Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS (1749 – May 13, 1836), was an English typographer and Orientalist, notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English, and as the creator of the first Devanagari typeface. He was born at Frome in Somerset in 1749. He trained as a printer. In 1770 he went to India as a printer and writer in the East India Company's service. His facility with language allowed him to quickly learn Persian and Bengali.

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  • Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS (1749 – May 13, 1836), was an English typographer and Orientalist, notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English, and as the creator of the first Devanagari typeface. He was born at Frome in Somerset in 1749. He trained as a printer. In 1770 he went to India as a printer and writer in the East India Company's service. His facility with language allowed him to quickly learn Persian and Bengali. He was closely involved in the design of the first type for printing Bengali. He published the first typeset book in the language, earning himself the name “the Caxton of India”. He also designed type for publications of books in Persian. In 1781 he was appointed as translator of Persian and Bengali to the Commissioner of Revenue and as superintendent of the Company’s press. He successfully translated a Royal inscription in Kutila characters, which were hitherto indecipherable. In 1784, Wilkins helped William Jones establish the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Wilkins moved to Varanasi, where he studied Sanskrit under Kalinatha, a Brahmin pandit. At this period he began work on his translation of the Mahabarata, securing strong support for his activities from the governor of British India, Warren Hastings. Though he never completed the translation, portions were later published. The most important was his version of the Gita, published in 1785 as Bhagvat-geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon . His translation of the Gita was itself soon translated into French (1787) and German (1802). It proved to be a major influence on Romantic literature and on European perception of Hindu philosophy. William Blake later celebrated the publication in his picture The Bramins, exhibited in 1809, which depicted Wilkins and Brahmin scholars working on the translation. With Hastings’ departure from India, Wilkins lost his main patron. He returned to England in 1786, where he married Elizabeth Keeble. In 1787 Wilkins followed the Gita with his translation of The Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Sarma, in a Series of Connected Fables, Interspersed with Moral, Prudential and Political Maxims . He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1788. In 1800, he was invited to take up the post of the first director of the India House Library, which became over time the world famous 'India Office Library' (now British Library - Oriental Collections). In 1801 he became librarian to the East India Company, He was named examiner at Haileybury when a college was established there in 1805. During these years he devoted himself to the creation of a font for Devanagari, the “divine script”. In 1808 he published his Grammar of the Sanskrita Language. King George IV gave him the badge of the Royal Guelphic Order and he was knighted in recognition of his services to Oriental scholarship in 1833. He died in London at the age of 86. In addition to his own translations and type designs, Wilkins published a new edition of John Richardson's Persian and Arabic dictionary -- A Vocabulary Persian, Arabic, and English; Abridged from the Quarto Edition of Richardson's Dictionary as Edited by Charles Wilkins, Esq. , LL.D. , F.R.S. -- By David Hopkins, Esq. , Assistant Surgeon on the Bengal Establishment in 1810. He also published a catalogue of the manuscripts collected by Sir William Jones, who acknowledged his indebtedness to Wilkins.
  • Sir Charles Wilkins war ein englischer Orientalist und Schriftsetzer, der als erster westlicher Gelehrter die Bhagavad Gita übersetzte und Schrifttypen für die Devanagari-Schrift herstellte.
  • Charles Wilkins (1749–1836) fut un orientaliste. Né à Hartford, il fut envoyé au Bengale comme employé civil de la Compagnie des Indes, et fut un des premiers à étudier le sanscrit. Il traduisit en anglais : le Bhagavad-Gîtâ (1785), les Hitopadesa, recueil d'apologues de Vichnou-Sarma (1786), Il donna également une Grammaire (1808) et une nouvelle édition du Dictionnaire persan, arabe et anglais de John Richardson (1829).
  • Charles Wilkins, brittisk indolog, det "europeiska sanskritstudiets fader", född 1749, död 1839, kom vid 21 års ålder till Calcutta för att tjänstgöra i Bengalens administration. Från 1778 var han generalguvernören Warren Hastings behjälplig i att söka åstadkomma en förbättrad undervisning åt Ostindiska kompaniets indiska tjänstemän och kom därigenom att göra sig förtrogen med de indiska förhållandena i allmänhet och sanskrit i synnerhet. Han införde i Bengalen tryck med bengalibokstäver och var den förste, som i Europa föranstaltade tryckning med sanskritskrift, vartill han själv skurit och gjutit typerna. Wilkins var jämte den egentlige grundläggaren, sir William Jones, en av stiftarna av det för indologins studium betydande sällskapet Royal asiatic society of Bengal (1784), som 1799-1836 (39) utgav "Asiatic researches" och därefter den ännu fortgående tidskriften "Journal of the Asiatic society of Bengal". 1786 återvände han till Europa och blev 1801 bibliotekarie för Ostindiska kompaniet. Wilkins väckte uppmärksamheten på sanskrit och dess litteratur företrädesvis genom översättning av den mystiskt filosofiska episoden Bhagavadgita (1785; ur "Mahabharata"). 1787 utkom hans översättning av fabelverket Hitopadesha, 1793 The story of Shakuntala from the Mahabharata. 1798 avfattade han en förteckning av de av W. Jones samlade sanskrithandskrifterna. Han utgav vidare en sanskritgrammatik (1808), den första bok med sanskrittyper, som är tryckt i Europa, och en förteckning av sanskritrötter (1815). I "Oriental repertory" utgav han några översättningar av episoder ur "Mahabharata", i "Annals of oriental literature" fortsättning av i "Asiatic researches" påbörjade artikelserier. En till två tredjedelar utförd översättning av "Manus lagbok" inhiberades, emedan Jones förehade samma arbete (vilket utkom 1794). Dessutom utgav Wilkins en ny upplaga av Richardsons arabiska och persiska lexikon (1816-20).
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  • Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS (1749 – May 13, 1836), was an English typographer and Orientalist, notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English, and as the creator of the first Devanagari typeface. He was born at Frome in Somerset in 1749. He trained as a printer. In 1770 he went to India as a printer and writer in the East India Company's service. His facility with language allowed him to quickly learn Persian and Bengali.
  • Sir Charles Wilkins war ein englischer Orientalist und Schriftsetzer, der als erster westlicher Gelehrter die Bhagavad Gita übersetzte und Schrifttypen für die Devanagari-Schrift herstellte.
  • Charles Wilkins (1749–1836) fut un orientaliste. Né à Hartford, il fut envoyé au Bengale comme employé civil de la Compagnie des Indes, et fut un des premiers à étudier le sanscrit. Il traduisit en anglais : le Bhagavad-Gîtâ (1785), les Hitopadesa, recueil d'apologues de Vichnou-Sarma (1786), Il donna également une Grammaire (1808) et une nouvelle édition du Dictionnaire persan, arabe et anglais de John Richardson (1829).
  • Charles Wilkins, brittisk indolog, det "europeiska sanskritstudiets fader", född 1749, död 1839, kom vid 21 års ålder till Calcutta för att tjänstgöra i Bengalens administration. Från 1778 var han generalguvernören Warren Hastings behjälplig i att söka åstadkomma en förbättrad undervisning åt Ostindiska kompaniets indiska tjänstemän och kom därigenom att göra sig förtrogen med de indiska förhållandena i allmänhet och sanskrit i synnerhet.
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  • Charles Wilkins
  • Charles Wilkins
  • Charles Wilkins
  • Charles Wilkins
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