Historical person
William Jones
1746–1794
Sir William Jones was a linguist, lawyer and scholar who went to Calcutta as a judge in 1783 and founded the Asiatic Society the following year. His study of Sanskrit and Indian texts helped introduce a large body of South Asian literature and legal tradition to European scholarship.
In 1786 Jones famously argued that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin showed systematic similarities suggesting a common origin. His work became foundational for comparative linguistics and for the scholarly study of ancient India, although it also developed within the institutions and assumptions of early British colonial rule.
In Charles Allen’s The Buddha and the Sahibs, beginning with William Jones and the study of Sanskrit, Charles Allen follows the decipherment of inscriptions, the identification of ancient sites and the recognition that ruins, pillars and texts scattered across South Asia belonged to a religious tradition that had largely disappeared from India itself. Historical accounts that place William Jones in context include Charles Allen’s Aryans.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring William Jones (2 books)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.
