[INDOLOGY] earliest translations of Sanskrit or other Indian-language works?

[Lindquist, Steven]

Though slightly akimbo of your question (since it is genre specific), the Upaniṣads first made it into Latin through Anquetil-Duperron’s retranslation (1801-02; also into French but unpublished) of a Persian translation. The Aitareya Up. into English was Colebrooke in 1805. Anquetil-Duperron often enough gets credited with “the first religious text translated into a Western language” but clearly that isn’t the case. I was always taught Wilkins was the very first, but never investigated that myself.

Cheers,

s


--
STEVEN E. LINDQUIST, PH.D.
ALTSHULER DISTINGUISHED TEACHING PROFESSOR
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, RELIGIOUS STUDIES
DIRECTOR, ASIAN STUDIES
____________________

Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, SMU
PO Box 750202 | Dallas | TX | 75275-0202
Email: slindqui at smu.edu<mailto:slindqui at smu.edu>
Web: http://people.smu.edu/slindqui<http://faculty.smu.edu/slindqui>



From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of Nemec, John William (jwn3y) via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 8:51 AM
To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] earliest translations of Sanskrit or other Indian-language works?

[EXTERNAL SENDER]
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
nemec at virginia.edu
https://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20230516/1e9e4d8a/attachment.htm>