KRUMBACHER, KARL
Prominent promoter of Byzantine studies, born on 23 Sept. 1856 at Kürnach (near Kempten in Bavaria), died on 12 Dec. 1909 in Munich, where he had taught at the university from 1884 until his death. K. was the pioneer of modern Byzantine and Neo-Hellenic studies; his masterpiece is the *Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur* (Munich 1891), whose publication occasioned the establishment of the chair of Byzantine studies at Munich, an innovation later imitated by other countries. In 1892 K. founded the journal *Byzantinische Zeitschrift*, of which he remained editor until his death. Great was the influence exerted by K. in his Byzantine seminar, which, like his journal, had a universal character embracing the entire field of Byzantine culture (philology, text editing, ecclesiastical history, hagiography, liturgy, ecclesiastical poetry), all treated with criteria of sound modernity combined with respect for tradition. Aware of the importance of theological studies, K. entrusted the elaboration of the first part of the second edition of his masterpiece (Munich 1897) EHRHARD, ALBERT (v.), while H. Gelzer added a sketch on Byzantine history.
Among his other scholarly writings, whose list follows
The pastoral life of K. is absolutely ignored by the *Mahābhārata* and thus belongs to a later legendary biography. Bhandarkar relates it to the appearance of the Abhīra, nomadic shepherds who, in the early centuries of the common era, occupied Rājpūtāna, “probably” bringing with them the cult of the child god of Christian derivation. But this hypothesis is not supported by evidence, for external similarities such as humble infancy, a putative father, and the slaughter of the innocents of Devakī cannot be considered proof. The infant deeds of Kṛṣṇa-Viṣṇu are more suited to a child Hercules than to the infant Jesus; the legend of the *Harivaṃśa* must therefore be regarded as indigenous. Clearer, however, are the Christian derivations in Book V of the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, though its date cannot be fixed owing to uncertainty regarding the age and formation of the Purāṇas (v.). It is unknown when Mathurā began to be regarded as the “Indian Bethlehem,” but the feast of Kṛṣṇa’s nativity (*Kṛṣṇajñāmaṣṭamī*), on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the month Bhādrapada, dates at least from the 13th century and is a probable imitation of Christmas.