Helmut Krasser (1956–2014): Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia

Helmut Krasser (born April 27, 1956) passed away in the early hours of March 30, 2014, at the Saint-Elizabeth Hospital in Vienna surrounded by his daughter Sarah, his ex-wife Sabine, and his beloved mother. An outstanding scholar in the field of Buddhist philosophy and epistemology, Helmut Krasser had been the director of the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (Austrian Academy of Sciences, of which he had been appointed a corresponding member) since 2007, an institute in which he had been active since 1987. Helmut Krasser was also a lecturer at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. He died after a two-year struggle against his illness during which he exemplarily never gave up hope and never ceased to be optimistic and cheerful. Helmut Krasser’s passing is an irreplaceable loss to his friends and family as well as to all who value intellectual independence, scientific accuracy, and a certain amount of optimistic skepticism.

Helmut Krasser studied Buddhist studies, Tibetology, and philosophy at the University of Vienna from 1981 to 1989 under the guidance of his teacher Professor Ernst Steinkellner, whom he succeeded as the head of the Academy institute and with whom he co-authored Dharmottaras Exkurs zur Definition gültiger Erkenntnis im Pramāṇaviniścaya even before completing his PhD. After the completion of his PhD thesis, a German edition and translation of Dharmottara’s Laghuprāmāṇyaparīkṣā published in 1991, Krasser spent two years at Kyoto University where he enjoyed the erudition and hospitality of Professor MIMAKI Katsumi 御牧克己. Many of the friendships with his Japanese colleagues, which meant so much to him, date back to this academically and personally most fruitful period of his life. Back in Vienna, he continued to develop the philological and historical acumen that made his work such an incomparable standard in the field of late Indian Buddhist philosophy. The period between his return from Japan (1992) and the publication of his habilitation thesis (2002) was highlighted by a series of contributions that made him one of the leading authorities in the field of Indian philosophy and Indo-Tibetan Buddhist epistemology: “On the Relationship between Dharmottara, Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla” (1992), “Dharmottara’s Theory of Knowledge in His Laghuprāmāṇyaparīkṣā” (1995), “rNgog lotsāba on the sahopalambhaniyama proof in Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya” (1997), “Zur buddhistischen Definition von gültiger Erkenntnis (pramāṇa) in Jayantabhaṭṭa’s Nyāyamañjarī” (1997), “Dharmakīrti’s and Kumārila’s Refutations of the Existence of God” (1999), “On Dharmakīrti’s Understanding of pramāṇabhūta and His Definition of pramāṇa” (2001), and “On the Dates and Works of Śaṅkaranandana” (2001).

During the last ten years, Krasser had been increasingly involved in the Viennese institute’s groundbreaking cooperation with the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing, a cooperation that has resulted in the publication of numerous works the Sanskrit original of which had been hitherto considered lost. Alone or in cooperation with other Viennese scholars such as Ernst Steinkellner, Horst Lasic, and Anne MacDonald, Helmut Krasser was committed to the diplomatic and critical edition of unique Sanskrit manuscripts of Dharmakīrti’s Hetubindu, Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra, and Jinendrabuddhi’s Viśālāmalavatī commentary on Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya. He also participated in numerous collaborative projects such as Pramāṇakīrtiḥ, Festschrift for Steinkellner, which he co-authored with Birgit Kellner, Horst Lasic, Michael Torsten Much, Helmut Tauscher (Vienna 2007), Religion and Logic in Buddhist Philosophical Analysis with Horst Lasic, Eli Franco, and Birgit Kellner (Vienna 2011), and Scriptural Authority, Reason and Action with Vincent Eltschinger (Vienna 2013). Krasser’s most significant works include the publication of his habilitation thesis, the monumental edition, translation, and study of Śaṅkaranandana’s Īśvarāpākaraṇasaṅkṣepa (Vienna 2002). In addition, his edition of the first two chapters of Jinendrabuddhi’s commentary on Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya and an annotated translation of the final part of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇav...