Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 2

Author(s): G C Chaudhary
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 28

CONTRIBUTIONS OF WESTERN SCHOLARS
TO ORIENTAL STUDIES
DR. G.C. CHOUDHARY
The Contributions of Western Scholars to Sanskrit literature are very great.
After the Renaissance and discovery of sea-route of India by Vasco de Gamo in 1198 A.D. the West came in closer contact with India and her richest literature in Sanskrit. Filippo Sassetti of Italy was the first scholar who studied Sanskrit at Goa for five years between 1583 and 1588 A.D. and translated a medical work ttafaqng into Italian. He also suggested certain relations between Sanskrit and Italian. Next to him was a Dutch missionary, William Roger who in 1651 A.D. produced a German translation of 300 verses of na'eft...
But actual discovery of Sanskrit in the latter part of the 18th century by William Jones was the great event in the intellectual life of the West. For over a century and a half since then, orientalists in Europe and America have been engaged in interpreting the history and culture of India.
William Jones was a Judge at Calcutta for eleven years. He was the first to arouse a keen interest in the study of Indian Antiquity by his literary activities and by the foundation of Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784. He was the first to point out the genetic relation of Sanskrit with the languages of the West. He made epoch making remarks that 'the Sanskrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more inquisitively refined than either'. William Jones also translated into English a number of works.
By the beginning of the 19th century Sanskrit literature became known to the learned public in Europe through specimens of classical Sanskrit, like works of Kalidas and Harf, and a few stories from 1.140 and महाभारत like नलदमयन्ती etc. and fables of the हितोपदेश and the Pancatantra. Simultaneously with this there arose in great measure a new method both of using and of estimating ancient writings. This method was the comparative study of historical data. This method assessed the value of a literature by a comparison of the course of human thought in different ages and different countries.