Person · judge & philologist · India
Sir William Jones
A judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta who founded the Asiatic Society in 1784, learned Sanskrit from pandits at Nadia, and in his third anniversary discourse of 1786 stated that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin had sprung from some common source which perhaps no longer exists.
- Date
- 1746–1794
- Function
- Learning & scholarship
- Confidence
- Not assessed
- Location
- 22.573, 88.364
Worth knowing
That sentence founded comparative philology and, with it, the Indo-European hypothesis. Jones also made the first English Shakuntala, which reached Goethe through a German version five years later, and compiled a digest of Hindu and Muslim law for the Company's courts.
About the place
Placed at Calcutta, where he sat as a judge, founded the Asiatic Society and delivered the 1786 discourse. He died there and is buried in South Park Street cemetery.
Connections (1)
- TransmissionOxford
Jones told the Asiatic Society at Calcutta in 1786 that Sanskrit bore to Greek and Latin a stronger affinity than could possibly have been produced by accident, and that all three had sprung from some common source which perhaps no longer exists. That sentence founded comparative philology. Oxford institutionalised what followed — the Boden chair from 1832, the Max Müller and Monier-Williams rivalry, the Sacred Books of the East — on an endowment whose stated purpose had been conversion.
Sources
Wikipedia, “William Jones (philologist)”. Sir William Jones, Discourses Delivered before the Asiatic Society (1784–94), especially the Third Anniversary Discourse of 1786.
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