Christian riese lassen wikipedia

Norwegian-German orientalist (–)

Christian Lassen (22 October – 8 May ) was a Norwegian-born, German orientalist and Indologist. He was a professor of Old Indian language and literature at the University of Bonn.^[1][2]

Biography

He was born at Bergen, Norway where he attended Bergen Cathedral School.

Having received an education at the University of Oslo, he moved to Germany and continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Bonn where Lassen acquired a sound knowledge of Sanskrit.

Christian lassen heritage: He was soon recognized as both an athlete and artist. For the past three decades, legendary artist Christian Riese Lassen has been known all over the world for his majestic works of art. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. Lassen, now sixty-four, but still remembered as the swinging, long-haired blond in tight pants and leather jacket who guest starred on Baywatch and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous in the nineties, pleaded no-contest to first-degree burglary, second-degree criminal property damage and second-degree terroristic threatening.

He spent three years in Paris and London, engaged in copying and collating manuscripts, and collecting materials for future research, especially with reference to Hindu drama and philosophy. During this period he published, jointly with Eugène Burnouf, his first work, Essai sur le Pâli (Paris, ).^[2]

On his return to Bonn he studied Arabic, and took the degree of Ph.D., his dissertation discussing the Arabic notices of the geography of the Punjab (Commentario geographica historica de Pentapotamia Indica, Bonn, ).

Soon after he was admitted Privatdozent, and in was appointed extraordinary and in ordinary professor of Old Indian language and literature. Lassen remained at the University of Bonn to the end of his life. Having been affected with almost total blindness for many years, by he was allowed to give up lecturing.

He died at Bonn and was buried at Alter Friedhof.^[2]

Work

In – he brought out, in conjunction with August Wilhelm von Schlegel, a critical annotated edition of the Hitopadeśa. The appearance of this edition marks the starting-point of the critical study of Sanskrit literature. Lassen assisted von Schlegel in editing and translating the first two cantos of the epic Rāmāyana ().

In he brought out the text of the first act of Bhavabhuti's drama, Mālatīmādhava, and a complete edition, with a Latin translation, of the Sānkhya-kārikā.

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Christian lassen calendars

In followed his edition and translation of Jayadeva's charming lyrical drama, Gītagovinda and his Institutiones linguae Pracriticae. His Anthologia Sanscritica, which came out the following year, contained several hitherto unpublished texts, and did much to stimulate the study of Sanskrit in German universities.

In Lassen brought out an improved edition of Schlegel's text and translation of the "Bhagavad Gita". ^[3]

As well as the study of Indian languages, he was a scientific pioneer in other fields of philological inquiry.

Christian lassen bronze Tools Tools. The first successful attempts at deciphering the Brahmi script were made in by Christian Lassen, who used a bilingual Greek-Brahmi coin of Indo-Greek king Agathocles to correctly identify several Brahmi letters. His world is a blend of the real and the imaginary, with magnificent underwater scenes with dolphins and other sea animals, as well as seascapes and landscapes of unparalleled beauty and harmony. Lassen broadcasts a weekly television show in Japan, where fans can learn more about his work.

In his Beiträge zur Deutung der Eugubinischen Tafeln () he prepared the way for the correct interpretation of the Umbrian inscriptions; and the Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes (7 vols., –), started and largely conducted by him, contains, among other valuable papers from his pen, grammatical sketches of the Beluchi and Brahui languages, and an essay on the Lycian inscriptions.^[3]

Old Persian cuneiform

Soon after the appearance of Burnouf's Commentaire sur le Yacna (), Lassen also directed his attention to the Zend language, and to Iranian studies generally; and in Die altpersischen Keilinschriften von Persepolis () he greatly improved the knowledge of the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions, following the early efforts of Grotefend () and Saint-Martin ().^[4] thereby anticipating, by one month, Burnouf's Mémoire on the same subject, while Sir Henry Rawlinson's famous memoir on the Behistun Inscription, though drawn up in Persia, at about the same time, did not reach the Royal Asiatic Society until three years later, ^[5]

Subsequently, Lassen published, in the sixth volume of his journal (), a collection of all the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions known up to that date.

According to Sayce:

(Lassen's)contributions to the decipherment of the inscriptions were numerous and important. He succeeded in fixing the true values of nearly all the letters in the Persian alphabet, in translating the texts, and in proving that the language of them was not Zend, but stood to both Zend and Sanskrit in the relation of a sister.

—&#;Sayce^[6]:&#;15&#;

Brahmi script

The first successful attempts at deciphering the Brahmi script were made in by Christian Lassen, who used a bilingual Greek-Brahmi coin of Indo-Greek king Agathocles to correctly identify several Brahmi letters.^[7] The task was then completed by James Prinsep, who was able to identify the rest of the Brahmi characters, with the help of Major Cunningham.^[7]

Kharoshthi

He also was one of the first scholars in Europe who took up, with signal success, the decipherment of the newly discovered Bactrian, Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian coins with Kharoshthi legends, which furnished him the materials for Zur Geschichte der griechischen und indoskythsschen Könige in Bakterien, Kabul, und Indien ().^[9] In this, he closely followed the pioneering work of James Prinsep (), and Carl Ludwig Grotefend ().^[10]

He contemplated bringing out a critical edition of the Vendidad; but, after publishing the first five fargards (), he felt that his whole energies were required for the successful accomplishment of the great undertaking of his life—his Indische Altertumskunde.

In this work—completed in four volumes, published respectively in (2nd ed., ), (2nd ed., ), and —which forms one of the greatest monuments of untiring industry and critical scholarship, everything that could be gathered from native and foreign sources, relative to the political, social and intellectual development of India.

He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in ^[11]

References

Other sources

• “Christian Lassen,” Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band 17, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, , S. – (in German)
• “Christian Lassen,” Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4.

  Auflage von – (in German)

• Lassen, Christian (). Altpersischen Keil-Inschriften von Persepolis. Bonn, E. Weber.
• Lassen, Christian (). Zur Geschichte der griechischen und indoskythischen Könige in Baktrien, Kabul und Indien durch Entzifferung der altkabulischen Legenden auf ihren Münzen.

  Bonn, H. B. König.

External links

&#;This article&#;incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:&#;Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (). "Lassen, Christian".

Christian lassen biography book He is getting much better and doing much better. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 December Work [ edit ].

Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol.&#;16 (11th&#;ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp.&#;–