Maurice Bloomfield

author

Maurice Bloomfield

1855–1928

An early American Sanskrit scholar, he helped open Vedic language and literature to English-speaking readers through decades of teaching and research at Johns Hopkins. His work ranged from close philological study to broad reference books that shaped the study of religion and language.

1 Audiobook

Cerberus, the dog of Hades: The history of an idea

Cerberus, the dog of Hades: The history of an idea

by Maurice Bloomfield

About the author

Born in Bielitz in the Austrian Empire on February 23, 1855, he later built his career in the United States as a philologist and Sanskrit scholar. After studying at Yale and earning a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1879, he returned to Johns Hopkins as a professor and remained closely associated with the university for much of his life.

Bloomfield became especially known for his work on the Vedas and on comparative philology. Among his best-known books are The Atharva-Veda and the Gopatha-Brāhmaṇa and Vedic Concordance, works valued for their careful scholarship and lasting usefulness to students of ancient Indian texts.

He died in San Francisco on June 12, 1928. Remembered as a major figure in American Sanskrit studies, he helped train later scholars and gave the field a strong foundation in rigorous textual study.