Winternitz, Moritz

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WINTERNITZ, MORITZ

WINTERNITZ, MORITZ (1863–1933), Orientalist. Born in Horn, Austria, Winternitz received the degree of doctor of philosophy in 1886 from the University of Vienna. In 1888 he went to Oxford, where he spent the next ten years acting in various educational capacities, including teacher of German and librarian at the Indian Institute (1895). In 1899 he became instructor of Indology and general ethnology at the German University of Prague, and in 1911 was appointed professor of Sanskrit.

Winternitz's main work was Geschichte der indischen Literatur (3 vols., 1908–22; History of Indian Literature, 3 vols., 1927–59; 1959–632). His other works include A Catalogue of South Indian Sanskrit Manuscripts Belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1902), A Concise Dictionary of Eastern Religion: Being the Index Volume to the Sacred Books of the East (1910); Die Frau in den indischen Religionen (1920), and Rabindranath Tagore (Ger., 1936). Winternitz also edited several Sanskrit texts.

bibliography:

Festschrift M. Winternitz (1933).