Mabel Haynes Bode

Mabel Haynes Bode (28 October 1864 – 20 January 1922) was one of the first women to enter the academic fields of Pali, Sanskrit and Buddhist studies. She lectured in Pali and Sanskrit, made an edition of the Pali text Sāsanavaṃsa, and helped with translating into English of the German translation of the Mahāvaṃsa. She was specializing in the Pali literature of Burma, about which she wrote a book published in 1909. She was the first woman to have an article published in the prestigious Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Her mother died of typhoid fever in 1870. In 1879, her father died. She and her older sister Lily continued to live with an aunt who had moved in after their mother died. On 15 November 1888, Mabel married William Ernest Bode, an actor professionally known as Milton Bode at St Pancras parish church. The marriage didn't work out. Within four years of their marriage, William was living with another woman.

Education Bode writes in the curriculum vitae she provided to the university in Berne: "After attending private schools in my childhood I went through the (public school) curriculum on the Notting Hill High School for Girls (London), taking prizes for Latin and English Literature, and finishing at the age of seventeen in the top-form."

She contributed materials to The Pali Text Society's Pali-English Dictionary of T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede. Viet-Net notes that she translated Wilhelm Geiger's German language version of the Mahavamsa (the Great Chronicle or The Great Dynasty of Ceylon/Sri Lanka) into English, in 1921, one year before her death.

During World War I, she was a helper to the Belgian committee and the French Red Cross. One of her private pupils was the composer Gustav Holst, who became known for his compositions based on ancient Sanskrit texts. She wrote articles for the Times Literary Supplement in collaboration with Mr T.W. Rolleston. In 1918, she resigned from her teaching posts due to ill health.

Later life

In 1918, she moved to reside with her sister and brother-in-law in London, and then to The Chantry, Shaftesbury, Dorset, where she died on 20 January 1922. She is buried at St James Church, Shaftesbury. Her gravestone's inscription reads "Et prope et procul usave cor cordium dum vivam et ultra".

Articles and books Women leaders of the Buddhist Reformation in Transactions of the 9th. International Congress of Orientalists, London, 1892, pp. 341–343. Also published in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (New Series), Volume 25, Issue 03, July 1893, London, pp. 517–566. Can be viewed here and here. Index to the Gandhavamsa, Journal of the Pali Text Society Vol IV, 1896. Sasanavamsa, Pali Text Society, London, 1897. A Burmese historian of Buddhism, (subtitled dissertation presented to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Berne for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy), Woking, 1898. Can be viewed here. The transformation of Sanskrit studies in the course of the 19th century by Sylvain Levi, translated by Mabel Haynes Bode. Published for the Congress of Arts & Science Universal Exposition, 1904. On German universities : A review of Prof. Paulsen's work on the German university system, a pamphlet published in London by P.S. King & Son, 1905. The Kharostra country & the Kharostin writing by Sylvain Levi, translated by Mabel Haynes Bode. Published by the Royal Geographic Society, 1906. Early Pali Grammarians in Burma, Journal of the Pali Text Society vol VI, 1908. The Pali literature of Burma, published by the Royal Asiatic Society, London 1909.. The Legend of Raṭṭhapāla in the Pali Apadāna and Buddhaghosa's Commentary in Melanges d'Indianisme: offerts par ses élèves à Sylvain Lévi, Paris, 1911, pp. 183–192. Profile, worldcat.org. Accessed April 9, 2024. The Mahāvaṃsa, or, The great chronicle of Ceylon, translated into English by Wilhelm Geiger, assisted by Mabel Haynes Bode; with an addendum by G.C. Mendis, published in London for the Pali Text Society by H. Frowde, 1912.