Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys- (1857-1942) orientalistMore Info on CreatorLess Info on Creator
Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys-Davids, orientalist, was born in 1857, daughter of John Foley of Wadham College and sometime Vicar of Wadhurst, Sussex, and Caroline E.Windham, of Felbrigg Hall, Cromer. She was educated at home and at University College London, where she became the John Stuart Mill and Joseph Hume scholar. She married Thomas William Rhys-Davids (died 1922).
Rhys- Davids was on the board of the Economic Journal from its inception until 1895, although her academic teaching areas remained largely Indian philosophy and Buddhism. She was Lecturer in Indian philosophy at Victoria University, Manchester, between 1910 and 1913, and lectured on the history of Buddhism at the School of Oriental Studies from 1918 to 1933. Rhys-Davids was also involved in various societies for children's and working women's welfare between 1890 and 1894 and later became involved in the women's suffrage movement. She was the Honorary Secretary of the Pali Text Society, founded by her husband in 1881, from 1907 and became President after his death. After the death of her only son, Arthur, during the First World War, Rhys-Davids also became increasingly involved with thoughts of the afterlife, spirit communications and telepathy, and published on the subject. She died on 26 June 1942.
Publications: Buddhist Psychol: Ethics, 1900, 1923; various first editions of Buddhist canonical and other works; Buddhist Psychology, 1914, 1924; Buddhism (Home Univ.) 1912, 1934; Buddh. translations, 1910-1931; Old Creeds and New Needs, 1923; The Will to Peace, 1923; Will and Willer, 1925; Gotama the Man, 1928; The Milinda Questions, 1930; Sakya, 1931, etc.; A Manual of Buddhism, 1932; Indian Religion and Survival, 1934; Outlines of Buddhism, 1934; Birth of Indian Psychology, 1935; What is your Will?, 1937; To Become or not to Become?, 1937; What was the Original Gospel in Buddhism?, 1938; More about the Hereafter, 1940; Poems of Cloister and Jungle, 1941; Wayfarer's Words I-III, 1940-1942; (Editor) Lectures on Psychology and Philosophy (Univ-Extn Series) by G. Croom Robertson, 1896.
Scope and Content107 diaries and notebooks containing automatic writing and notes on the afterlife, seemingly inspired by the death of her only son Arthur during the First World War and by her academic research on Buddhist mythology, along with drafts for her work, 'What is your Will?', published in 1937
Conditions governing accessOpen for research although at least 24 hours notice is required for research visits.