HODIVALA, SHAPURJI KAVASJI, (b. 26 July 1870; d. 13 June 1931), scholar of Avestan and Zoroastrian studies. He studied Sanskrit with Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, graduating in 1893. He then studied Avesta and taught at the Petit Orphanage in Poona before becoming private secretary to Kavasji Jalbhoy Seth in 1898, a post he held for the rest of his life; and he wrote a history of his employer’s family which was published posthumously. Pursuing his scholarly interests in his spare time, he wrote in both English and Gujarati and became an active member of several learned societies. In 1923, as the Government Research Fellow for that year, he delivered a series of six lectures at the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, which were later published under the title of Indo-Iranian Religion (Bombay, 1928). He later succeeded Sir Jivanji Jamshedji Modi as the Hon. Secretary of the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute.
Bibliography:
His many publications include Zarathushtra and his contemporaries in the Rigveda, with the date of ZarathushtrianCalendar, Bombay, 1913; and Cuneiform Inscriptions transcribed into Sanskrit and Avesta, Bombay, 1931, which includes a brief account of his life and a list of his publications by Sir Jivanji Jamshedji Modi. For additional bibliography, see Parsi Prakash VII, Bombay, l939.
(Kaikhusroo M. JamaspAsa)
Originally Published: December 15, 2004
Last Updated: March 22, 2012
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Vol. XII, Fasc. 4, p. 417