ANKLESARIA, BAHRAMGORE TAHMURAS

 

ANKLESARIA, BAHRAMGORE TAHMURAS (1873-1944), Parsi scholar, son of Tahmuras Dinshah Anklesaria, born and educated in Bombay. He was the first student to take his M.A. degree in the newly established Avestan and Pahlavi courses at Bombay University, and was appointed lecturer in these subjects at the Sir J. J. Zarthoshti and Mulla Firoza Madressas, later becoming Principal of these combined institutions. He was active throughout his life as a scholar, and brought out a number of his father’s unpublished works (see under Tahmuras Anklesaria), as well as producing editions and translations of his own of Pahlavi texts. These in their turn were mostly published after his death, notably the following (all published in Bombay): Zand-Ākāsīh, Iranian or Greater Bundahišn, Eng. tr. and transcription (1956, with a biographical sketch in the introduction, pp. 1-5); Zand-î Vohûman Yasn, Eng. tr. and transcription (1957); Rivâyat-î Hêmît-î Asavahistân, Pahl. text (1962); Vichitakiha Zatsparam, Pahl. text with almost complete Eng. tr. in the intro. (1964); The Pahlavi Rivāyat of Āturfarn-bag and Farnbag-Srōš, 2 vols., text, transcription and translation (1969). He also prepared an edited edition with English tr. of The Holy Gathas of Zarathushtra (1953) and contributed articles on philological and religious subjects to Parsi journals and to corporate works, himself editing the massive Dastur Hoshang Memorial Volume (1918), and the Dinshah J. Irani Memorial Volume (1943). He visited Iran in 1930 and 1934, delivering a number of lectures there. He labored steadily to maintain and defend the religious life of his community and in 1911 he collaborated with P. A. Wadia and N. N. Katrak in writing a tract against theosophy. He was an active member of the “Society for the promotion of researches in the Zoroastrian religion”, the Rahnumae Mazdayasnan Sabha, and the Gatha Society, reading numerous papers under their auspices. He was also for many years honorary secretary of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute and editor of its journal.

Bibliography:

For critical appreciation of his scholarly work see M. Sprengling, JAOS 71/1, 1951, pp. 80-81; M. F. Kanga, Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, 23rd session, Poona, 1969, pp. 51-52, 55-56; and F. M. Kotwal, ibid., 26th session, Poona, 1975, p. 28.

(K. M. JamaspAsa and M. Boyce)

Originally Published: December 15, 1985

Last Updated: August 5, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. II, Fasc. 1, p. 96

Cite this entry:

K. M. JamaspAsa and M. Boyce, “ANKLESARIA, BAHRAMGORE TAHMURAS,” Encyclopædia Iranica, II/1, p. 96, available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/anklesaria-bahramgore-tahmuras (accessed on 30 December 2012).