Name Arthur Burnell | Education King's College London | |
Died October 12, 1882, West Stratton, United Kingdom Books Elements of South-Indian Palaeography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century, A.D.: Being an Introduction to the Study of South-Indian Inscriptions and Mss People also search for Henry Yule, William Crooke, Kate Teltscher, Jan Huyghen van Linschoten | ||
Arthur Coke Burnell (11 July 1840 – 12 October 1882) was an English scholar in Sanskrit He is probably best known as the co-compiler of Hobson-Jobson, a compendium of Anglo-Indian terms.
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Life
He was born at St. Briavels, Gloucestershire, educated at Bedford School, and was sent to King's College, London, where he met Professor Viggo Fausböll of Copenhagen, who seems to have turned him towards Indian studies. His father was an official of the British East India Company, and in 1860 he himself went out to Madras as a member of the Indian Civil Service. Here he acquired or copied Sanskrit manuscripts. In 1870 he presented his collection of 350 manuscripts to the India Office library.
His constitution, never strong, broke down prematurely through the combined influence of overwork and the Madras climate, and he died at West Stratton, Hampshire. A further collection of Sanskrit manuscripts was purchased from his heirs by the India Office library after his death.
Works
In 1874, Burnell published a Handbook of South Indian Palaeography, characterized by Max Müller as "indispensable to every student of Indian literature", and in 1880 issued for the Madras government his greatest work, the Classified Index to the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Palace at Tanjore. He was also the author of a large number of translations from, and commentaries on, various other Sanskrit manuscripts, being particularly successful in grouping and elucidating the essential principles of Hindu law.
In addition to his exhaustive acquaintance with Sanskrit, and the southern India vernaculars, he had some knowledge of Tibetan, Arabic, Kawi, Javanese and Coptic. Burnell originated with Sir Henry Yule the dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases, Hobson-Jobson.