Nirad Chaudhuri (Was Re: Greek and Latin in India)

[Gregory {Greg} Downing]

On 14 Feb 1998 "jkirk at micron.net" wrote:
>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
>

I'm familiar with this author from his very carefully researched biography
of Max Mueller (1974), which is in my research area (history of
language-study). But as a non-Indologist, I am not sure how prominent a
figure Chaudhuri is. I notice his name was brought up (see above) in JK's
short list of Indian scholars who might have studied or known Greek and/or
Latin. Is that because Chaudhuri is unusual among Indian scholars in knowing
Greek and Latin, or because he is a particularly prominent Indologist, and
thus a good example of a well-known Indologist who perhaps knew Latin? When
did he die, by the way (as the above para. seems to imply)?

Greg Downing/NYU, at greg.downing at nyu.edu or downingg at is2.nyu.edu