Kamil Zvelebil
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Kamil Václav Zvelebil (September 17, 1927 - January 17, 2009) was a distinguished Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology.
Biography
Zvelebil studied at the Charles University in Prague from 1946 to 1952 where majored in Indology, English language, literature and philosophy. After obtaining his Ph.D in 1952 between then and 1970 he was a senior research fellow in Tamil and Dravidian linguistics and literature at the Oriental Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.
He held the role of associate professor of Tamil and Dravidian at Charles University in Prague until 1968 when he and his family were forced to leave Czechoslovakia after the Soviet-led invasion of the country.
During the late 1960s he made many field trips included those to South India and from 1965-66 he was a was a temporary professor in Dravidian studies at the University of Chicago in the United States and visited the University of Heidelberg between 1967 and 1968.
In 1970 after some more time at the University of Chicago he was a visiting professor at the Collège de France in Paris. After more travel through European universities he became the professor of Dravidian linguistics and South Indian literature and culture at the University of Utrecht until his retirement in 1992.
Kamil Zvelebil died on 17 January 2009.
Books
He has authored numerous books and articles on Dravidian linguistics and literature. Some of them are:
- Comparative Dravidian Phonology, Published by Mouton, ASIN: B0006BZAIK
- Dravidian Linguistics: An Introduction, PILC (Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture), 1990
- Tamil Literature, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1975, ISBN 90-04-04190-7
- Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature, Handbuch Der Orientalistik Series, Brill Academic Publishers, ISBN 9004093656
- The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India, ISBN 9004035915, Brill Academic Publishers (Beware of another book with similar title by one Michael Wood!)
- The Poets of the Powers: Magic, Freedom, and Renewal, ISBN 0091159016
- Literary Conventions in Akam Poetry
- Two Tamil Folktales: The Story of King Matanakama, the Story of Peacock Ravana, UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Indian Series, ISBN 8120802128
- Lexicon of Tamil Literature, ISBN 9004100725, Handbuch Der Orientalistik, Brill Academic Publishers
- Nilgiri areal studies, Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, 1st ed edition (2001), ISBN 8071849456
- Introducing Tamil literature, ASIN: B0007JK3TC
- Ananda-tandava of Siva-sadanrttamurti: The development of the concept of Atavallan-Kuttaperumanatikal in the South Indian textual and iconographic tradition, Institute of Asian Studies; 1st ed edition (1985), ASIN: B0006EL29I
- Introduction to the Historical Grammar of the Tamil Language, Oriental Institute in Academia (1970), ASIN: B0006CIL44
- The Irulas of the Blue Mountains, Foreign & Comparative Studies (June 1988), ISBN 0915984911
- Tamulica et Dravidica: A Selection of Papers on Tamil and Dravidian Linguistics, Prague: KAROLINUM/CHARLES UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998