Epigraphia Indica Vol 31

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 14

FREDERICK WILLIAM THOMAS
Dr. F. W. Thomas, M.A., PH.D., O.L.E. (Librarian of the India Office, London, 1904-27 ; Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Balliol College, 1927-37) passed away at his home near Branburg, Oxfordshire, on the 6th May 1956 at the age of 89. By his sad death, oriental learning has suffered an irreparable loss.
Born at Fazely in Staffordshire on March 21, 1867, Thomas had a brilliant educational career. He obtained a classical scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and won other laurels in Classical Tripos and Indian Languages Tripos. He knew Greek and Latin as well as Sanskrit. Pali and several other Eastern languages. In 1898 he joined the India Office as Assistant Librarian and succeeded C. H. Tawney as Librarian there in 1904. This post he held for about a quarter of & century. On retiring in 1927 he became Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Balliol College and continued to serve in these capacities till 1937. In the years that followed, he kept himself busy with his scholarly pursuits, inspiring younger scholars by his shining example.
The name of Dr. Thomas was held very high in the field of Indological learning. As a result of his continued hard work for over half a century, he has left an abiding mark of progressive scholarship specially on Sanskritic and allied studies. He was a pioneer in the field of research pertaining to Chinese Turkestan opened up by the explorations of Aurel Stein and others. A large number of publications (well over 200) on Indian and Oriental subjects, in the form of books and papers, stand to his credit. Some of his important works are: (1) The Hargacarita of Bana (transslated in collaboration with E. B. Cowell), (2) Kavindravacanasamuccaya, an anthology of Sanskrit verges, and (3) Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan.
In recognition of his manifold academic activities, numerous honours were conferred on Dr. Thomas. He was a member of the council of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, of which he held the offices of Honorary Secretary, Vice-President and Director. In 1939, on the occasion of his 72nd birth-day, he was presented with a Volume of Eastern and Indian Studies by his friends and admirers.
Dr. Thomas visited India twice, once in 1920-21 and again in 1937-38 when he was invited to preside over the Ninth Session of the All-India Oriental Conference at Trivandrum. He was an Honorary Correspondent of the Archaeological Department, Government of India. Besides, he was the editor of the Epigraphia Indica from 1916 to 1922. In that capacity, he edited Vols. XIII to XVI of this journal, Vol. XIII jointly with Sten Konow, and Vol. XVI jointly with H. Krishna Sastri. His own contribution to the pages of the Epigraphia Indica relates to certain important Kharöshthi records, viz. Inscriptions on the Mathura Lion-Capital (Vol. IX, pp. 135-47) and on the Relic Casket from Kurram (Vol. XVIII, pp. 17-18).
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