Latin and Greek in India

[jkirk@micron.net]

This topic has jogged my interest and I am now pursuing my way slowly
through some possible leads. Thus, I was reminded that Raja Ram Mohan
Roy--having already learned Arabic and Sanskrit, (he "grew up" with
Persian), some time after 1914 when he moved to Calcutta, studied and
learned Latin, Greek and Hebrew, becoming quite proficient in the last
two, such that he made extensive use of them in writing his PRECEPTS OF
JESUS, The Guide to Peace and Happiness....Boston: Christian Register
Office, 1828, see  Preface by Thomas Rees, Secretary to the Unitarian
Society, p.iv.  This book was a polemic against Christian
Trinitarianism.
When he was appointed Dewan--collector of revenue-- in Calcutta, he also
became adept in English, having begun the study of it some years
earlier.
Surely there were also other luminaries of the Renaisance who studied
European classical languages?

Nirad Chaudhuri often sprinkled his accounts with both Latin and French,
but I haven't yet found out if he actually studied Latin, or if he
simply used a phrasebook to create his sophisticated effects.

Joanna Kirkpatrick