German Indologist
Klaus Albert Robert Curt Mylius (born 24 August 1930 in Berlin) is a German indologist. He was Professor of Sanskrit Studies and Indian Archaeology at the University of Leipzig until 1990, after which he was a lecturer at the universities of Bayreuth and Frankfurt am Main.
Life.
As a child in Berlin, Klaus Mylius experienced the Allied bombing raids that caused his Mylius family to lose their home three times. In 1945, the year of the war, he was evacuated to Siegersleben (Magdeburger Börde). He then worked as a farm labourer and newspaper carrier until 1948. From 1946 to 1948 he completed a commercial apprenticeship in the Siegersleben goods distribution company. From 1948 to 1952 he took on functions within the SED, FDJ and DSF. Mylius then headed the central school for projectionists of the State Committee for Film in Halle (Saale) until 1953. From 1953 to 1955 he was a lecturer at the adult education centre of the city of Halle (Saale).
In 1954, Klaus Mylius passed a special maturity examination at the then Workers' and Peasants' Faculty (ABF) of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). From 1954 to 1958 he studied geography at the Institute of Geography (Director: Rudolf Käubler) and from 1957 to 1961 Indology at the Institute of Indology (Director: Karl Ammer) at Halle University. Here Mylius was awarded a doctorate in geography in 1962 with a dissertation on the economic geography of Pakistan (examiners: Rudolf Käubler and Karl Ammer). In 1964, he was awarded his second doctorate in Indology on the subject of The social conditions of India after the Śatapatha Brāhmana (German: Die gesellschaftlichen Zustände Indiens nach dem Śatapatha-Brāhmana) (examiner: Karl Ammer).
Mylius habilitated at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in 1968 with a thesis on India in Middle Vedic times presented according to Sanskrit sources (reviewers: Karl Ammer, Rigobert Günther and Walter Markov).
From 1970 to 1976, he worked at the University of Leipzig as a university lecturer in Sanskrit philology in the African and Middle Eastern Studies Section (Section Director: Gert Kück). In 1976 he became associate professor for Sanskrit and Indian antiquity here and continued to head the department of Ancient Oriental Studies. He was also a party group organiser (PO) of his party group in the SED here for a time. As an unofficial collaborator, Mylius was also active for the Ministry for State Security.
After the reunification of Germany, Mylius, who is emeritus professor in Leipzig, took on a teaching position from 1990 to 1994 at the University of Bayreuth, Institute for Religious Studies (Director: Ulrich Berner). Since 1996 he has been a lecturer in Sanskrit, first at the Institute for Philosophy (Director: Wilhelm K. Essler), then at the Institute for Empirical Linguistics (Director: Jost Gippert) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.
Klaus Mylius is an internationally recognised Indologist who represents his special field of Sanskrit and Indian antiquity. He continues to realise and publish new book projects in this field to the present day (2018).
His first marriage was to Karin Mylius, who died in 1986. He had a son and a daughter from this marriage. Mylius has been married again since 1989. He lives in Gottenheim near Freiburg im Breisgau.
Awards.
Klaus Mylius is a member of the American Biographical Institute (ABI), a Fellow of the American Biographical Institute (F.A.B.I.), an American Medal of Honor of the ABI and an International Peace Prize.
Works.
Klaus Mylius has published more than 25 books of his own and continues to be involved in almost 50 books, each of which reached several, sometimes up to 5 editions. In addition, there are about 450 scientific articles and reviews.