Lucian Scherman


Lucian Scherman was a German Indologist, curator of the Ethnology Museum in Munich, and also a professor at the University there.

Studies and academic work

Scherman was the son of merchants and landowners in Posen. After attending high school in Breslau and Posen, in 1882 he took up the study of Sanskrit at the University of Breslau with Adolf Friedrich Stenzler. In 1883 he relocated to Munich, where he continued his studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Scherman received his doctorate in the summer of 1885. His dissertation was entitled Eine eingehende Erörterung der philosophischen Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva-Veda-Sanhitâ sowohl an sich als auch im Verhältnis zur Philosophie der älteren Upanishad's. The dissertation was, coincidentally, the answer to a prize question that his instructor, Ernst Kuhn, had put to the faculty. It was announced that Scherman would win the prize for his dissertation.
From October 1910 to December 1911, Scherman and his wife Christine undertook an extended research trip to British Ceylon, British Burma, and British India. Scherman's eminence both in Germany and abroad was so considerable that a special Department of Asian Ethnology with an emphasis on Indian Culture was created specifically for him.

Works

Lucian Scherman has written many articles and books, and it would be difficult to draw up an exhaustive list. Here are some of them:
  • Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva-veda-Sanhitâ : verglichen mit den Philosophemen der älteren Upanishad's, .Orientalische bibliographie,.
  • Allgemeine Methodik der Volkskunde : Berichte über Erscheinungen in den Jahren, .
  • Orientalische Bibliographie: Drei Hefte in einem Band,.
  • Textiles, crafts and customs of Burma's women world
  • Völkerkundliche notizen aus Oberbirma ,.
  • Brettchenwebereien aus Birma und den Himalayaländern ,.
  • Zur altchinesischen Plastik : Erläuterung einiger Neuzugänge im Münchener Ethnographischen Museum , .
  • Frühbuddhistische Steinskulpturen in China , .
  • Das Museum für Völkerkunde : im Nordflügel der Hofgartenarkaden , .
  • Im Stromgebiet des Irrawaddy : Birma und seine Frauenwelt , .
  • Die ältesten Buddhadarstellungen des Münchener Museums für Völkerkunde ,.
  • ''Buddha im fürstenschmuck; erläuterung hinterindischer bildwerke des Münchener museums für völkerkunde, .