Wilson, Horace Hayman (1786-1860)

Letter of introduction for a Rev. F A Dawson, from Wilson to J Prinsep, Assay Master, Mint, Calcutta.

18/03/1835

1 letter

Provenance details not recorded.

English orientalist. Studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital, and went out to India in 1808 as assistant-surgeon on the Bengal establishment of the East India Company. His knowledge of metallurgy caused him to be attached to the mint at Calcutta. He became deeply interested in the ancient language and literature of India and in 1811 became secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In 1813 he published the Sanskrit text Kalidasa's poem the Meghaduta, or 'Cloud-Messenger'. He prepared the first Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1819) from materials compiled by native scholars, supplemented by bis own researches. He published on Indian drama and also a catalogue of oriental and south Indian manuscripts and books on the history of British India and Bengal. In 1832 the University of Oxford selected Dr Wilson to be the first occupant of the newly founded Boden chair of Sanskrit, and in 1836 he was appointed librarian to the East India Company. He was an original member of the Royal Asiatic Society, of which he was director from 1837 up to the time of his death in 1860.