17 Facts About Stig Wikander

Oscar Stig Wikander was a Swedish Indologist, Iranologist and religious scientist.

Stig Wikander was born in Norrtalje, Sweden on 27 August 1908, the son of a pharmacist.

Stig Wikander gained his PhD in Iranian languages and religions at Uppsala University in 1938.

Stig Wikander's PhD examined lexical evidence in Sanskrit and the Avestan language on the importance of young warrior bands among the Indo-Iranians.

Stig Wikander's thesis was much influenced by the research of the Austrian philologist Otto Hofler, who taught German at Lund University from 1928 to 1934.

From 1938 to 1939, Stig Wikander taught Swedish at the University of Munich, where Hofler was a professor of German philology and folklore.

In 1941, Stig Wikander published his study on the Indo-Iranian wind god Vayu.

Stig Wikander was appointed Docent of Indo-Iranian languages at Lund University.

In 1947, together with linguist Bertil Malmberg, Stig Wikander co-founded the journal Studia Linguistica.

From 1947 to 1948, Stig Wikander taught the history of religions as a visiting professor at Uppsala University.

In 1953, Stig Wikander was appointed Chair of Sanskrift and Comparative Indo-European Philology at the Uppsala University.

Stig Wikander served as a visiting professor at Columbia University and El Colegio de Mexico.

Stig Wikander was a close friend of the historian of religion Mircea Eliade, with whom he corresponded frequently in French.

Stig Wikander was close friend of Georges Dumezil, who had taught French at the Uppsala University from 1931 to 1933.

The works of Stig Wikander had a strong influence on Dumezil's research on Indo-European religion.

Prominent students of Stig Wikander include Folke Josephson, Gunilla Gren-Eklund and Bo Utas.

The works of Stig Wikander are still of importance to modern students of religion, particularly because he was able to draw upon a diverse number of primary sources in Greek, Latin, Arabic, Indo-Iranian and other languages to build his arguments.