Henry Thomas Colebrooke
Henry Thomas Colebrooke [Kohlbruck] (born June 15, 1765 in London ; † March 10, 1837 ibid) was the first Sanskritist of his time, main founder of the study of Indian literature in Europe and president of the Royal Asiatic Society . He also worked as a lawyer and botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Colebr. ".
Life
Colebrooke was the son of the banker and MP Sir George Colebrooke, who was also chairman of the board of directors of the East India Company from 1769 . Colebrooke was initially privately tutored in classical languages, French, German and mathematics. This also sparked his interest in mathematics. In 1782 he went to India for the East India Company . He was first an administrative officer, judge in Mirzapur , from 1801 at the Court of Appeal in Calcutta and then British resident at the court of Berar . In order to study Indian law, he learned Sanskrit. In 1805 he became professor of Indian law and Sanskrit at the College of Fort William in Calcutta, where he wrote his Sanskrit grammar. In October 1814 he returned to Europe. In 1823 he was a co-founder of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1824 he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society . He was also an external member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and a member of the Linnean Society , the Geological Society in London and the Royal Society of Edinburgh .
Indian law
In the Sanskrit , the ancient sacred language of India, the British were first performed by the practical needs of law in India. This need also gave rise to Colebrooke's first major work, his translation of an extensive Indian legal work on inheritance law , property law and the law of obligations ( A digest of Hindu law on contracts and successions, Calcutta 1798, 3 volumes; London 1801, 3 volumes; Madras 1864 , 3 volumes). It was followed by his Translation of two treatises on the law of inheritance (1810; reprinted in Whitley Stokes ' Hindu law books , 1865).
Colebrooke carried out these translations without any lexical aids, only with the support of a few Indian pundits with extraordinary accuracy and admirable skill in rendering the numerous legal artistic expressions of Sanskrit literature . They not only provided the model for later transfers of Indian legal works, but also formed the main basis of English handbooks for Indian law and the jurisdiction of the Anglo-Indian courts of law, insofar as Indian national law was used as a basis.
Indian literature
The same care and philological thoroughness characterize Colebrooke's numerous essays, which concern almost all parts of Indian literature, such as his treatises on the Wedas , on the philosophical systems of the Indians , on the Indian sects, on the Indian system of measures and coins, about Sanskrit and Prakrit poetry , about Indian inscriptions, about the Indian and Arabic zodiac and about the duties of an Indian widow ( widow burning ).
Colebrooke's essays first appeared in the publications of the Asian Societies of Calcutta and London, later they were collected repeatedly (for example by Edward Byles Cowell , Miscellaneous essays by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, London 1873, 2 volumes; also as a third volume Colebrooke's biography of his Son).
Grammar and lexicography
His unfinished Sanskrit grammar (Calcutta 1805), the first edition of the Grammar of Panini (1810) and the old Sanskrit dictionary Amara-kosha, which he published, were fundamental to the study of Indian grammarians and lexicographers . Its translation from the Sanskrit Algebra of the Hindus (London 1817) is important for the history of mathematics . Colebrooke was also one of the first to recognize the close relationship between Sanskrit and the Indo-European languages of Europe.
biography
- Sir Thomas Edward Colebrooke: The life of Henry Thomas Colebrooke . 1873
Dedication names
He was a kind from the kind of honor clerodendrum , Clerodendron colebrookianum Walp. , named.
Works
- A grammar of the Sanskrit language . Calcutta 1805
- Dictionary of the Sanskrit Language . Serampore 1808
- Algebra with arithmetic and mensuration from the Sanskrit of Brahmegupta and Bhascara . London 1817, archive.org
- Description of select Indian Plants . 1818
- On Boswellia and certain Indian Terebinthaceae . 1827
- Miscellaneous essays . 2 volumes. London 1857
- Ceylon - Reports of Lientnant-General Colebrooke and Charles Hay Cameron, Esq. House of Commons, 1832
- Miscellaneous essays . 2 volumes. 1857, reprint 1873
- H. Th. Colebrooke's Treatise on the Scriptures of the Indians . 1847
literature
- Thomas Colebrooke: The life of HT Colebrook . London 1873 (published as the first volume for the new edition of Colebrooke's Mixed Essays )
- Colebrooke, Henry Thomas . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 6 : Châtelet - Constantine . London 1910, p. 665 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Literature by and about Henry Thomas Colebrooke in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Henry Thomas Colebrooke in the German Digital Library
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for Henry Thomas Colebrooke at the IPNI
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Colebrooke, Henry Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British Indologist, President of the Asian Society |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 15, 1765 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 10, 1837 |
| Place of death | London |