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LASSEN, CHRISTIAN (1800-1876)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 237 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LASSEN, See also:CHRISTIAN (1800-1876) , See also:German orientalist, was See also:born on the 22nd of See also:October 1800, at See also:Bergen in See also:Norway. Having received his earliest university See also:education at See also:Christiania, he went to See also:Germany, and continued his studies at See also:Heidelberg and See also:Bonn. In the latter university Lassen acquired a See also:sound knowledge of See also:Sanskrit. He next spent three years in See also:Paris and See also:London, engaged in copying and collating See also:MSS., and See also:collecting materials for future See also:research, especially in reference to the See also:Hindu See also:drama and See also:philosophy. During this See also:period he published, jointly with E. See also:Burnouf, his first See also:work, Essai sur le Pdli (Paris, 1826). On his return to Bonn he studied Arabic, and took the degree of Ph.D., his dissertation discussing the Arabic notices of the See also:geography of the See also:Punjab (Commentatio geographica atque historica de Pentapotamia Indica, Bonn, 1827). Soon after he was admitted Privatdozent, and in 183o was appointed extraordinary and in 184o See also:ordinary See also:professor of Old See also:Indian See also:language and literature. In spite of a tempting offer from See also:Copenhagen, in 1841, Lassen remained faithful to the university of his See also:adoption to the end of his See also:life. He died at Bonn on the 8th of May 1876, having been affected with almost See also:total See also:blindness for many years. As See also:early as 1864 he was relieved of the See also:duty of lecturing. In 1829-1831 he brought out, in See also:conjunction with See also:August W. von See also:Schlegel, a See also:critical annotated edition of the Hitopadefa.

The See also:

appearance of this edition marks the starting-point of the critical study of Sanskrit literature. At the same See also:time Lassen assisted von Schlegel in editing and translating the first two cantos of the epic Ramayana (1829–1838). In 1832 he brought out the See also:text of the first See also:act of Bhavabhuti's drama, Malatimadhava, and a See also:complete edition, with a Latin See also:translation, of the Sankhya-karika. In 1837 followed his edition and translation of Jayadeva's charming lyrical drama, Gitagovinda and his Institutiones linguae Pracriticae. His Anthologia Sanscritica, which came out the following See also:year (new ed. by Johann Gildemeister, 1868), contained several hitherto unpublished texts, and did much to stimulate the study of Sanskrit in German See also:universities. In 1846 Lassen brought out an improved edition of Schlegel's text and translation of the " Bhagavadgita." He did not confine himself to the study of Indian See also:languages, but acted likewise as a scientific See also:pioneer in other See also:fields of philological inquiry. In his Beitrage zur Deutung der Eugubinischen Tafeln (1833) he prepared the way for the correct See also:interpretation of the Umbrian See also:inscriptions; and the Zeitschrift See also:fur See also:die Kunde See also:des Morgenlandes (7 vols., 1837-185o), started and largely conducted by him, contains, among other valuable papers from his See also:pen, grammatical sketches of the Beluchi and See also:Brahui languages, and an See also:essay on the Lycian inscriptions. Soon after the appearance of Burnouf's Commentaire sur le Yacna (1833), Lassen also directed his See also:attention to the Zend, and to Iranian studies generally; and in Die altpersischen Keilinschriften von See also:Persepolis (1836) he first made known the true See also:character of the Old See also:Persian See also:cuneiform inscriptions, thereby anticipating, by one See also:month, Burnouf's Memoire on the same subject, while See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Rawlinson's famous memoir on the See also:Behistun inscription, though See also:drawn up in See also:Persia, independently of contemporaneous See also:European research, at about the same time, did not reach the Royal See also:Asiatic Society until three years later. Subsequently Lassen published, in the See also:sixth See also:volume of his See also:journal (1845), a collection of all the Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions known up to that date. He also was the first See also:scholar in See also:Europe who took up, with See also:signal success, the decipherment of the newly-discovered Bactrian coins, which .furnished him the materials for Zur Geschichte der griechischen und indo-skythischen Konige in Bakterien, See also:Kabul, und Indien (1838). He contemplated bringing out a critical edition of the Vendidad; but, after See also:publishing the first five fargards (1852), he See also:felt that his whole energies were required for the successful accomplishment of the See also:great undertaking of his life—his Indische Altertumskunde. In this work—completed in four volumes, published respectively in 1847 (2nd ed., 1867), 1849 (2nd ed., 1874), 1858 and 1861—which forms one of the greatest monuments of untiring See also:industry and critical scholarship, everything that could be gathered from native and See also:foreign See also:sources, relative to the See also:political, social and intellectual development of See also:India, from the earliest times down to the See also:Mahommedan invasion, was worked up by him into a connected See also:historical See also:account.

End of Article: LASSEN, CHRISTIAN (1800-1876)

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