Role of Hastings English scholars In the discovery of Indo-European language family

(The author presents a series of articles on the role of Warren Hastings the first Governor General of India and his galaxy of English scholars in the so-called discovery of Sanskrit while serving the British EIC under him. They learn the sacred language of the Hindus under his instigation and lay bare their scriptures to the world at large. Their studies helped the development of the Indo-European language family. The Late veteran journalist and an Editor of Times of India wrote in his book The Hindu Phenomenon, 1994 that the resurgence of Hindus after the end of the Mughal Empire began with the consolidation of the British Raj and disarming the local populace, producing a fundamental shift in the power balance between Hindus and Muslims. The articles deal with the academic pursuits of the scholars working under Warren Hastings) 

Since the Renaissance there has been no event of such world-wide significance in the history of culture as the discovery of Sanskrit literature in the latter part of the eighteenth century Arthur A. Macdonell, 1900

Aastings as Governor of Bengal Presidency, in the British East India Company appointed Warren 1772 a galaxy of English scholars joined the Company as clerks and writers, etc. Many of them had learnt Persian in the prestigious colleges of England, which helped them in their work in Bengal, as Persian was also the court language of this Mughal province at that time, as in the other provinces in Northern India. None of them, however knew Sanskrit, as the sacred language of the Hindus had not yet crossed the Indian Ocean Many of the scholars learnt Sanskrit in India and, on account of their scholarship in this language, achieved great fame in the literary circles in Europe Some of them were conferred the prestigious honour of FRS and some with both FRS and Knighthood.

Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, a favourite of Hastings, learnt Bengali in Calcutta and achieved fame for his book of Bengali grammar Sir Charles Wilkins, trained as a typographer in England, learnt Persian, Bengali and Sanskrit for the first time in India. He typecast the Bengali alphabet for Halhed's grammar book Sir William Jones, who was a linguistic prodigy, and already an accomplished orientalist, also learnt Sanskrit in India. Other scholars, who joined EIC during Hastings' tenure and achieved extraordinary fame in Sanskrit scholarship, ware Sir H. T Colebrooke and Alexander Hamilton.

Each one of the above-mentioned scholars translated Some of them translated the Hindu legal texts for the benefit or the ancient texts of the Hindus into English of the civil courts of the Company Some scholars translated the famous Classical Sanskrit works of a few celebrated authors of ancient India to showcase its ancient language and literature in the West, for the scholars there to muse and shed their mistaken perception of Indian culture and civilisation which till then had been presented by the early European travellers and missionaries only in bad light.

The so-called discovery of Sanskrit literature of India by the above-mentioned scholars of the Hastings's era was a great milestone in the history of the Indo-European linguistic sciences. The rich vocabulary and grammar of Sanskrit opened the floodgates of research in placing most of the languages of Europe and Asia under the Indo- European language family.

This is succinctly told in the Collins English Dictionary (1984) which defined Sanskrit as an ancient language of India, the language of the Vedas of Hinduism and of an extensive philosophical and scientific erature dating from the beginning of first millennium BC. It is the oldest recorded member of the Indic branch of Indo European family of languages; the recognition of the existence of the Indo- European family arose in the 18" century from a comparison of Sanskrit with Greek and Latin .

Warren Hastings (1732-1818), though bom in a poor family in Oxfordshire, attended the elite Westminster School where he was a contemporary of the two future Prime Ministers, Lord Shelbume and the Duke of Portland, and of the poet William Cowper Hastings joined EIC in 1750 at the age of 18 years and spent thirty years of his life in India. divided in two, almost equal durations. In the beginning of his first tenure, with the Company between 1750 and 1765 he acquainted himself with the Company's trading operations in Calcutta and its politics of Intervention in the rule of the Nawabs of Bengal bn time, he built his reputation as an able administrator and became a favourite of Robert Cive, who ruled the roost in the EIC Towards the end of his first tenure with the Company. Hastings was appointed to the governing council at the Fort William Hastings was not, however comfortable in the company of the hawks in the Council, resigned from it in December, 1764, and returned to England soon after it appears, Hastings had developed a reverence for the Hindu scriptures during his first tenure with the Company, He amply revealed it in his second lenure, as given below.

Hastings sought re-employment with the Company in 1769 and was posted as the Deputy ruler of Madras. He introduced many reforms in the trading operations of the Brahmins Company, which benefited both the local traders and the Company. Hastings was made Governor of the Presidency of Fort William, Bengal, in 1772 and Governor General in 1774, the de facto Governor General of India. Hastings continued on this post up to 1784, before he was asked to resign on charges of corruption.

A number of young influential English scholars came from England to join the services of the Company during the second term of Warren Hastings in India. It was now that Hastings's interest in exploring the ancient scriptures of Hindus became manifest. It began with his firm belief that the British could rule over India efficiently only by winning over the hearts of its people. Hastings had already set his mind on this subject. He did not like to impose the British standards of civil justice on the people of India. For the Hindus, he wanted to apply the code of laws existing in their shastras.

Some eleven learned Brahmans were engaged to prepare a digest of the intended code. They compiled the digest based on the precedents available to them in their scriptures and called it Vived-amava setu (a bridge of the sea of litigations). It was first rendered into Persian with the help of a munch, who translated and dictated it orally At the behest of Hastings, Nathaniel Brassey Halhed translated the Persian version of the text into English. Hastings closely monitored it.

Nathaniel Brassey Halhed (1751-1830) was the son of an influential banker in England. He studied at Harrow for ten years and then at the Christ Church (college). Odont Halhed joined EIC in 1772 when Hastings was Governor of the Bengal Presidency. He was first posted in the Accountant General's office as an official translator of Persian documents into English. Like Hastings, Hatched was also an alumnus of a prestigious institution of England and both knew Persian. Soon, Halhed became a favourite and trend of the Governor.

Halhed translated the Persian version of the wad amave setrinto English. Halhed's book was printed by EIC at London in 1776, at the request of Governor Hastings, The book was called 'A Code of Gentoo Laws or the Ordinations of the Pandits. It brought instant fame to Halhed who was still in his late twenties. The book was not however, used officially in India, as it was felt that it had gathered many flaws during its compilation which had involved a laborious three-stage translation process However an article in The Critical Review In England, while praising Halhed to the hill, also appreciated the 'extensive charity and the comprehensive benevolence of the Hindu Brahmins.

Hahed's next important literary contribution was his book A Grammar of the Bengal Language, published in 1778, It was in English but contained extensive passages from the Bengali texts. The type-face of the Bengali alphabet used for printing these passages was created for the first time by Charles Wilkins (see later). After the publication of his book, Halhed returned to London.

In the preface of his book on the Bengali grammar, Halhed made an important observation regarding Sanskrit He said "The grand source of Indian literature, the parent of almost every dialect from Persian Gulf to the China seas is the Sanskrit. It is a language of the most venerable, unfathomable antiquity which appears to have been current over most of the oriental world Halhed added that he had been astonished to find the similitude of Sanskrit words with those of Persian and Arabic, and even of Latin and Greek Halhed's observation of the deemed genetic relationship of Sanskrit with the other mentioned languages was superseded by Sir Jones' preposition of a common ancestor for Sanskrit, Greek Latin, etc. and putting them together in a family, which was later, famously, called the Indo-European family.

Contribution of Sir Charles Wilkins (1749-1836) 

Charles Wilkins, trained as a typographer in England, came to India in 1770, at the age of 20 years, to join EIC Soon, he learnt Bengali and, prompted by Hastings, created, in close association with one Panchanan Karmakar, the first type-cast for the Bengali alphabet, for printing Halhed's book of Bengali grammar. It was in English but contained extensive passages from the Bengali texts as illustrations was printed in 1778. Wilkins also prepared the typeface for the Persian language In 1781 and the Company put him in charge of their printing press, from which the government documents in Persian and Bengali were also printed.

Wilkins was the first Englishman to learn Sanskrit in India, at Varanasi under the guidance of a Brahman Pandit named Kalinatha. He translated Bhagvad Gita into English in 1785, the first ever English translation of this sacred scripture of the Hindus. In its introduction. Hastings wrote appreciatively. "I hesitate not to pronounce the Gita a performance of great originality, of sublimity of conception, reasoning and diction, almost unqualified and a single exception amongst all the known religions of mankind. Again somewhere there he said "The writers of the Indian philosophies will survive when the British Dominion in India shall long have ceased to exist, and the sources which it yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance" (From Swami Ekarthananda and Sh. Ashok Kotha in Shuddh Vidya Bhagwan Gopinathji Trust, September, 2016.

Wilkins's Bhagvadgita was later translated into French in 1787 and into German in 1802. The spiritual philosophy of the Hindu religion, enshrined in the Gita, strongly influenced the Romantic literature William Blake (1757 1827), a celebrated English poet, engraver and painter, honoured Wilkins for his translation of Bhagvadgitx in his painting. The Bramins, showing him, along with the Brahmins, working on the translation. The painting was exhibited in 1809.

Wilkins returned to England in 1786, two years after his main patron, Warren Hastings had left India. He translated Vishnu Sharma's Hitopadesha Into English in 1787 and was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1788. For some time, he devoted himself to the creation of a font for Devanagari and published his book Grammar of the Sanskrit language in 1808 The British Govt knighted him in recognition of his services to Oriental scholarship in 1833.

(to be continued)" "The work of the other British scholars, who joined the services of the EIC in the closing period of Warren Hastings, and acquired their Sanskrit scholarship in India, will be covered subsequently.

(The voracious reader and extensive and expansive writer lives at 13, Shri Krishna Kunj Soc, Jetalpur Road, Vadodara)

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Courtesy:-  Dr. P.L. Ganju  and  koshur Samachar May,2018