- Theodor Goldstücker
Theodor Goldstücker (
January 18 ,1821 –March 6 ,1872 ) was a GermanSanskrit scholar. He was born ofJewish parents inKönigsberg . After attending the gymnasium of that town, he entered its university in 1836 as a student of Sanskrit.In 1838 he removed to
Bonn , and, after graduating at Königsberg in 1840, proceeded toParis ; in 1842 he edited a German translation of the "Prabodhacandrodaya" by Kṛṣṇamiśra Yati (fl. c. 1050-1100), a standard text widely read by Sanskrit students in India. From 1847 to 1850 he resided atBerlin , where his talents and scholarship were recognized byAlexander von Humboldt , but where his advanced political views caused the authorities to regard him with suspicion. He was asked to leave Berlin during therevolutions of 1848 in the German states . In 1850 he moved toLondon at the invitation of H. H. Wilson. In 1852 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit inUniversity College London . He worked on a new edition of Wilson's Sanskrit dictionary, of which the first instalment appeared in 1856. But his work became infeasibly long and detailed, and publication of the dictionary ground to a halt. In 1861 he published his best known work "Panini: his place in Sanscrit Literature." He was the founder of the Sanskrit Text Society (four volumes appeared); he was also an active member of the Philological Society, of which he was president at the time of his death; and of other learned bodies.He died in London.
As "Literary Remains" some of his writings were published in two volumes (London, 1879), but his papers were left to the
India Office with the request that they were not to be published until 1920.References
*"The Dictionary of National Biography" includes an informative and perceptive entry on Goldstücker by N. J. Allen: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10925
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