I am very sorry to hear about the passing of Werner Knobl. He was less than a
year my junior, and we became friends during my one-year stay in Kyoto in 1999.
I met him also later, at the World Sanskrit conference in Helsinki in 2003, and
during my stay in Kyoto in 2006. Werner remembered having seen me in Tübingen
around 1970, when Dieter Dütting of the Max Planck Institute invited me to give
a lecture on the Indus script — I remembered only meeting Werner’s teacher Paul
Thieme. Werner told me that he revered Thieme so much that he was unable to
publish anything as long as Thieme was alive, for the fear bthat it would not
meet Thieme’s standard. I give below details of his life not found in
Natiliya’s obituary. His surname Knobl comes from the German word Knobel.
Knobl, Werner Franz (born in Eger, Bohemia [now Cheb in Czech Republic] 12 Sept 1942 - died 28 Sept
2023). Johannes-Gutenberg-Gymnasium, Wiesbaden, 1953-1962. Studied Philosophy, Theology, Indology,
Arabistik and Linguistics at Frankfurt (1962-1964), Paris (1964-1965), Mainz (1965-1966) and
Tübingen (1966-1980). Wrote an Indological Dissertation in 1980 (Promotor: Paul Thieme) which
remained undefended. Went to Japan in Sept 1980. Taught Vedic and Classical Sanskrit as full-time
"Foreign Lecturer" at Kanazawa (1981-1991) and Kyoto (1991-2006); as part-time teacher at
Fukui (1980-1984), Hiroshima (1989-2001), Otani (2006-2009) and Kyoto (2006-2009). Vedic classes at
the Leiden Summer School (from 2008 to 2023). Held an intensive course in "Vedic grammar and
syntax" inclusive of reading Vedic hymns and prose (in German) at the University of Halle,
Germany, on 14-25 Sept 2009. Ph. D., Leiden University, 30 Sept 2009 (Promotor: Alexander
Lubotsky). Married to Chizuko Suzuki, three children (and, in 2010, one grandson). Home address:
9-4 Shibuse-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-606-8283 Japan.
Missing Werner, Asko Parpola
On 4. Oct 2023, at 10.53, Nataliya Yanchevskaya via
INDOLOGY<[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Collegues,
I am so sorry to pass along the sad news: Werner Knobl, a scholar of Vedic
language, texts, and culture, passed away on September 28, 2023.
He will be greatly missed by many.
Below I am forwarding Werner's orbituary written by Natālija Burišina who is
not a member of the list.
NY
---------------------------
Dear All,
On behalf of Dr. Werner Knobl’s students, I have very sad news to announce…
Our Beloved Teacher, Werner, the Master of Vedic lore whose ocean of knowledge
was enormous and absolutely unique in its own way, passed away last Thursday,
on 28th September. There are no words to express how much I am already missing
our Great Teacher, our classes, discussions, and our Little Vedic Sanskrit
Lovers community.
Let me briefly sketch our first encounter and further collaboration. Alongside
with other Vedic Sanskrit learners, I joined the Leiden Summer School in
Languages and Linguistics in 2022, where we spent two beautiful and saturated
weeks studying fragments from the Ṛgveda and Brāhmaṇas. Thus, when the Summer
School was nearing to the end some of us expressed a wish to continue our
studies online. After that Werner discussed it with the Director, Sasha
Lubotsky to receive his approval, which was then generously granted.
And so, until the next Summer School in Leiden we were lucky to meet online 10
times during the autumn-winter of 2022, and the same in the spring of 2023. Our
group was formed of former and current Werner’s students, who joined the
classes from different corners of the world. Werner always welcomed questions
either sent to him by email, or asked during the class. He was happy to give
elaborate answers to any difficult questions, and did not hesitate to discuss
and oppose the opinions of other scholars, and even His teacher, the late Paul
Thieme, whom he frequently recalled with great veneration, however, He always
did so with great respect. Moreover, He continuously encouraged us to have our
own analyses and never missed to add the phrase: “You are not obliged to trust
me,” or else “If you want to accept this argument […]”. I dare to say that most
of us were impatiently looking forward to our weekly online sessions that
allowed us not only to get immersed in the realm of Vedic mythopoetics that
dates back for more than 3000 years, but also to look at the aspects of
Historical Linguistics, intricate Grammar matters, Vedic intonation, philology,
translation problems of some difficult passages, etc.
I was lucky to meet Our Great Teacher, Werner, again in Leiden during the
closing party of the Summer School.
This was my second and last encounter in life with our Beloved Teacher and his
companion Carole with whom we had a wonderful conversation about our passion
for Vedic Sanskrit, about how she met Werner in Japan and many more…
I am immensely grateful to Our Beloved Teacher for all the knowledge He shared
with us, for allowing us to discern all the subtleties of the Vedic poetry
through His lens; for His kindness and all the support that every aspiring
student and scholar needs so much at the initial stages. I still keep on
receiving messages expressing gratitude for His kindness from scholars and
students whom He had supported with both critique and advice…
For all of this, I am ineffably grateful to You, our Beloved Teacher, and as
such You will always remain in my memories. I am somehow certain that our souls
will meet again, somewhere in svargaloka…
R.I.P.
<image.png>
Ar cieņu
Met vriendelijke groet,
Best regards,
Natālija Burišina
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