Dear Indology Colleagues, Speaking with a colleague, recently, who is not subscribed to this list, a question arose as to the first works translated from an Indian language into a Western one (including Dutch, Portuguese, Latin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, German, etc.).
I am of course aware that Charles Wilkins rendered the Bhagavadgītā into English at a relatively early date, I believe in 1785. I found reference to 1789 for William Jones's translation of the Abhijñānaśākuntala. Before these there was a rendering (into Dutch and not first into Latin, though there was a dispute evidently over this fact) of Bhartṛhari's poems by Abraham Roger/Abraham Rogerius, posthumously in 1651. Could anyone provide more and/or better information about the history of the translation of Sanskrit texts and works of other Indian source languages into Western/European languages? Thank you. Sincerely, John ______________________________ John Nemec, Ph.D. (he, him, his) Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies Editor, Religion in Translation Series (Oxford University Press) 323 Gibson Hall / 1540 Jefferson Park Avenue Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22904 434-924-6716 [email protected] https://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec
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