Lassen, Christian

Lassen, Christian a famous German Orientalist, was born October 22, 1800, at Bergen, Norway. He studied at Christiana, Heidelberg, and Bonn, spent some years at London and Paris copying and comparing Indian MSS., and published with Burnouf the Essai sur le Pali (Paris, 1826). Having returned to Bonn, he commenced his academical career by publishing Commentatio Geographica atque Historica de Pentapotamia Indica (Bonn, 1827). In 1830 he was made professor, and died May 8, 1876. He published editions of Javadeva's Gitagovinda (1837): — Gymnosophista, sive Indicae Philosophiae Documenta (1832 ): — Anthologia Sanscritica (1838; new edition by Gildemeister, 1865, 1868): — Institutiones Linguae Pracriticae (1837); but his main work is Indische Alterthumskunde (1844-62, 4 volumes; 2d ed. volume 1, 1866; volume 2, 1873). In his Die altpersischen Keilinschriften (1836) he deciphered for the first time the-cuneiform inscriptions. (B.P.)