Anncharlott Eschmann (September 24, 1941, Munich – April 6, 1977, New Delhi) was a scholar of religion.
She was born in Munich, the first daughter of Professor Ernst Wilhelm Eschmann, a renowned Professor of Philosophy, and Mrs. Charlott Eschmann, a retired psychotherapist. She grew up in Roman Catholic Ticino (Switzerland), where her parents' house had become a constant meeting place of members of the Eranos Society. Eschmann studied Protestant theology, comparative religion and Indology in Marburg and Heidelberg. In 1969, she submitted her PhD thesis on the topic of "The idea of history in Aztec religion".
As a member of the Orissa Research Projekt, Eschmann went to India in autumn 1970. There, she encountered, for the first time, Vishwanath Baba in Joranda. Eschmann's academic research focussed on "sectarian" movements such as the Samaritans, the oppressed Jewish offspring, and Mahima dharma and the modern reform movement in Orissa. She explored the phenomenon which Srinivas labelled as Sanskritization, i.e. the continuing incorporation of "prehistoric" and popular beliefs into "high" traditions. Her work on Jagannath and Narasimha exemplified the relation of tribal deities and the Jagannath cult of Puri. From 1975, Eschmann was the head of the New Delhi branch of Heidelberg's South Asia Institute. Anncharlott Eschmann died on April 6, 1977, in New Delhi.
