Vincent Arthur Smith

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Vincent Arthur Smith (born June 3, 1848 in Dublin , † February 6, 1920 ) was a British historian , Indologist and art historian who worked in the colonial British administrative service in India .

Smith was the son of an antique dealer. After studying at Trinity College in Dublin, which he graduated with honors, and passed the entrance exam to the Indian Civil Service , the respected (and highly paid) administrative service in the colonial ruled Indian subcontinent , he entered service in the Indian north-west provinces and Oudh in 1871 . In the same year Smith married. After holding positions in administration, property tax and justice, he became Commissioner (head of administration) of Gorakhpur in 1898 .

Smith soon became interested in the archeology and history of the country due to his activities in the surveying and cadastral service; In 1889 and 1893 his articles on the coinage of the Gupta period and on the Greco-Roman coin finds appeared . In order to be able to devote himself to his studies undisturbed, he retired in England in 1900.

He wrote biographical works on Ashoka , the Buddhist first general ruler of India (1901) and on the great mogul Akbar I (1917), as well as studies on early Indian history ( Early History of India , 1904), but also art historical overviews ( History of Fine Art in India and in Ceylon , 1911). His Oxford History of India (first edition 1919), which stretched from the earliest times to 1911 (in the second edition to 1923), was an indispensable standard work until the new edition of 1958 was published .

Smith was convinced of the necessity of benevolent despotism if one wanted to overcome the political fragmentation of the subcontinent in the long run. He was also responsible for the phrase Unity in Diversity , which nationalist politicians raised to the slogan of secular, independent India and aimed at the unity of Hindus and Muslims, while Smith himself only had the cultural unity within the Hindu community in mind.

Fonts (selection)

  • General index to the Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India  : volumes I to XXIII; with a glossary and general table of contents , [reprint of the edition] Simla, Government Central Press, 1887. - Varanasi [u. a.]: Indological Book House, 1969
  • (Ed.) William Henry Sleeman : Rambles and recollections of an Indian official , reprint of the Westminster edition 1893. (2 volumes) New Delhi [u. a.]: Asian Educational Services, 1995
  • Foreword to Purna Chandra Mukherji: A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities of Kapilavastu Tarai of Nepal during February and March, 1899 , [Repr. d. Ed .:] Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1901. - Delhi u. a. : Indological Book House, 1969
  • Catalog of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta: includ. the Cabinet of the Asiatic Society of Bengal , Part 1, Oxford, 1906
  • History of India / 2 / From the sixth Century BC to the Mohammedan conquest: including the invasion of Alexander the Great , 1907
  • A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day , Oxford, 1911
  • The early history of India from 600 b. C. to the Muhammadan Conquest incl. The invasion of Alexander the Great , 3rd ed., Oxford, 1914
  • Akbar, the Great Mogul 1542-1605 , Oxford, 1917
  • The Oxford history of India: from the earliest times to the end of 1911 , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920 (Second edition 1923, digitized )
  • Asoka, the Buddhist emperor of India ( Rulers of India ), 1st ed. Oxford 1901; 3rd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1920
  • A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day , 2nd ed. Rev., Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1930
  • (Ed.): François Bernier : Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656-1668 . Translated by Archibald Constable on the basis of Irving Brock's version, 1934. Reprint, Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1994.
  • The Jain Stûpa and other antiquities of Mathurâ , 2nd ed., Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1969

literature

  • William Crooke : Dr. Vincent Arthur Smith, CIE , in: Folklore 31, No. 1 (March 30, 1920) pp. 87ff.
  • SV Fitz-Gerald revised by Katherin Prior, Smith, Vincent Arthur . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 51 (2004), p. 351

References and comments

  1. ↑ In the early days of India, numismatics (coinage) played an important role due to the lack of written or other evidence
  2. ^ Introduction by Percival Spear , SV
  3. ^ SV Fitz-Gerald revised by Katherin Prior, Smith, Vincent Arthur . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 51 (2004), p. 351
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Vincent Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian, Indologist and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1920