to 1976. His work includes Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, The Problem of Shwa in Sanskrit and The Sanskrit Language....
  
   (1909–1986)
• Arthur Llewellyn Basham
  Arthur Llewellyn Basham
  Professor Arthur Llewellyn Basham was a noted historian and indologist and author of a number of books. It is perhaps not a mere coincidence that two of the most renowned living historians of early India, Professors R.S...
  
   (1914–1986)
• Richard De Smet
  Richard De Smet
  Richard De Smet was a Jesuit Indologist and missionary to India.- Life :Born at Charleroi, Belgium, he came to India as a young student of theology in 1946...
  
   (1916–1997)
• Madeleine Biardeau
  Madeleine Biardeau
  Madeleine Biardeau was a prominent Indologist from France.- Early life :Madeleine Biardeau was born into a middle-class family of small entrepreneurs. She was educated at the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure of Sèvres, in 1943, where she studied philosophy...
  
   (1922–2010)
• V.S. Pathak (1926–2003)
• Kamil Zvelebil
  Kamil Zvelebil
  Kamil Václav Zvelebil was a distinguished Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.- Biography :...
  
   (1927–2009)
• Tatyana Elizarenkova
  Tatyana Elizarenkova
  Tatyana Elizarenkova was a distinguished Soviet Russian Indologist and linguist, known for her study of the Vedas....
  
   (1929–2007)
• Anncharlott Eschmann
  Anncharlott Eschmann
  Anncharlott Eschmann 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 Eschmann, a retired psychotherapist...
  
   (1941–1977)

Contemporary Indologists with university posts in Indian Studies

• Ram Sharan Sharma
  Ram Sharan Sharma
  Ram Sharan Sharma was an eminent historian of Ancient and early Medieval India. He had taught at Patna University, Delhi University and the University of Toronto and was a senior fellow at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; University Grants Commission National Fellow...
  
   (1919–), Founding Chairperson of Indian Council of Historical Research
  Indian Council of Historical Research
  The Indian Council of Historical Research is a Society . The ICHR is registered under Societies registration Act 1860 with the Department of Industries of Delhi Government, Delhi.Role...
  
  ; Professor Emeritus, Patna University
• Hermann Kulke
  Hermann Kulke
  Hermann Kulke is a German Historian and Indologist, who was Professor of the South and Southeast Asian History at the Department of History, Kiel University . After receiving his Ph.D...
  
   (1938–)
• Heinrich von Stietencron
  Heinrich von Stietencron
  Prof. Dr. Heinrich Freiherr Von Stietencron is an Indologist, epigrapher, presently the Director, Orissa Project-II, funded by the German Research Foundation and also the Emeritus Professor of Indology at University of Tübingen in Germany. Dr...
  
   University of Tübingen, Germany
• Stanley Wolpert
  Stanley Wolpert
  Stanley Wolpert is an American Indologist, author, and academic. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and has written fiction and nonfiction books on the topics...
  
   (1927–)- University of California, Los Angeles
  University of California, Los Angeles
  The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
  
   (emeritus)
• Bhadriraju Krishnamurti
  Bhadriraju Krishnamurti
  Bhadriraju Krishnamurti ; IAST: ) is an eminent Dravidianist and the most respected Indian linguist of his generation. He was born in Ongole on June 19, 1928...
  
   (1928–)- Osmania University
  Osmania University
  Osmania University , , since 1918, is a public university located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established and named after the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan. It is one of the oldest modern universities in India. It is the first Indian University to have Urdu and...
  
  
• Romila Thapar
  Romila Thapar
  Romila Thapar is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is ancient India.-Work:After graduating from Panjab University, Thapar earned her doctorate under A. L. Basham at the School of Oriental and African Studies, the University of London in 1958...
  
   (born 1931–)- Jawaharlal Nehru University
  Jawaharlal Nehru University
  Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
  
   (emerita)
• Asko Parpola (born 1941–)- University of Helsinki
  University of Helsinki
  The University of Helsinki is a university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but was founded in the city of Turku in 1640 as The Royal Academy of Turku, at that time part of the Swedish Empire. It is the oldest and largest university in Finland with the widest range of disciplines available...
  
   (emeritus)
• Michael Witzel (born 1943–)- Harvard University
  Harvard University
  Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
  
  
• Ronald Inden
  Ronald Inden
  Ronald Inden is an American Indologist, and 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...
  
  - University of Chicago
  University of Chicago
  The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
  
   (emeritus)
• Fida Hassnain
  Fida Hassnain
  Fida Hassnain is a prominent Kashmiri writer and advanced Sufi Mystic. He studied law and received his Ll.D. in 1946.-Career:...
  
  - S.P. College, Srinagar
  Srinagar
  Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
  
  
• George L. Hart
  George L. Hart
  George L. Hart is a professor of Tamil language at the University of California, Berkeley.Hart received his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Harvard University and taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before joining the faculty at Berkeley...
  
  - University of California, Berkeley
  University of California, Berkeley
  The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
  
  
• Iravatham Mahadevan
  Iravatham Mahadevan
  Iravatham Mahadevan is an Indian epigraphist, specializing on the Indus script and Early Tamil epigraphy.-Biography:Iravatham Mahadevan was born in 1930 in a Smartha Tamil Brahmin family of Thanjavur district. He was born in British Burma where his father Iravatham was practising as a...
  
  - Indian Council of Historical Research
  Indian Council of Historical Research
  The Indian Council of Historical Research is a Society . The ICHR is registered under Societies registration Act 1860 with the Department of Industries of Delhi Government, Delhi.Role...
  
  
• Alexis Sanderson
  Alexis Sanderson
  Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson is an Indologist and fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. After taking undergraduate degrees in Classics and Sanskrit at Balliol College from 1968 to 1971, he spent six years in Kashmir studying with the scholar and Śaiva guru Swami Lakshman Joo...
  
  - All Souls College, Oxford University
• Edwin Bryant- Rutgers University
  Rutgers University
  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
  
  , New Jersey
  New Jersey
  New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
  
  
• Gérard Fussman
  Gérard Fussman
  Gérard Fussman is a French indologist. He is a professor at the Collège de France.- Partial list of publications :...
  
   – Collège de France
  Collège de France
  The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
  
  

See also

• Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
  Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
  The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on July 6, 1917 to honor the life and work of Dr. Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar , long regarded as the founder of Indology in India...
  
  , Pune
• Buddhism in the West
  Buddhism in the West
  Buddhism in the West broadly encompasses the knowledge and practice of Buddhism outside of Asia. Occasional intersections between Western civilization and the Buddhist world have been occurring for thousands of years, but it was not until the era of European colonization of Buddhist countries in...
  
  
• Greater India
  Greater India
  Greater India is a term that refers to the historical spread of the culture of India beyond the Indian subcontinent...
  
  
• List of books about India
• Sanskrit
  Sanskrit
  Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
  
  
• Sanskrit in the West
  Sanskrit in the West
  The study of Sanskrit in the Western world began in the 17th century. Some of Bhartṛhari's poems were translated into Portuguese in 1651. In 1779 a legal code known as was translated by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed from a Persian translation, and published as A Code of Gentoo Laws...
  
  

Further reading

• Heinz Bechert, Georg von Simson – Einführung in die Indologie. Stand, Methoden, Aufgaben – ISBN 3-534-05466-0.
• Jean Filliozat and Louis Renou – L'inde classique – ISBN B0000DLB66.
• Grundriss der Indo-Arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde, Berlin und Leipzig, Vereinigung wissenschaftlicher verleger, 1920
• Bryant, Edwin. The Quest for the origins of Vedic culture. (2001) Oxford University Press
• Chakrabarti, Dilip: Colonial Indology, 1997, Munshiram Manoharlal: New Delhi.
• Halbfass, W. India and Europe: An Essay in Understanding. SUNY Press, Albany: 1988
• Edmund Leach. "Aryan Invasions Over Four Millennia. In "Culture Through Time (edited by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Stanford University Press, 1990)
• Gauri Viswanathan, 1989, Masks of Conquest
• Pollock, Sheldon
  Sheldon Pollock
  Sheldon I. Pollock is a scholar of Sanskrit, Indian intellectual and literary history, and comparative intellectual history. He is currently the William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Studies at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University...
  
  . Deep Orientalism?: Notes on Sanskrit and Power Beyond the Raj. In: Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia, eds. Carol A. Breckenridge and Peter van der Veer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
• Servan-Schreiber, Catherine & Vuddamalay, Vasoodeven (éd.). Diasporas indiennes dans la ville. In hommes et migrations n° 1268–1269 (2007)
• Trautmann, Thomas
  Thomas Trautmann
  Thomas R. Trautmann is an American historian and Professor in the Department of History at the University of Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of London...
  
  . 1997. Aryans and British India, University of California Press, Berkeley.
• Windisch, Ernst. Geschichte der Sanskrit-Philologie und Indischen Altertumskunde. 2 vols. Strasbourg. Trübner, K.J., 1917–1920
• Zachariae, Theodor. Opera minora zur indischen Wortforschung, zur Geschichte der indischen Literatur und Kultur, zur Geschichte der Sanskritphilologie. Ed. Claus Vogel. Wiesbaden 1977, ISBN 3-515-02216-3.

External links

• www.indology.info – since 1995, with associated discussion forum since 1990
• www.indology.net – defunct. Domain name on sale to high bidders.
• www.indianbookscentre.com
• SARDS 2: Database containing bibliographic references to South Asia research articles
• Books related to Indology
• The Veda as Studied by European Scholars (Gifford Lectures Online)

Institutes

• Vienna
• Heidelberg
• Halle
• Mainz
• French Institute of Pondicherry
• Tübingen
• Zürich
• Oxford