 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Hermann Jacobi" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Hermann Jacobi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1850-02-11)11 February 1850 |
| Died | 19 October 1937(1937-10-19) (aged 87) |
| Occupation | Indologist |
Hermann Georg Jacobi (11 February 1850 – 19 October 1937) was a GermanIndologist.
Jacobi was born inKöln (Cologne)[1] on 11 February 1850. He was educated in thegymnasium of Cologne[2] and then went to theUniversity of Berlin, where initially he studied mathematics, but later, probably under the influence ofAlbrecht Weber, switched toSanskrit and comparative linguistics, which he studied under Weber andJohann Gildemeister.[1] He obtained hisdoctorate from theUniversity of Bonn. The subject of his thesis, written in 1872, was the origin of the term"hora" in Indian astrology.[3][4]
Jacobi was able to visit London for a year, 1872–1873, where he examined the Indian manuscripts available there. The next year, withGeorg Buehler, he visitedRajasthan,India, where manuscripts were being collected.[5] AtJaisalmer Library, he came acrossJain manuscripts, which were of abiding interest to him for the rest of his life. He later edited and translated many of them, both into German and English, including those forMax Mueller'sSacred Books of the East.
In 1875 he completed his habilitation and became adocent in Sanskrit at Bonn;[6] from 1876-85 he was professor extraordinarius of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology atMünster, Westphalia; in 1885, he was appointed professor ordinarius of Sanskrit atKiel; and in 1889 was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Bonn.[1][2] He served as professor in Bonn until his retirement in 1922. After his retirement, Jacobi remained active, lecturing and writing till his death in 1937.
Apart from Jaina studies, Jacobi was interested inIndian mathematics,astrology and thenatural sciences, and using astronomical information available in theVedas, he tried to establish the date of their composition. LikeAlexander Cunningham before him he tried to systematise how, from the evidence available in inscriptions, a true local time could be arrived at.[citation needed]
Jacobi's studies in astronomy have regained importance today in the context of theOut of India theory, because his calculations led him to believe that the hymns of theRigveda were to be dated as early as 4500 B.C. Thus he is the only renowned Western Indologist whose research supports the claim of the proponents of the theory that the Vedas are to be dated back much earlier than the first half of the second millennium B.C. According to mainstream Indology, theIndo-Aryan Migration took place during this period of time and the Vedas were only composed after the migration. When Jacobi published his views in an article on the origin of Vedic culture in theJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1908), he therefore triggered off a major controversy in Indology.[citation needed]
In his later life, Jacobi interested himself in poetry, epics, and philosophy, particularly the school ofNyaya-Vaisheshika.[citation needed]
Among the honours he received were a doctorate from theUniversity of Calcutta where he had gone in the winter of 1913-14 to lecture on poetics, while the Jain community conferred the title Jain Darshan Divakar — Sun of the Jain doctrine — upon him. He became an international honorary member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1909.[7]
| Gods | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philosophy | |||||
| Branches |
| ||||
| Practices | |||||
| Literature | |||||
| Symbols | |||||
| Ascetics | |||||
| Scholars | |||||
| Community |
| ||||
| Jainism in |
| ||||
| Jainism and | |||||
| Dynasties and empires | |||||
| Related | |||||
| Lists | |||||
| Navboxes | |||||
