Helena Antonina Maria Willman-Grabowska

born: January 4, 1870 in Warsaw, died October 31, 1957 in Krakow. The first woman in the history of the Jagiellonian University with the title of full professor (1937), lecturer at the Paris Sorbonne, originator of Polish Indian studies, co-author of Iranian studies

correspondent member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (1945), secretary (1935) and chairwoman (1948-52) of the Orientalist Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the Polish Oriental Society and Polish Linguistic Society[1], Société Asiatique and Société Linguistique in France, honorary member of the L'Association Française des Amis de l'Orient

member of the secret Pedagogical Society [tajne Towarzystwo Pedagogiczne] (1903-05), founding member and board member of the Polish Teachers’ Union in Warsaw (1905-1908), in the years 1927-1950, and from 1956 onwards a member of the Polish Teachers' Union in Krakow[2]

fluent knowledge of languages: French, Russian, German, English, Sanskrit (in reading texts), Hindi, Dravidian, Latin, Greek. some knowledge of Italian, Czech and Spanish[3]

distinctions: Honorary badge for the Fight for Polish School, awarded for many years of work at the University

Before leaving Poland (1870-1909)

"From my childhood I remember only the funerals of younger siblings, the fire of our home and the bitter remarks of the Father" - writes Helena Willman-Grabowska in the last, most detailed of her curricula vitae, which have been preserved in the Archives of the Jagiellonian University[4]. Her father, Józef Grabowski was the January 1863 Uprising insurrectionist.[5]  Already as a small boy he remained “without a family or a livelihood". The Father, the scholar continues, was reluctant to educate her ("learning for boys, for the girl matrimony and the farm"), while her mother Elżbieta (née Lipińska) and grandmother inspired her to acquire education.[6] From the period of education in the Second Female High School in Warsaw, which she graduated from with honors in 1886, teenage Helena remembered Rosa Luxemburg, a "small, lame, talented and daring" girl from the lower class with whom she was friends until Rosa left.[7] Under Russian partition, Helena began working as a teacher at the age of 17, first in Włocławek in 1887, and from 1888 in Warsaw. Here she works in various places, teaching various subjects: in Helena Paprocka Girls’ Boarding School she is a French language teacher (1888-1898), in the Second Girls’ Gymnasium (1889-1905) and in several men's schools she teaches Polish.[8] She runs Courses for Educators (1906-1912)[9], which are conducted in connection with her activities in the Circle of Educators (see below). At the same time, she is attending “clandestine lectures” and studying the subject she was fond of – mathematics.[10] With the support of professors Yefim F. Karski and Jan Baudouin de Courtenay (1845-1929), she tries for the possibility of taking a state examination, but then the Minister of Education Glazov from St. Petersburg does not agree to it[11], so she interrupts her studies. From 1886 to 1908 she teaches "clandestine evening classes for workers" as a teacher of Polish literature and language. “I belonged to the so-called "Progressives"[12] - she writes in her CV - and I was very active in the education for adults, especially for workers who needed to be made socially aware"[13]. This activity was related to her affiliation to the secret Pedagogical Society, founded in 1903 by Stanisław Karpowicz (1864-1921), a pedagogue and social activist, and in cooperation with the secret Circle of Educators. The activities of both organizations consisted of an active fight for a Polish school under the Russian partition, where the Pedagogical Society set itself the “general social" goal and focused on preparing a reform of private school programs. Its members were "propagators of struggle and ideologues of creativity."[14] Wider external activities of the Circle, for example, organizing rallies and printing appeals and leaflets, began in 1904, and eventually led to the general school strike. "Among the institutions established under the name of the Pedagogical Society, the Courses for Educators, disclosed in 1906 under the name of H. Willman-Grabowska lasted the longest (up to 1911)."[15] Willman-Grabowska co-organized in 1905 a school strike, together with Karpowicz, Ludwik Krzywicki (1859-1941), a Marxist thinker, sociologist and politician, and Julian Marchlewski (1866-1925), an activist of the workers' movement. "Organized youth demanded the Polish school, i.e. with the Polish language of instruction. They left government schools. I left the gymnasium. It happened during a very turbulent period. I lost my husband at that time, the older child was three years old, the younger was just a few weeks old."[16] About her husband, Czesław Aleksy Willman (1869-1922) little and conflicting information is available. Sometimes he was supposed to be a well-known Warsaw industrialist (Śródka, 1998, p. 485), and another - an accountant. In the documents preserved in the Archives of the Jagiellonian University, Willman-Grabowska does not write anything about the profession of her husband. The older son, Wacław (1902-1908) died in childhood. Her daughter  Elżbieta Willman (1905-1985), worked at the Institute of French Studies of the JU as a French language teacher. Willman-Grabowska, after resigning from mathematical studies, remains faithful to her linguistic interests "with the strong and cordial encouragement from Professor Baudouin de Courtenay[17]. In 1905, she contributed to the establishment of an open public organization, the Polish Teachers' Union. The founding act refers to the following aims of the Union: "Work on improving Polish education and out-of-school education; introducing sound and rational pedagogical principles and the idea of free teaching; defending and supporting the interests of the Polish teachers."[18] The Polish Teachers' Union also published works in the field of methodology of various teaching subjects. In 1908 Willman-Grabowska contributed her article to the first series of the publications. In 1908 (as she writes in her personal questionnaire of 1956, or in 1909 (according to most sources) Willman-Grabowska leaves the country with a three-year-old daughter, and goes to study abroad. She stays abroad continuously until 1927.

Studies abroad, academic work in Paris and Kraków (1909-1947)

Helena Willman-Grabowska is "the first woman in the history of the Jagiellonian University with the title of full professor"[19], the actual founder of broadly understood studies on languages, culture and civilization of India and co-founder of Iranian studies in Poland. In her scientific work she dealt with not only the above-mentioned areas; from the "Warsaw" period, her interest in Polish studies remained, she was involved in literary comparative studies, issues related to the field of religious studies or socio-cultural studies. She was also a translator of literature. In the earliest of her biographies (from around 1927?), Willman Grabowska writes that she first studied at the universities in Bern and Lausanne (1909-11), where she submitted doctoral examinations in comparative literature[20].Two doctoral dissertations from that period: Le romantisme comme décadence littéraire and Mérimée et la littérature russe, were not published. In Paris, beginning with 1911, she studied comparative grammar, as well as Indo-Iranian languages and civilizations. At the Sorbonne (École pratique des hautes études) and at the Collège de France, an esteemed institution in which the first Chair of Sanskrit in Europe was created in 1814, Willman-Grabowska studied under such scholars as Louis Finot, Alfred Foucher, Sylvain Lévi and Antoine Meillet. In the years 1920-1927, she lectured at the Sorbonne (École pratique des hautes études). The scholar mentions the Paris nomination for the lecturer of Sanskrit and Pali, the language of the Buddhist canon, as "a completely isolated case of appointment for higher - scientific official position 1) someone from among foreigners [...] 2) a woman [...]; 3) a person who not only was not naturalized, but clearly emphasized her Polish citizenship; 4) a person who is neither well-off, nor related to anyone of importance, nor ever asking any favours."[21] In 1921, in co-authorship with Meillet, she wrote the academic textbook Grammaire de la langue polonaise. She is also the author of practical grammars: Polish for French and French for Poles (Méthode de polonais. Grammaire et exercices, 1922, 1929, Méthode de français à l'usage des Polonais, Grammaire, exercices et lectures, 1926). In 1922 and 1923, the French Ministry of Education entrusted her with a mission aimed at working for scientific and university cooperation between France and other countries. Willman-Grabowska visited Warsaw and Kraków.

The next stage of the scientific development of Willman-Grabowska was obtaining, in 1928, a state doctorate (doctorat ès lettres), which in France was at that time the highest scientific title granted in the humanities. She obtained this title on the basis of linguistic works: Le locatif dans le Rigveda (1928) and a two-part work entitled Les composés nominaux dans le Śatapathabrāhmana. (1927, 1928). It was such an important event that it was reported by "Gazeta Lwowska" (1811-1939), a popular Polish newspaper published for with more than a century tradition (illustration 4) In addition, around 1919, Willman-Grabowska took steps to begin the habilitation procedure in Kraków . This is related in a letter written in 1919 by Baudouin de Courtenay, who formerly (in the years 1894-99) held the Chair of the Comparative Linguistics at the Jagiellonian University. The letter was addressed to Jan M. Rozwadowski (1867-1935), his colleague and friend who was nominated for the same Chair, after Baudouin de Courtenay was dismissed.[22] Perhaps the strong and enthusiastic recommendation of Professor Silvain Lévi[23], which Baudouin de Courtenay quotes in the same letter, caused that when visiting Paris in 1923, Kazimierz Morawski (1852-1925) then the rector of the Jagiellonian University and the president of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, accompanied by Jan M. Rozwadowski, met with Willman-Grabowska, urging her to return to Poland. They guaranteed that she will be given the Chair after Leon Mańkowski (1858-1908), as well as be able to develop Indian studies and create the then yet non-existent Iranian studies. Ultimately, Willman-Grabowska decided to return to Poland in October 1927. Despite previous declarations of the full professorship within two years’ work at the Jagiellonian University, the prevailing crisis in Poland allowed the University authorities to find funding only for commissioned lectures. When in 1928 Willman-Grabowska received the title of doctor ès lettres "for two works in the field of linguistics and Indian studies"[24], "The Council of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University, at the request of professors Tadeusz Kowalski, K[azimierz] Nitsch and J.M. Rozwadowski, appointed her to the Chair of Sanskrit and Indian Philology."[25] She was appointed an Associate Professor on 19 November 1929[26]. Both obtaining a French state doctorate, and the fact that Willman-Grabowska was awarded a university professorship were commented on in the progressive women's press (figure 5). She had to wait until 14 September 1937 to become a full professor, due to reprisals "for signing a protest against ill-treatment of prisoners in Bereza Kartuska."[27] The scientific-research, teaching and organizational activities of this period are best reflected in her own words of 1956:

I organized an Indology library, purchasing a book collection of prof. Mańkowski [with great difficulties, and largely by personal efforts]. I expanded the Sanskrit studies by introducing lectures on India's cultural, economic and social issues. I introduced the history of Buddhism, the Pali language and modern Indian languages. I initiated Iranian studies: Old-Persian, Avesta - also on a broad social basis. In recent years, i.e. after being given the sack [I have the right to speak about my ‘retirement’ in such terms] I have introduced the language of the Dravidians: the Dravidians occupy almost half of Hindustan. I have always argued that India is gaining its rightful place among the world’s political powers, and in the near future it will be on a par also with economic powers of the world.[28]

From October 1927 to September 1939 and from April 1945 to June 1951, Willman Grabowska was giving five hours of lectures and two hours of the seminar a week, which was then the prescribed teaching load for the university professor position.[29]

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Willman-Grabowska moved, along with her daughter, to Luborzyce near Kraków, probably living as the resident-guest at Maria Amoreaux estate.[30] Throughout this period she works as a researcher and, together with her daughter, conducts secret teaching for local youth.[31] In response to the question of repression during the occupation, she testifies that she was "arrested, along with other professors, on November 6, 1939."[32] H. Lipska describes it as follows: "the occupiers informed the Rector of the Jagiellonian University that on November 6 at 12.00, a prelection for university professors will be held in the assembly hall by Bruno Müller, ss-obergruppenführer. The Nazis arrested the assembled professors [...] The first news about what happened was brought to the [Jagiellonian] Library by prof. Willman-Grabowska, who was present in the hall, however as a woman was released."[33]

Transferring to „retirement”

On January 1, 1948, by order of Eugenia Krassowska, the deputy minister at the Ministry of Education, dated September 29, 1947, Professor Willman-Grabowska was "retired", obtaining permission to continue lecturing. Zakład Emerytalny (Pension Office) refuses to pay her pension. The refusal was based on the formal requirement of a minimum 15 years of service in order to obtain pension. In the period from January to the end of August 1948, the Jagiellonian University authorities commissioned the scholar to conduct lectures as a “free-lance” professor with full remuneration.[34] Between January and September 1948, the university authorities continuously tried to make the Ministry of Education grant the scholar a permanent payment in the amount of full university professor's pension.[35] In mid-1948, by the decision of Krassowska, announced in Dziennik Ustaw (Journal of Laws), the Chair of Sanskrit and Indian Philology is renamed the Chair of Linguistics. The decision resulted in withholding payment for commissioned activities, which were the main source of Willman-Grabowska’s maintenance. Let the words from the handwritten, undated letter of the Professor, addressed to the Rector of the Jagiellonian University serve as a commentary to this cruel act of the communist apparatchik:

On July 17, Dziennik Ustaw [Journal of Laws] announced the "renaming" of the Chair of Sanskrit and Indian Philology to the Chair of Linguistics. [...]When I visited [...] the Rectorate the other day, the clerk told me: "decision of Dziennik Ustaw of July 17 means that there will no longer be funds to pay for lectures, because there is no Chair" . On the next day, I received a letter (7744/48, 6 August’48) from the Rectorate: [...] "due to the dissolving, etc. .... I suspend... further payment of remuneration to the citizen [Willman-Grabowska] .... as of 31 August.... Si[gned] dr. St. Skowron ".

So again I was thrown out as perfectly as on January 1, 1948 [...] In my full capabilities, both scientifically and pedagogically, I am removed from work, left without any means. [...] Is this how people should behave? - Every society, every state, every human system is wasting its members, maybe even not always wanting it. But is it right? useful? The Rector will forgive me if he does not like it how it sounds. Please accept my great respect, prof. dr. H. Willman-Grabowska.

The pension was granted only after four years, from 1 October 1951, "thanks to the intervention of the Rector, the personal manager of the Jagiellonian University, and a few colleagues"[36], after repeated appeals filed in the Ministry of Education by the Jagiellonian University authorities and the interested party. In 1957, Willman-Grabowska was reactivated to the post of professor at the Jagiellonian University. However, due to her years, she could no longer take up classes. Yet until the last moment of her life she worked on translations, interpretation and scientific elaboration of Sanskrit literature. She worked on the tales from the collection of Kāthasaritsāgara by Somadeva. The choice of 66 stories O cnocie i niecnocie niewieściej [On virtue and wickedness of women] was released in 1960, three years after the translator's death.

Professor Willman-Grabowska's group of pupils included the following professors and lecturers of the Jagiellonian University: Tadeusz Milewski (1906-1966), Tadeusz Pobożniak (1910-1991), and Józef Lączak (1926-1989).

The most important achievements of prof. Willman-Grabowska include the determination of the characteristics of Sanskrit in the period when it ceased to be a living language, a detailed discussion of the issue of the syntax of the locative in the Vedic language and her general research on the semantic issues of the Sanskrit language. She was interested in comparative studies in literature (motifs in Sanskrit and Greek literature) and non-linguistic influences on the formation of literary language.[37]

Works of Helena Willman-Grabowska[38]

The works of Professor Helena Willman-Grabowska in the field of Indology and Iranian studies are predominantly related to linguistics, historical linguistics and philology, (mainly Greek-Indian motifs), religious studies and translations from literature.[39] She dealt with cultural and social as well as historical and social issues. She also wrote articles on Polish studies. The most important linguistic works include the aforementioned two-part study on the syntax of the Sanskrit language entitled Les composés nominaux dans le Śatapathabrāhmana. (1927, 1928). Le locatif dans le Rigveda (1928) is a work about the locative use in the Vedic language. She wrote about the issues of general linguistics, Indo-European linguistics, and on Middle-Indian and Dravidian languages. In her texts on cultural and social issues, she presented a synthetic picture of Indian civilization, analysed the state system of India (IV-III century BC) and planned to write a series of texts on the role of Europeans in India, of which she only completed one.[40] Until now is valued her semantic analysis of the word dharma (law, rule of law, righteousness) in which she presented the evolution of meanings of the word and the concept itself, from the oldest mentions in the Hindu tradition to the Buddhist and Jain tradition (Evolution semantique du mot dharma, 1934). She authored La mythologie brahmanique, published in a collective work Mythologie Asiatique Illustrée (Paryż, 1927) and co-authored, with P. Masson-Oursel and Ph. Stern, the study entitled L’Inde antique et la civilisation indienne (Paris 1933). From the Russian language she translated the diaries of the Russian merchant Athanasius Nikitin, who travelled to India between 1466 and 1472. In the introduction to the book the scholar presented the situation of Deccan under Muslim rule in the fifteenth century (Wędrówka za trzy morza, Wrocław 1952). From Sanskrit, in addition to the aforementioned collection O cnocie… [On virtue...], she translated the vetāla (vampire) cycle from the Kathasaritsāgara collection, which she entitled Dwadzieścia pięć opowieści wampira [Twenty-Five Vampire Stories] (Wroclaw 1956), and also excerpts from the first book of the Mahabharata published in 1957 in the Journal „Rocznik Orientalistyczny”.

Halina Marlewicz

Bibliografia

Curriculum vitae Heleny z Grabowskich Willmanowej, niedatowane (1927(?)) (Archiwum UJ, teczka osobowa, sygn. Sil 619). [Curriculum vitae of Helena Willman, née Grabowska, undated (probably 1927) (Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619)].

Curriculum vitae prof. dr Heleny Willmanowej-Grabowskiej, datowane 16 czerwca 1949 (Archiwum UJ, teczka osobowa, sygn. Sil 619) [Curriculum Vitae of Prof. H. Willman-Grabowska dated 16 June 1949 (Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619)],

Czekalska, R. (2000). Helena Willman-Grabowska (1870-1957). In: J. Michalik (Ed.), Złota Księga Wydziału Filologicznego. Kraków, pp. 224-230.

Czekalska, R. i Kuczkiewicz-Fraś, A. (Eds). (2014). Helena Willman-Grabowska: orientalistka – uczona – popularyzatorka. [Helena Willman-Grabowska: Orientalist – Scholar – Populariser] Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka.

Drogoszewski, A. (1934). Polski Związek Nauczycielski 1905-1917, [the Polish Teachers' Union 1905-1917)]. In: B. Nawroczyński (Ed.), Nasza walka o szkołę polską 1901-1917. Opracowania, wspomnienia, dokumenty. [Our Fight for the Polish school (1901-1917). Studies, memories, documents]. Vol. II, Warszawa: Komitet obchodu 25-lecia walki o szkołę polską, 1934, pp. 244-264.

Lipska, H. (1979). Biblioteka Jagiellońska w czasie okupacji 1939-1945. Biuletyn Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej, XXIX, pp. 131-147.

Milewska, I. (1995). Selected Bibliography of Polish Indologists connected with Sanskrit Studies in Kraków. Cracow Indological Studies, 1, pp. 301-306.

M. Mossoczowa, Pierwsza Profesorka na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim [The First Lady-Professor at the Jagiellonian University]. Bluszcz. Społeczno-literacki Ilustrowany Tygodnik Kobiecy. Warszawa, 4 January 1930, nr 1. http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/applet?mimetype=image%2Fx.djvu&sec=false&handler=djvu_html5&content_url=%2FContent%2F103033%2FBluszcz+1930+nr1.djvu&p=7

Orsza-Radlińska, H. (1934). Koło Wychowawców [The Circle of Educators]. In: B. Nawroczyński (Ed.), Nasza walka o szkołę polską (1901-1917). Opracowania, wspomnienia, dokumenty. [Our Fight for the Polish school (1901-1917). Studies, memories, documents]. Vol. II, Warszawa: Komitet obchodu 25-lecia walki o szkołę polską, pp. 76-114.

Orsza-Radlińska, H. (1934). Towarzystwo Pedagogiczne [Pedagogical Society]. In: B. Nawroczyński (Ed.), Nasza walka o szkołę polską (1901-1917). Opracowania, wspomnienia, dokumenty. [Our Fight for the Polish school (1901-1917). Studies, memories, documents]. Vol. II. Warszawa: Komitet obchodu 25-lecia walki o szkołę polską, pp. 114-122.

Pismo Rady Wydziału Filologicznego UJ do Ministerstwa Szkolnictwa Wyższego z dn. 22.02.1957, (Archiwum UJ, teczka osobowa, sygn. Sil. 619 [Letter from the Council of the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University to the Ministry of Higher Education, dated 22.02.1957, (Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619)].

Pismo z dnia 30 kwietnia 1948 r., skierowane przez Prof. Z. Klemensiewicza, Dziekana Wydziału Humanistycznego, do Wydziału Personalnego Ministerstwa Oświaty. (Teczka osobowa Archiwum UJ, sygn. Sil 619). [A Letter of 30 April 1948, from prof. Z. Klemensiewicz, the Dean of the Department of Humanities to the Human Resources Department of the Ministry of Education (Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619)].

Pobożniak, T. (1958). Helena Willman-Grabowska. Wspomnienie pośmiertne [Helena Willman-Grabowska: Obituary]. Rocznik Orientalistyczny 2/26, pp. 139-144. Kopia litograficzna pisma ręcznego.

Rodzice Obywatele! [Inc.:] Rząd rosyjski czuje, iż grunt mu się z pod nóg usuwa i chcąc ratować położenie, kokietuje mglistymi obietnicami wszystkich od których się spodziewa bardziej stanowczego wystąpienia [...] : 27.I.1905 r. / Koło Wychowawców. Druk ulotny. Kopia litograficzna pisma ręcznego. Biblioteka Narodowa. Bibliografia pism ulotnych rew. 1905-1907 poz. 109. Magazun Druków Ulotnych, Sygn. DŻS IA 4h Cim. https://polona.pl/item/rodzice-obywatele-inc-rzad-rosyjski-czuje-iz-grunt-mu-sie-z-pod-nog-usuwa-i-chcac,OTcwMzc1Nw/0/#info:metadata

Skarżyński, M. (2008). Nieznane listy Jana Baudouina de Courtenay do Jana M. Rozwadowskiego [Unknown Letters of Jan Baudouin de Courtenay to Jan M. Rozwadowski]. LingVaria, 1(5), pp. 205-232.

Śródka, A. (1998). Uczeni polscy XIX i XX stulecia (Tomy IV: S-Ż) [Polish Scientists of the 19 and 20 century (Vol. IV: S-Ż)]. Warszawa: Aries.

Milewski, T., Pobożniak, T. (1964). Historia językoznawstwa ogólnego, indoeuropejskiego i filologii indyjskiej w Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. In: A. Zaręba, W. Taszycki (Eds.), Wydział filologiczny Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Historia katedr. Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, pp. 239-286.

Tytko, M. M. (2014). Mjr prof. Stefan Szuman w walce o niepodległość Polski (1939-1945) [Major Professor Stefan Szuman fighting for Poland’s independence (1939-1945)]. Sowiniec (44), DOI: 10.12797/Sowiniec.25.2014.44.04, pp. 51-84.

Willman-Grabowska, H. (1956). Ankieta personalna (Archiwum UJ, teczka osobowa, sygn. Sil. 619). [Helena Willman-Grabowska, Personal Questionnaire, 27 March 1956, Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619].

Willman-Grabowska, H. (1957). Indianistyka w Polsce i studia jej pokrewne. In: S. Strelcyn (Ed.), Szkice z dziejów polskiej orientalistyki. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, pp. 237-25.

Życiorys Prof. dr Heleny Willman-Grabowskiej, Profesora zwyczajnego w st[anie] sp[oczynku] Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Kraków, marzec 1956 (Archiwum UJ, teczka osobowa, sygn. Sil 619) [Curriculum Vitae of Prof. H. Willman-Grabowska, retired full professor of the Jagiellonian University. Written in Krakow in March 1956, (Jagiellonian University Archives, personal file, reference number Sil 619)].

Internet sources:

http://pauart.pl/app/artwork?id=BZS_RKPS_12519_k_118

https://polona.pl/item/rodzice-obywatele-inc-rzad-rosyjski-czuje-iz-grunt-mu-sie-z-pod-nog-usuwa-i-chcac,OTcwMzc1Nw/0/#info:metadata

http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/applet?mimetype=image%2Fx.djvu&sec=false&handler=djvu_html5&content_url=%2FContent%2F103033%2FBluszcz+1930+nr1.djvu&p=7

https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/publication/45132/edition/39573/content?ref=desc

Complete text with pictures

Andrzej Gawroński (20.06.1885 – 10/11.01.1927) was the son of Antonina Miłkowska (the daughter of T. T. Jeż, a well-known Polish poet) and Franciszek Rawita Gawroński, the historian and writer of popular historical books.

He was born in 1885 in Geneva in the family of Polish patriots in exile. Already in 1887 the Gawroński family moved to Warsaw and then to Lwów, at this time a strong centre of Polish intellectual life. Gawroński studied at the Jan Kazimierz Lwów University having as his teachers some of the most outstanding scholars. These were, among others, professor Kazimierz Twardowski, philosopher and logician, professor Stanisław Józef Witkowski, a famous specialist on classical studies and professor Gustaw Gerson Blatt, his teacher for general linguistics, comparative Indo-European grammar and Sanskrit. Additionally, Gawroński followed already at this period courses of other languages e. g. such as Slavic and Armenian. It is worth adding that Arabic studies were also within the scope of his interests.

In 1905 he moved for three years to Leipzig to continue his work under the guidance of professor Ernst Windisch, a well - known scholar of Indo - European linguistics, Sanskrit and Celtic languages and culture. There he obtained his doctor degree for the work Sprachliche Untersuchungen über das Mṛcchakaṭikā und das Daśakumāracarita. In this work he was mostly dealing with the autorship of the drama Mṛcchakaṭikā. For his research he used the stylometric method, which was hardly known at this time. On the basis of examples of syntax structures and typical morfological forms chosen from these both literary pieces he very convincingly showed that most probably they were not the works of the same author namely Dandin, a famous Sanskrit poetician. This was the method of scholarly work he continued to use during all the years to come.

In 1909 Gawroński came back to Poland and was invited by the Rector of the Jagiellonian University professor Kazimierz Morawski, a famous hellenist to continue the interrupted tradition of Indian studies there. Professor Morawski wanted Gawroński to become the new organizer of Sanskrit studies in Kraków. However, before coming here Gawroński went to Leipzig again where he finished his Habilitation entitled Am Rande des Mṛcchkaṭikā. This was a collection of articles dealing with different linguistic matters. Gawroński devoted part of his time to the work on Prakrits which were used in this very drama and concluded that there were only three of them, Śaurasenī, Māgadhī and Māhārāṣṭrī. He also proposed the dating of Mṛcchakaṭikā this time using the method of relative chronology. His idea was that it was coming from two centuries before Kālidāsa, a conclusion based on his thorough study of the vocabulary used in the drama.

In 1912 Gawroński delivered his Habilitation lecture at the Jagiellonian University. He proposed three topics: „The beginnings and growth of Indian drama in the light of last 12-year research”, „Stereotypes in classical Sanskrit literature” and the „’Transcendent character’ of Indian people as the background of the relations between man and nature in the Sanskrit literature”. The third one was chosen for presentation. Unfortunately, in the Archives of the Jagiellonian University, only the titles of the lectures survived. The published version(s), if there were any, have never been found. The Habilitation lecture was a great success and all the professors who were the members of the Board expressed their deep admiration for this outstanding scholar. During the lecture he showed such a command of languages that already then he could have been called the polyglot. Later it is certified by his contemporaries that he knew several dozen of them (at least 60). These were languages coming from different language families. To mention only some he read (and sometimes also spoke) e. g. in German, Dutch, English, French, Ancient and Modern Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Jewish, Vedic, Sanskrit, several Prakrits, Hindi, Bengali, Gujerati, Tamil, Tibetan, Japanese, Aynu, Armenian, Georgian, Avestan, Farsi, Arabic, Turkish, Swedish, Danish, Hungarian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Czech, Russian, Lithuanian and others.

In October 1913 he moved to Kraków where he holded the Chair of Sanskrit and comparative linguistics. There, in 1916, he was nominated professor of Sanskrit philology. While in Kraków he co-operated with many famous scholars who made their research within the fields of Oriental studies but also, as his interests were always extremely wide, in other areas. Some names which may be given here are Tadeusz Kowalski, Bronisław Piłsudski, Jan Michał Rozwadowski, Kazimierz Nitsch or Jan Łoś.  In 1917 he went to Lwów where he was offered, after the death of Prof. G. Blatt, the Chair of Comparative linguistics at the Jan Kazimierz Lwów University. In 1920 he was nominated full professor of Indo - European linguistics. In 1921 he became a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Skills (PAU) and in 1926 its active member. He was also the member of the Société de Lingustique de Paris and the Société Asiatique. He spent the year 1925 and part of 1926 in Paris where he continued his work even if since 1911 he suffered from tuberculosis which finally was the cause of his premature death in 1927. However, before it he once more came back to Poland continuing his activity in the Oriental Institute of the Jan Kazimierz Lwów University.

Gawroński, but for being a great scholar, was also a very active organizer. He was the co-founder of the first important scholarly periodical connected with Orientalist studies namely „Rocznik Orjentalistyczny”. He was the founder of „Biblioteka Wschodnia”. The main task of this series of books was to popularize Oriental literature among wide circles of readers. The translations of the important and at the same time beautiful literary pieces coming from Oriental languages were published within this frame.

Gawroński was definitely one of the most outstanding scholars of the turn of 19th and 20th centuries. The fruits of his short life were and still are both extraordinary and of the highest scholarly value. The spectrum of his interests was extremely wide. Not all of his works were published during his life time. Some were prepared for publication by his mother, scholarly colleagues or pupils and they appeared posthumously. Unfortunately, it is probable that some were lost. He wrote books and articles which covered the wide range of topics varying from the linguistics to literature. He always based his research on deep analysis of texts in their original form. His were also the articles written for general public. As a translator he prepared and published some literary texts coming mostly from Sanskrit but also from Persian and Hungarian. They were all were received by the general public.

He was planning to prepare, write and publish many other works and among them his own handbook of the Indo - European lingustics. Even if the nearly finished work was seen by some of his contemporaries it was never found in his inheritance.

As may be seen Andrzej Gawroński was definitely the man of many skills. At the same time he was known for his very good sense of humour. He was always independent both in his thinking and actions. Being a nuisance for his teachers during the school times he became a great man not only of indology but also of general lingustics.

Iwona  Milewska

Chosen works of Andrzej Gawroński:

Notes on the Saundarananda, critical and explanatory, w: prace Komisji Orientalistycznej Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, vol. 6 (1922), s. 219 - 229.

Notes sur les sources des quelques drames indiens, w: prace Komisji Orientalistycznej Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, vol. 4 (1921).

- Des influences linguistiques et stylistiques dans les littératures de l’Inde

- la genèse de l’acte IV de Vikramorvaśī

- Appendice: L’elément populaire dans Abhijńanaśākuntala

- Meghadūta et Mālatīmādhava

- La fable dramatique du Mālatīmādhava dans la littérature populaire turque

Appendice: Hikaje – ‘I zefa ile safa’, additions et corrections

Studies about the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature, w: Prace Komisji Orientalistycznej Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, vol. 2, Kraków 1919, s. 56 – 80.

- Further Notes on the Buddhacarita

- Buddhacarita and Rāmāyaṇa

- Critical Notes on the printed text of the Jātakamālā

- The epical poems of Aśvaghoṣa and Divyāvadāna

- Critical Notes on the Saundarananda

Gleanings about from the Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, w: Rocznik Orientalistyczny, vol. 1, Kraków (1914-15), s. 1- 42.

Chosen translations:

Chajjam, O., Wybrane czterowiersze. Przełożył z oryginału perskiego Andrzej Gawroński, Lwów: Ossolineum 1933 (1934).

Aśwaghosza, Wybrane pieśni epiczne. Przekład z sanskrytu Andrzej Gawroński, Lwów-Warszawa-Kraków: Ossolineum 1926.

R. Tagore, Sādhanā. Urzeczywistnienie życia, zaopatrzony posłowiem zatytułowanym „Nauka Upaniszadów”, (przekład wydany bez nazwiska tłumacza) Warszawa: Biblioteka Polska 1924.

Works edited posthumously:

Początki dramatu indyjskiego a sprawa wpływów greckich, Kraków: PAU 1946.

Podręcznik sanskrytu. Gramatyka-Wypisy-Objaśnienia-Słownik, Kraków: PAU 1932.

Szkice językoznawcze, Warszawa-Kraków-Lublin-Łódź-Paryż-Poznań-Wilno-Zakopane: Gebethner i Wolff 1928.

Chosen bibliography of works on Andrzej Gawroński:

Bruchnalski, W., Andrzej Gawroński, w: Pamięci Andrzeja Gawrońskiego, Lwów 1928, s. 3 - 10.

Kozarynowa, Z., Sto lat, gawęda o kulturze środowiska, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków: Ossolineum 1992.

Lehr – Spławiński T., Prace Andrzeja Gawrońskiego na polu językoznawstwa ogólnego i polskiego, w: Pamięci Andrzeja Gawrońskiego, Lwów 1928, s. 11 – 18.

Milewska, I., Parallels and differencies in methods applied to lingustic studies by mltilinguists Andrzej Gawroński and Konstanty Regamey, w: Tradition and Innovation in the History of Linguistics, Münster: Nodus Publikationen 2016, s. 238 - 248.

Milewska, I., Andrzej Gawroński: portrait of the Polish linguist, sanskritologist and translator, w: Figures pionnières de l’Orientalisme: Convergences Européennes, Res Orientales, vol. XX, ed. I. Gadoin, Ziva Vesel, Bures-sur-Yvette, 2011, s. 243 - 250.

Milewska, I., Sanskrit Studies in Poland, w: Cracow indological Studies, vol. 1 (1995), s. 5 – 11.

Pobożniak, T., Indian Studies in Poland, w: Oriental Studies in the Sixty Years of Independent Poland, 1983, s. 39 – 41.

Rysiewicz, Z., Andrzej Gawroński et les travaux linguistiques au cours des vingt dernières années, w: Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego, vol. VIII, s. 3 – 29.

Stasiak, S., Andrzej Gawroński jako indjanista, w: Rocznik Orjentalistyczny, vol. 4 (1926), s. VIII – XXI.

Willmanowa - Grabowska H., Przed dziesięciu laty (Garść wspomnień o Andrzeju Gawrońskim), Rocznik Orientalistyczny vol. 12 (1936), s. 231.

Językoznawca, indoiranista, ugrofinista, polonista, Nauczyciel, Człowiek.

Józef Lączak (05.12.1926–21.08.1989) urodził się we wsi Książnice koło Mielca w południowo-wschodniej Polsce. Uczęszczał do szkoły podstawowej w Mielcu. W czasie II Wojny Światowej przez rok musiał pracować w mieleckiej fabryce samolotów, a jednocześnie zdobywał średnie wykształcenie na tajnych kompletach, rok w szkole zawodowej, a dwa lata w liceum. Po wojnie, w 1947 r., uzyskał świadectwo maturalne, ożenił się z Martą Krawczyk oraz zaczął studiować indoiranistykę i polonistykę na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim. Studiował sanskryt, język awestyjski i języki drawidyjskie u prof. Heleny Willman-Grabowskiej.

Studia skończył w czerwcu 1951 r., a we wrześniu dostał nakaz pracy, co było normalną praktyka w tamtych czasach, jako nauczyciel języka polskiego w liceum w Bieczu, miasteczku pomiędzy Jasłem a Gorlicami w południowej Polsce. W listopadzie 1951 r. udzielono mu miesięcznego urlopu, by mógł zdać egzamin magisterski z filologii orientalnej. W Bieczu uczył swoich uczniów nie tylko polskiej literatury i gramatyki, jak tego od niego oczekiwano, ale także prawdziwych faktów z historii Polski. To prawdopodobnie było przyczyną, z powodu której Wydział Edukacji w Rzeszowie odmówił mu przedłużenia umowy o pracę w Bieczu. W latach 1952-1954 był nauczycielem języka polskiego, łaciny, astronomii i wstępu do filozofii w dwóch szkołach średnich w Mielcu. W 1953 r. urodził się jego starszy syn Krzysztof.

W roku 1954 wyjechał do Budapesztu i aż do sierpnia 1961 r. był lektorem języka polskiego, a po 1956 także wykładowcą historii literatury polskiej oraz gramatyki opisowej i historycznej języka polskiego na Uniwersytecie Eötvös Loránd. Wprowadzenie nauki języka polskiego w Katedrze Slawistyki było rezultatem osobistych zainteresowań György Gömöriego, obecnie emerytowanego profesora Uniwersytetu w Cambridge który jest także uznanym poetą i tłumaczem literatury węgierskiej i polskiej. György Gömöri opuścił Węgry po rewolucji 1956 roku, w której brał udział, i od roku 1969 do 2001 wykładał literaturę polską i węgierską na uniwersytecie w Cambridge. Z początku był jedynym studentem Józefa Lączaka.[1]

Podczas pobytu w Budapeszcie Józef Lączak nie tylko skupiał się na swojej pracy jako wykładowca języka polskiego i literatury polskiej, ale też rozwijał swoje naukowe pasje językoznawcze oraz kontynuował swą edukację na polu hungarystyki i ugrofińskiego językoznawstwa porównawczego. Jego profesorami byli Dezsö Pais i Géza Bárczi (językoznawstwo węgierskie), Ödön Beke (językoznawstwo ugrofińskie oraz języki udmurcki, komi, maryjski i mordwińskie), Gábor Berecki (język maryjski), Ödön Lavota (języki mansyjski i estoński) and Magdolna Kispál (językoznawstwo ugrofińskie i język fiński). W tym czasie zaczął też przygotowywać rozprawę doktorską pod kierunkiem prof. Paisa zatytułowaną "Asymilacja w dialektach węgierskich". Niestety, prawie już ukończona praca spłonęła w 1956 r. podczas rewolucji węgierskiej, gdy hotel Royal, w którym przebywali dowódcy rewolucji, został zbombardowany przez Rosjan. Jak często wspominał, z pożaru ocalał tylko grzbiet jego słownika języka węgierskiego. W 1959 r. zaczął pisać swoją drugą rozprawę doktorską pod kierunkiem prof. Beke, poświęconą tematowi bezokolicznika i konstrukcji imiesłowowych w języku udmurckim. Jednakże, jak nam opowiadał, przed jej ukończeniem ukazała się inna praca na ten temat i on, w swojej niebywałej uczciwości, zdecydował, iż nie będzie dalej kontynuował swych badań.

Po powrocie do Polski w 1961 r. nie miał żadnej stałej pracy przez prawie trzy lata. W tym czasie otrzymał roczne stypendium od Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego. Potem był członkiem redakcji Wielkiego słownika węgiersko-polskiego pod redakcją Jana Reychmana, a jego głównym zadaniem było szczegółowe sprawdzanie zbieżności haseł. W 1963 r. zaczął pracować w katedrze filologii węgierskiej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Podczas tej pracy spędził trzy lata od 1965 do 1968 na uniwersytecie w Helsinkach, gdzie uczył języka polskiego oraz historii literatury polskiej i jednocześnie kontynuował studia w dziedzinie językoznawstwa ugrofińskiego. Studiował językoznawstwo fińskie u prof. Erkki Itkonena, morfologię fińską u prof. Terho Itkonena, języki permskie i samojedzkie u prof. Aulisa Jokiego, prafińską fonetykę u prof. Lauri Postiego i języki lapońskie u prof. Mikko Korhonena. W Warszawie wykładał językoznawstwo ogólne i ugrofińskie, gramatykę opisową i historyczną języka węgierskiego, a także prowadził seminarium ze starowęgierskiego. Zrezygnował z posady w 1972 r.

W 1974 r. poślubił Ann Maiję Reinikainen, z którą ma dwóch synów, Zbigniewa i Olafa.

W 1973 r. na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim w Krakowie reaktywowano zakład filologii indyjskiej dzięki staraniom prof. Tadeusza Pobożniaka, innego ucznia prof. Heleny Willman-Grabowskiej. Józef Lączak został poproszony o dołączenie do pracowników zakładu w 1976. Uczył sanskrytu, wedyjskiego, gramatyki historyczno-porównawczej języków indoirańskich, awestyjskiego i języka pali. Był głównym autorem programu studiów filologii indyjskiej na Uniwersytecie Jagiellońskim, który był w dużej mierze kontynuowany przez wiele lat. Jego marzeniem było włączyć też naukę języków drawidyjskich, którymi się również interesował, a które, po wielu latach, udało się nam zrealizować. Był kierownikiem zakładu indianistyki od roku 1980, aż do swej przedwczesnej śmierci w 1989 r.

Był człowiekiem o niespotykanej uczciwości, patriotyzmie, odwadze cywilnej, dobroci i skromności. Miał niewiarygodną umiejętność wplatania w swoje wykłady informacji z różnych dziedzin, a także anegdot. Jedna z nich, która głęboko zapadła nam w pamięć, była o tym, jak na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim odmówił przyjęcia nagrody pieniężnej za dobrą pracę, i jak ta odmowa sprowadziła na niego kłopoty ze strony komunistycznych władz. Wyjaśniał nam, iż nie była to, jak podejrzewano, forma protestu z jego strony przeciwko systemowi komunistycznemu, a po prostu, w jego mniemaniu, żadne dodatkowe pieniądze mu się nie należały, gdyż pensję otrzymuje się przecież tylko za dobrą pracę.

Był doskonałym nauczycielem i opracował swoją własną, innowacyjną metodę nauczania sanskrytu i innych języków. Jego umiejętność systematyzowania bardzo trudnych problemów stała się dla nas, jego uczniów, wzorem do naśladowania w pracy z naszymi studentami.

Józef Lączak był nauczycielem, którego zaangażowanie w pracę było nadzwyczajne. Jego postawa motywowała studentów do wytężonej pracy. Nie można było przyjść na zajęcia, jeśli nie było się przygotowanym w najwyższym możliwym dla nas stopniu. Chętnie też poświęcał swój czas, by rozwijać specyficzne zainteresowania swoich studentów, których traktował z najwyższym szacunkiem. Potrafił zmienić program studiów, by dostosować się do nich, co wymagało od niego znalezienia dodatkowego czasu na przygotowanie wykładów. Prowadził na przykład trzyletni kurs języka Awesty tylko dla jednej studentki.

Spektrum jego zainteresowań naukowych było bardzo szerokie i ciągle się rozwijało. Jak widać z jego powyższej biografii, było to głównie językoznawstwo: indoaryjskie, ugrofińskie, drawidyjskie, ale nie tylko. Jak zwykł żartować: interesował się językami tak starymi, jak to tylko możliwe lub tak samo rzadkimi. Gdy w 1984 r. prof. Pobożniak rozpoczął kurs lovari, był on jego najpilniejszym studentem. Pomimo swoich zainteresowań językoznawczych, udało mu się zainspirować swoich studentów także do badania innych aspektów kultury indyjskiej, co dalej doprowadziło do rozszerzenia programu studiów indologicznych przez nas, będących już pracownikami tego zakładu. Jednakże jego zainteresowania nie były ograniczone jedynie do spraw naukowych. Dzielił się z nami przepisami na wykwintne przetwory, a także swoją miłością do kowalstwa.

Miał umiejętność zarażania swoimi pasjami i wykształcił wielu naukowców, którzy pracują na różnych uniwersytetach w Polsce i zagranicą. Większość pracowników naukowych naszego zakładu wiele zawdzięcza jego niezmiernie szerokiej wiedzy językoznawczej. Niemniej jednak, przede wszystkim, był on prawdziwym Nauczycielem w każdym tego słowa znaczeniu, który oprócz hojnego dzielenia się swoimi wszechstronnymi zainteresowaniami i wiedzą, odcisnął niezatarte piętno na naszych osobowościach.

Był z pewnością osobą, która na większość z nas miała ogromny wpływ, zarówno w aspekcie osobistym, jak i zawodowym; człowiekiem, którego zawsze będziemy wspominać z ogromnym szacunkiem.

Lidia Sudyka,  Agata Lenard