Monier Monier-Williams
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Sir Monier Monier-Williams, KCIE (12 November 1819, Bombay – 11 April 1899, Cannes ) studied, documented and taught Asian languages in England, and compiled one of the most widely used Sanskrit-English dictionaries.
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[edit] Early life
Monier-Williams was the son of Colonel Monier Williams, surveyor-general in the Bombay presidency. He was educated at King's College School, Balliol College, Oxford (1838-40), the East India Company College (1840-41) and University College, Oxford (1841-44). He married in 1848.
[edit] Career
Monier-Williams taught Asian languages at the East India Company College from 1844 until 1858, when company rule in India ended after the mutiny.
He was the second occupant of the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University, following Horace Hayman Wilson, who had started the University's collection of Sanskrit manuscripts upon taking the Chair in 1831.
Indian studies in England were dominated by the demands of government and Christian evangelism, in ways that might be considered unacceptable in an academic environment today. Indeed, Max Müller, the most obvious candidate for the chair, was passed over because his religious views were deemed too liberal. Monier-Williams declared from the outset that the conversion of India to the Christian religion should be one of the aims of orientalist scholarship.
When Monier-Williams founded the University's Indian Institute in 1883, it provided both an academic focus and also a training ground for the Indian Civil Service. The Institute closed on Indian independence in 1947.
Monier-Williams created a Sanskrit-English dictionary that is still in print. It is also now available on CD-ROM and as the basis of the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon.
[edit] Honours
He was knighted in 1876, and was made KCIE in 1887, when he adopted his given name of Monier as an additional surname.
He also received the following academic honours: Honorary DCL, Oxford, 1875; LlD Calcutta, 1876; Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 1880; Honorary PhD, Gottingen, 188; Vice-President, Royal Asiatic Society, 1890; Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford, 1892.
[edit] Publications
- Translation of Shakuntala (1853).
- Indian Wisdom, an anthology from Sanskrit literature (1875).
- Modern India and Indians.
- Buddhism, in its connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism, and in its contrast with Christianity (1889).
- Sanskrit-English Dictionary, ISBN 0-19-864308-X.
- Incomplete list.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries (Searchable), Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary
- Biography of Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Dr. Gillian Evison, Digital Shikshapatri
- Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Searchable
- Monier-Williams Shikshapatri manuscript, Digital Shikshapatri
- Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Searchable Digital Facsimile Edition on CD-ROM (Freeware CD)
- The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
- Boden Chair of Sanskrit
- Why Is The West Crazy About A ‘Dead’ Language?, 'Indian Express' article
- Works by Monier Monier-Williams at Project Gutenberg
