Wilhelm Rau was the Director of the Department of Indology in Marburg from December 1957 till 1988. Trained in the usual tradition of German classical studies he directed his philological acumen towards material related to realia (like weaving, pottery, metal instruments and burning glass) of Vedic culture and especially to traditional Indian Sanskrit grammar. His academic activities also included editorship of the Orientalische Literaturzeitung, as chairman of the commission for Indology of the Mainz Academy in the section for Arts and Social Sciences, he was responsible for the Critical Pali Dictionary.

http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~indology/

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Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Rau was indeed a unique scholar with impressive preparation in several diverse areas of scholarship. I will miss him also as a very warm and caring individual. In fields like Indology where the drive toward exactitude and high standards of scholarship (which must be maintained) can easily make scholars nitpickers and lead them to miss the forest for trees, Rau constantly maintained an awareness of the larger and positive goals and of the importance of nurturing the next generation of scholars. He was extremely patient with good-hearted but not-so-sharp persons. Generous toward his relatives, students and colleagues, I found him to be considerate toward almost every person he met. Not only an exceptionally accomplished scholar, an exceptionally kind teacher and good human being has left us.

Ashok Aklujkar via e-mail, 13.1.2000

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24.07.2000