Michael Viggo Fausböll (22 September 1821 – 3 June 1908) was a Danish educator, translator, orientalist and linguist. He is most noted as a pioneer of Pāli scholarship. ^[1]

Fausbøll was born at Hove near Lemvig, Denmark. He became a student at the University of Copenhagen in 1838 and received his Cand.theol. in 1847. From 1878-1902 Fausbøll was professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Sanskrit and East Indian philology,

His version of the Dhammapada was published in 1855 with a new edition in 1900. It formed the basis for the first translation of this text into English, by philologist, Max Müller (1823–1900) in the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set published by Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910.^[2]

He became a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1888, Dannebrogsmand in 1891 and Commander 2nd degree in 1898. He died at Gentofte in 1908 and was buried at Gentofte Cemetery.

Fausböll's translations include:

• The Dhammapada: Being a collection of moral verses in Pali (trans. into Latin) (Copenhagen, 1855).
• Sutta-Nipata (Sacred Books of the East) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881; and, London: PTS, 1885).
• Jataka with Commentary (London: PTS, 1877-1896).^[3]

Fausböll also wrote:

• Indian mythology according to the Mahabharata. (London: Luzac, 1903; reprinted as Indian mythology according to the Indian epics, New Delhi: Cosmo, 1981)^[4]