Hermann Jacobi (1850-1937) an eminent German Indologist was born Hermann Georg Jacobi,in Koeln on the 1st.February 1850.After school,there,he went to Berlin,where initially,he studied maths,but probably,under the influence of Albrecht Weber, switched to Sanskrit and comparative linguistics.He,however obtained his Doctorate from Bonn,where Christian Lassen was still Professor, the subject of his thesis being on the origin of the term "hora"in Indian astrology.This was in the year 1872,and,luckily for him,he was able to visit London the following year and examine the Indian manuscripts available there.Even more luckily,he was able to visit India the following year,accompanyin Georg Buehler to Rajasthan,where manuscripts were being collected.Jaisalmer Library was probably the most fruitful of the places he visited as he came across Jain Manuscripts,which were of abiding interest to him for the rest of his life.He later edited and translated many of them,both into German and English,including those for Max Mueller's "Sacred Books of the East". Apart from Jaina studies,Jacobi was interested Indian maths,astrology and the Natural Sciences,and using astronomical information available in the Vedas,he tried to establish the date of their composition.The conclusion he came to,i.e.4500 B.C.is not generally accepted today and was controversial,even when it was propounded.Like Alexander Cunningham before him he tried to systematise how,from the evidence available in inscriptions,a true local time could be arrived at. Apart from this Jacobi,in later life interested himself in Poettry,Epics and Philosophy,particularly the school of Nyaya-Vaisheshika.