Via Cantore, 47 - 33100 Udine (Italy)
email: info@tessitori.org
The history of Italian Indological studies started with Gorresio’s edition and translation of the Rāmāyaṇa. This work became the starting point for many younger scholars, amongst whom was Luigi Pio Tessitori. |
Luigi Pio TessitoriLuigi Pio Tessitori was born in Udine on 13 December 1887. In his short but intensely productive life, Tessitori established himself as an outstanding philologist, linguist, historian and archaeologist. He is without doubt one of the leading figures in twentieth-century Indological studies. Tessitori studied at Florence under the distinguished Sanskrit scholar, Paolo Emilio Pavolini, taking his degree in 1910 after defending a thesis on the Rāmacaritamānasa of Tulasī Dāsa. He quickly rose to international prominence and was appointed by Sir George Grierson, director of the Linguistic Survey of India, to take charge of the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana which was to be undertaken in India for Asiatic Society of Bengal. Tessitori disembarked at Bombay in April 1914 and, after a few months of residence in Calcutta, he moved to Rajasthan, where he was to remain for five years. He devoted himself to meticulously collecting manuscripts and to a scrupulous study of the major works of the Bardic literary canon. Tessitori also concerned himself with archaeology, completing work on behalf of the archaeologist John Marshall. In the course of these digs, he discovered inscriptions, sculptures, earthenware pottery, coins and seals. Tessitori's activities came to a sudden end when he died, after a short illness, at Bikaner, on 22 November 1919. Luigi Pio Tessitori produced a vast number of scholarly publications. His bibliography ranges from writings that appeared in the «Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana» (Bhavavairāgyaśatakam, 1909, with an Italian translation; Aggiunte, note e correzioni al Bhavavairāgyaśatakam, 1911; Il «Rāmacaritamānasa» e il «Rāmāyaṇa», 1911, a comparative study; L’«Uvaesamālā» di Dharmadāsa, 1912, a critical edition; Karakuṇḍa kī kathā, ovvero una versione digambara in jaipurī bhāṣā della storia di Karakaṇḍu, 1913, with an Italian translation) and in the «Rivista degli Studi Orientali» (Nāsaketa-rī kathā, o di una versione in māravādî bhāṣā del «Nāsiketopākhyāna», 1913; Indiyaparājayasayayam, 1917, with an Italian translation), to studies published in the «Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society» (On the Origin of the Dative and Genitive Postpositions in Gujarātī and Mārwāṛī, 1913; On Some Grammatical Forms Occurring in the Old Baiswāṛī of Tulasī Dāsa, 1914), in «Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft» (On the Origin of the Perfect Participles in l in the Neo-Indian Vernaculars, 1914), in «Indian Antiquary» (Paramajotistotra an Old Braja metrical Version of Siddhasenadivākara's Kalyāṇamandirastotra, 1913; Two Jaina Versions of the Story of Salomon's Judgment, in Gujarātī and Jaipūrī, 1913; The Rāmacaritamānasa and the Rāmāyaṇa, 1913; Notes on the Grammar of the Old Western Rājasthānī with Special Reference to Apabhraṃśa and to Gujarātī and Mārvāṛī, 1914-1916) and in the «Proceedings of the Fifth Gujarātī Sāhitya Parishad» (Old Gujarātī and Old Western Rājasthānī , 1915). The list is completed by Tessitori's works of a philosophical and religious nature (Tulasī Dāsa come apostolo e come poeta, 1914; La posizione di Tulasī Dāsa di fronte ai sistemi di Rāmānuja e di Çankarācārya, 1911-1912; Vijaya Dharma Sūri. A Jain Āchārya of the Present Day, 1917) and the works published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in its «Journal and Proceedings» (A Scheme for the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana, 1915; A Progress Report on the Preliminary Work done in connection with the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana, 1916-1920) and in the «Bibliotheca Indica» (A Descriptive Catalogue of Bardic and Historical Manuscripts, 1917-1918; Vacanikā Rāṭhòṛa Ratana Siṅghajī rī Mahesadāsòta rī Khiṛiyā Jaga rī kahī, 1917 and Veli Krisaṇa Rukamanī rī Rāṭhòṛa rāja Prithī Rāja rī kahī, 1919, critical editions; Chanda rāu Jètā Sī rò. Vīthu Sūjè rò kiyò, also a critical edition, 1920). |