Émile Burnouf

Émile-Louis Burnouf (born August 26, 1821 in Valognes , † January 1907 in Paris ) was a French Indologist and classical philologist . His theories influenced the development of theosophy and Aryan racial ideology .

life and work

Burnouf studied since 1841 at the École normal supérieure , then he was a member of the École française d'Athènes . He was a professor at the University of Nancy and from 1867 to 1875 director of the École française d'Athènes. He wrote a Sanskrit-French dictionary.

Influenced by his cousin, the orientalist Eugène Burnouf , Émile Burnouf tried to reconcile the ideas of Buddhists and Hindus with European culture. In the wake of these efforts, he allegedly discovered the belief system of the early Aryans.

Burnouf was of the opinion that only Aryan and Semitic peoples were inherently religious. In particular, he was of the opinion that the originally pantheistic belief of the Aryans was "Semitized" and thus became monotheistic Christianity.

Burnouf adopted a hierarchy of races with the Aryans as the master race at the top . His writings are prejudiced and contain numerous deeply anti-Semitic claims. He believed that "real Semites" had smaller brains than Aryans because their skulls completed earlier.

Burnouf also suggested that the early Hebrews were two races. One of the races, the Semitic, worshiped Elohim, the other Yahweh. The latter were "possibly" Aryans who lived north of Jerusalem in Galilee. The Galileans and the more powerful Semite priests in Jerusalem had fought each other. Accordingly, Jesus was rejected by the Judeans, but recognized by Greek-speaking people. Burnouf thus created the basis for the National Socialist claim that Jesus was in truth an Aryan.

When Heinrich Schliemann asked for advice on the interpretation of the swastika symbols in the ruins of Troy , Burnouf explained that these were stylized representations of a fire altar from above. The swastika is the central symbol of the Aryan race. This view was largely adopted in Western Europe in the wake of the work of Schliemann and Burnouf.

Burnouf was an honorary member of the Greek Philological Society in Constantinople from 1868/69 .

Fonts (selection)

• De Neptuno ejusque cultu, praesertim in Peloponneso , J. Delalain 1850 (Dissertation in Latin, which Burnouf presented for the purpose of obtaining a doctorate at the Faculty of Humanities in Paris.)
• with L. Leupol, Méthode pour étudier la langue sanskrite , Maisonneuve & Leclerc, Paris 1885 (1859)
• La Bhagavad-Gîtâ, ou le Chant du Bienheureux, poème indien , Imprimerie Orientale, Nancy 1861 (text of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and French).
• Essai sur le Veda , Dezobry, Fd Tandou et Cie, Paris 1863 ( digitized version )
• Dictionnaire classique sanscrit-français (...) contenant le dêvanâgari, sa transcription européenne, l'interprétation, les racines , Nancy, 1863
• Histoire de la littérature grecque , 2 volumes, Ch.Delagrave, Paris, 1869
• La legend athénienne. Étude de mythologie comparée , Maisonneuve et Cie., Paris 1872
• La mythologie japonaise , 1875
• La Ville et l'Acropole d'Athènes aux diverses époques , Maisonneuve, Paris 1877
• Le Catholicisme contemporain , Calmann Lévy, Paris 1879
• Mémoires sur l'Antiquité. L'âge de bronze, Troie, Santorin, Délos, Mycènes, Le Parthénon, Les courbes, Les Propylées, Un faubourg d'Athenes , Maisonneuve et Cie, Paris 1879
• La science des religions , Maisonneuve, Paris 1876 (1872)
• La vie et la pensée. Élements réels de philosophie par Émile Burnouf , C. Reinwald, Paris 1886
• Émile-Louis Burnouf in the French Wikisource

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Science of Religions p. 49.
2. ^ The Science of Religions , p. 190.