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1849-1908
Richard Pischel was a scholar with profound philological knowledge whose works span the field of Indology from ancient to modern times. He was an authority on Prakrit Grammar. He also wrote on Vedic subjects, drama and Buddhism.
Richard Pischel was born on 18.1.1849 in Breslau. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Breslau in 1870. His thesis, written under the guidance of Stenzler, was De Kalidasae Cakuntali recensionibus ("On the recensions of Kalidasa's Shakuntala"). He compared the so called-Devanagari recension and the Bengali recension, which had been translated by Sir William Jones in 1790 (A year later from English into German by G. Forster). Pischel considered the Bengali version to be the older and more original one. In 1878, Pischel published a critical edition of the Bengali recension.
Biography