Charles Wilkins

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For the writer and editor, see Charles Wilkins (writer). For the American chemist, see Charles Wilkins (chemist).

Sir
Charles Wilkins
typographer

Sir Charles Wilkins

typographer and Orientalist, and founding member of The Asiatic Society. He is notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English. He is also the first person to introduce the term Hinduism which would refer to all the different mythologies and cultures of which were existing in India as one. He supervised Panchanan Karmakar to create one[1] of the first Bengali typefaces.[2][3] In 1788, Wilkins was elected a member of the Royal Society.[4]

Birth and childhood

He was born at

Kutila
characters, which were thitherto indecipherable.

In 1784, Wilkins helped

Asiatic Society of Bengal.[7]

Title page of the first Bengali typeface printed book A Grammar of the Bengal Language, 1778
Decipherment of the Gopika Cave Inscription (6th century CE, Late Brahmi), with the original script in Late Brahmi, and proposed Devanagari line-by-line transliteration by Charles Wilkins in 1785.[9]

Work

Wilkins moved to

Maukhari king Anantavarman.[12][9] Wilkins seems to have relied essentially on the similarities with later Brahmic scripts, such as the script of the Pala period and early forms of Devanagari.[12]

Translation to other languages

His translation of the Gita was itself soon translated into French (1787) and German (1802). It proved to be a major influence on Romantic literature and on European perception of Hindu philosophy. William Blake later celebrated the publication in his picture The Bramins, exhibited in 1809, which depicted Wilkins and Brahmin scholars working on the translation.

With Hastings' departure from India, Wilkins lost his main patron. He returned to England in 1786, where he married Elizabeth Keeble. In 1787 Wilkins followed the Gita with his translation of The Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Sarma, in a Series of Connected Fables, Interspersed with Moral, Prudential and Political Maxims (Bath: 1787). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1788. In 1800, he was invited to take up the post of the first director of the India House Library, which became over time the world-famous 'India Office Library' (now British Library – Oriental Collections).[13][14] In 1801 he became librarian to the East India Company, He was named examiner at Haileybury when a college was established there in 1805. During these years he devoted himself to the creation of a font for Devanagari, the "divine script". In 1808 he published his Grammar of the Sanskrita Language. King George IV gave him the badge of the Royal Guelphic Order and he was knighted in recognition of his services to Oriental scholarship in 1833.[13] He died in London at the age of 86.

In addition to his own translations and type designs, Wilkins published a new edition of

John Richardson's Persian and Arabic dictionary – A Vocabulary Persian, Arabic, and English; Abridged from the Quarto Edition of Richardson's Dictionary as Edited by Charles Wilkins, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. – By David Hopkins, Esq., Assistant Surgeon on the Bengal Establishment in 1810.[15] He also published a catalogue of the manuscripts collected by Sir William Jones, who acknowledged his indebtedness to Wilkins.[6]

Publications

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 9780271023304
    . Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  2. ^ Rost, Ernst Reinhold (1865). "Works [ed. by E.R. Rost]. – Horace Hayman Wilson –". Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  3. OCLC 40588429
    .
  4. ^ a b "Wilkins, Sir Charles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  5. ^ "DServe Archive Persons Show". Royalsociety.org. Retrieved 2 June 2015.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wilkins, Sir Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 645–646.
  7. ^ a b ____________. (1837). "No. VIII, Sir Charles Wilkins, K.H.; D.C.L.; F.R.S.," The Annual biography and obituary for the year 1817–1837, pp. 69–72. Google Books
  8. ^ Franklin, William, Introduction to The Bhǎgvǎt-Gēētā; The Hěětōpǎdēs of Veěshnǒǒ-Sǎrmā, [translated by] Charles Wilkins, London : Ganesha Pub., c2001. pp.xxiv-v
  9. ^ a b Wilkins, Charles (1788). Asiatic Researches. London : Printed for J. Sewell [etc.] pp. 278-281.
  10. ^ "Questions and Answers". Bhagavad-gita.org. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  11. ^ "Rebuttal of gurdarshan Dhillon comment about sikh scripture Sri Dasam Granth". sikhsangat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  12. ^ a b Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy. pp. 206-207.
  13. ^ a b "About". India9.com. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  14. ^ "Charles Wilkins in India". India9.com. 14 December 2005. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  15. ^ Zenker, Julius Theodor (1846). "Bibliotheca orientalis – Julius Theodor Zenker". Retrieved 2 June 2015.

References

External links
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