WINDISCHMANN, FRIEDRICH. - Sanskritist, b. 13 Dec. 1811 at Aschaffenburg, d. 23 Aug. 1861 at Munich.
Son of the philosopher and physician Karl Josef W., professor at the University of Bonn, he graduated in philology in 1832 with an edition of the Sanskrit poem Sancara sive de theologumensis Vedanticorum (Bonn 1833). In 1836 he also took a degree in theology at Munich and was ordained priest. Secretary of the archbishopric of Munich-Freising (1836-38), professor of exegesis and canon law in the faculty of theology (1838-40), canon of the metropolitan church, vicar general of the diocese (1840-56), under Archbishop Reisach, after 1848 he conducted negotiations with the Bavarian government for the implementation of the Concordat. He did not, however, neglect Oriental studies. Among his writings may be mentioned: Ursagen der arischen Völker (Munich 1852); Die persische Andhita (Munich 1856); Mithra. Ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients (Leipzig 1857). From 1842 he was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.