BENFEY, THEODOR
BENFEY, THEODOR (b. Nörten, Lower Saxony, Germany, 28 January ; d. Göttingen, 26 June ; Figure 1, Figure 2), German comparative philologist with a focus on Indian languages. His path-breaking research on the Pañcatantra made him one of the pioneers of comparative folklore studies.
Benfey was born into a Jewish family in a small town near Göttingen during the political turmoil of the Napoleonic era, when Lower Saxony was under French occupation (). His father Isaak Benfey (d. ; cf. Kleinere Schriften, I, p. XVI) was a merchant and Talmud scholar, and had eight children. Theodor’s brother Samuel became a lawyer (Geck). In the family moved to Göttingen, where Benfey received his primary and secondary education. Göttingen belonged to the Electorate of Hanover (), and from until the British House of Hanover continued to rule the Kingdom of Hanover (). The Georg-August-Universität (founded in ) was at the beginning of the 19th century one of the most renowned European universities with an outstanding library.
Benfey came of age during a postwar period characterizd by economic empoverishment and the political oppress
Benfey, Theodor, (German philologist)
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Theodor Benfey (). German scholar of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics whose works, particularly his edition of the ancient collection of Indian animal fables known as the Pañca-tantra, contributed in a major way to Sanskrit ned initially with research in classical languages, Benfey worked, while settled as a teacher at Frankfurt am Main (–32), on translating the comedies of the Roman playwright Terence. In he became a Privatdozent at the University of Göttingen and began teaching classical-language studies. While increasingly occupied with Sanskrit, he published a lexicon of Greek roots (–42) and a study of the relation of Semitic and Egyptian languages (). In he became an assistant professor and published an edition and translation with glossary of the Sāmaveda, or ancient Vedic religious chants. Two works by Benfey on Sanskrit grammar (–54 and ) were followed by his edition and translation of the Pañca-tantra (), which included a commentary that proved to be a valuable contribution to comparative literature. Appointed professor in , he next published a Sanskrit grammar in English (–66) and
A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language
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: A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language
Who was Theodor Benfey?
Theodor Benfey was a German philologist and the son of a Jewish trader from Nörten in Lower Saxony. In he became a Privatdozent at the University of Göttingen, teaching Sanskrit and Comparative Grammar.
Although originally destined for the medical profession, Benfey's taste for philology was awakened by a careful instruction in Hebrew which he received from his father. After brilliant studies at Göttingen he spent a year at Munich, where he was greatly impressed by the lectures of Schelling and Thiersch, and afterwards settled as a teacher in Frankfurt.
Benfey's pursuits were at first chiefly classical, and his attention was diverted to Sanskrit by an accidental wager that he would learn enough of the language in a few weeks to be able to review a new book upon it. This feat he accomplished, and rivalled in later years when he learned Russian in order to translate V. P. Vasilev's work on Buddhism. For the time, however, his labours were chiefly in classical and Semitic philology. At Göttingen, where he had returned as Privatdozent, he wrote a little work on the names of the Hebrew months, proving that they were derived from the Persian, prepared the gr
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