Willibald Kirfel (29 January 1885 – 16 October 1964) was a German Indologist.
[1] Kirfel studied Indology in Bonn from 1904 – 1908 and worked as a librarian at the University library, before becoming a full professor, acceding to the Chair of his teacher Hermann Jacobi.
Even at an early stage he dedicated himself to his most important field of research, i.e. the cosmography of the Brahmins, Jainas and Buddhists.
Kirfel also studied intensively the Puranas, especially focussing on those passages which appear in numerous texts in different variants.
He wrote many more articles on Puranic subjects as well as books on the symbolism of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.