नामलिङ्गानुशासनम्

0. Einleitung

1. H. T. Colebrooke's Einleitung zu seiner Ausgabe des Amarakośa (1807)

Übersetzt von Alois Payer

mailto:payer@payer.de 

Zitierweise | cite as: Amarasiṃha <6./8. Jhdt. n. Chr.>: Nāmaliṅgānuśāsana (Amarakośa) / übersetzt von Alois Payer <1944 - >. -- 0. Einleitung. -- 1. H. T. Colebrooke's Einleitung zu seiner Ausgabe des Amarakośa (1807). -- Fassung vom 2010-10-28. --  URL: http://www.payer.de/amarakosa/amara001.htm            

Erstmals erschienen in:

Amarasiṃha: Cósha, or dictionary of the Sanscrit language : With an English interpretation and annotation by Henry Thomas Colebrooke <1765 - 1834>. -- Serampoor, 1808. -- 11, 422 S.

Erstmals hier publiziert: 2010-10-28

Überarbeitungen:

©opyright: Creative Commons Lizenz (Namensnennung, keine kommerzielle Nutzung, share alike)

Dieser Text ist Teil der Abteilung Sanskrit von Tüpfli's Global Village Library

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Abb.: H. T. Colebrooke

"Colebrooke (spr. kōlbruck), Henry Thomas, der erste Sanskritist seiner Zeit und Hauptbegründer des Studiums der indischen Literatur, geb. 15. Juni 1765 in London, gest. daselbst 18. März 1837, kam frühzeitig nach Indien, kehrte 1816 nach Europa zurück und war bis zu seinem Tode Präsident der Asiatischen Gesellschaft in London. Das erste größere Werk von Colebrooke war seine Übersetzung eines umfangreichen indischen Rechtswerkes über Erbrecht, Sachen- und Obligationenrecht (»A digest of Hindu law on contracts and successions«, Kalkutta 1798, 3 Bde., mehrfach wieder aufgelegt). Sorgfalt und philologische Gründlichkeit zeichnen die zahlreichen Essays von Colebrooke aus, die fast alle Teile der indischen Literatur betreffen, so seine Abhandlungen über die Vedas, über die philosophischen Systeme der Inder, über die indischen Sekten, über das indische Maß- und Münzsystem, über Sanskrit- und Prâkritpoesie und andre Aufsätze, die zuerst in den Veröffentlichungen der Asiatischen Gesellschaften von Kalkutta und London erschienen und später wiederholt gesammelt wurden (zuletzt von Cowell, »Miscellaneous essays by H. T. C.«, Lond. 1873, 2 Bde.; dazu als dritter Band Colebrookes Biographie von seinem Sohn). Grundlegend für das Studium der indischen Grammatiker und Lexikographen wirkten seine leider unvollendete Sanskritgrammatik (Kalkutta 1805) und die von ihm veranlasste erste Ausgabe der Grammatik des Pânini (1809) und des alten Sanskritwörterbuches »Amarakosha« (1807). – Für die Geschichte der Mathematik wichtig ist seine Übertragung algebraischer Werke der Inder." [Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]

"COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS (1765-1837), English Orientalist, the third son of Sir George Colebrooke, 2nd baronet, was born in London on the 1sth of June 1765. He was educated at home; and when only fifteen he had made considerable attainments in classics and mathematics. From the age of twelve to sixteen he resided in France, and in 1782 was appointed to a writership in India. About a year after his arrival there he was placed in the board of accounts in Calcutta; and three years later he was removed to a situation in the revenue department at Tirhut. In 1789 he was removed to Purneah, where he investigated the resources of that part of the country, and published his Remarks on the Husbandry and Commerce of Bengal, privately printed in 1795, in which he advocated free trade between Great Britain and India. After eleven years' residence in India, Colebrooke began the study of Sanskrit; and to him was confided the translation of the great Digest of Hindu Laws, which had been left unfinished by Sir William Jones. He translated the two treatises Mitakshara and Dayabhaga under the title Law of Inheritance. He was sent to Nagpur in 1799 on a special mission, and on his return was made a judge of the new court of appeal, over which he afterwards presided. In 1805 Lord Wellesley appointed him professor of Hindu Law and Sanskrit at the college of Fort William. During his residence at Calcutta he wrote his Sanskrit Grammar (1805), some papers on the religious ceremonies of the Hindus, and his Essay on the Vedas (1805), for a long time the standard work on the subject. He became member of council in 1807 and returned to England seven years later. He died on the i8th of March 1837. He was a director of the Asiatic Society, and many of the most valuable papers in the society's Transactions were communicated by him. His life was written by his son, Sir T. E. Colebrooke, in 1873." [Quelle: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1.. ed., Vol. 6, 1910]

Preface

The compilation of a Sanskrit dictionary having been undertaken early after the institution of the college of Fort William, it was at the same time thought advisable to print, in Sanskrit and English, the work which has been chosen for the basis of that compilation, as well for the sake of exhibiting an original authority to which reference will be frequently necessary, as with the view of furnishing an useful vocabulary, which might serve until an ampler dictionary could be prepared and published.

Like other vocabularies of Sanskrit, that of Amara is in metre; and a considerable degree of knowledge of the language becomes requisite to discriminate the words from their interpretations, and to separate them from contiguous terms which affect their initials and finals. On this account, and to adapt the work to the use of the English student, the words, of which the sense is exhibited, are disjoined from their interpretation (which is included between crotchets); and the close of each word is marked by a roman letter over it indicating the gender of the noun. Where a letter has been permuted according to the Sanskrit system of orthography, a dot is placed under the line, to intimate that a letter is there altered or omitted : and a marginal note is added, exhibiting the radical final of the ^noun, or its initial, in every instance where either of them is so far disguised by permutation as not to be easily recognized upon a slight knowledge of the rudiments of the language, and of its orthography. An explanation in English is given in the margin, and completed when necessary at the foot of the page. The different interpretations proposed by the several commentators, and the variations in orthography remarked by them, are also specified in the same place.

According to the original plan of the present publication, the variations in the reading of the text (for which a careful collation has been made of several copies and of numerous commentaries) are noticed only where they affect the interpretation of a word or its orthography. It was not at first intended to insert those differences which are remarked by commentators upon other authority, and not upon the ground of any variation in the text itself. However, the utility of indicating such differences was afterwards thought to counterbalance any inconvenience attending it; and after some progress had been made at the press, this and other additions to the original design were admitted, which have rendered a supplement necessary to supply omissions in the first chapters, and complete the work upon an uniform plan.

To avoid too great an increase of the volume, the various readings and interpretations are rather hinted than fully set forth: it has been judged sufficient to state the result, as the notes would have been too much lengthened, if the ground of disagreement had been every where exhibited and explained. For the same reason, authorities have not been cited by name. The mention of the particular commentator in each instance would have enlarged the notes, with very little advantage, as the means of verifying authorities are as effectually furnished by an enumeration of the works which have been employed and consulted. They are as follow:

I. The text of the Amarakośa.

This vocabulary, comprised in three books, is frequently cited under the title of Trikāṇḍa,¹ sometimes under the denomination of Abhidhāna (nouns), from its subject; often under that of Amarakośa, from the name of the author. The commentators are indeed unanimous in ascribing it to Amara Siṃha. He appears to have belonged to the sect of Buddha (though this be denied by some of his scholiasts), and is reputed to have lived in the reign of Vikramāditya ; and he is expressly named among the ornaments of the court of Rājā Bhoja,² one of the many princes to whom that title has been assigned. If this mention of him be accurate, he must have lived not more than eight hundred years ago; for a poem entitled Subhāṣita-ratna-sandoha, by a Jaina author named Amitakati, is dated in the year 1050 from the death of Vikramāditya, and in the reign of Muñja, who was uncle and predecessor of Rājā Bhoja. It, however, appears inconsistent with the inscription at Buddhagayā which is dated in the year 1005 of the era of Vikramāditya, and in which mention is made of Amara Deva, probably the same with the author of the vocabulary. From the frequent instances of anachronism, both in sacred and profane story as current among the Hindus, more confidence seems due to the inscription than to any popular tales concerning Rājā Bhoja ; and the Amarakośa may be considered as at least nine hundred years old, and possibly more ancient.

¹ i. e. the Three Books. But that name properly appertains to a more ancient vocabulary, which is mentioned by the commentaries on the Amara kośa, among the works from which this is supposed to have been compiled.

² In the Bhojaprabandha

The copies of the original which have been employed in the correction of the text, in the present publication, are,

1. A transcript made for my use from an ancient corrected copy in the Tirhutīya character, and collated by me with a copy in Devanāgarī, which had been carefully examined by Sir William Jones. He had inserted in it an English interpretation, of which also I reserved a copy, and have derived great assistance from it in the present publication.
    
2. A transcript in Devanāgarī character, with a commentary and notes in the Kānārā dialect. It contains numerous passages, which are unnoticed in the most approved commentaries, and which are accordingly omitted in the present edition.
    

3. Another copy in the Devanāgarī character, with a brief and imperfect interpretation in Hindī.
    

4. A copy in the Bengal character, with marginal notes explanatory of the text.
    

5. A copy in duplicate, accompanied by a Sanskrit commentary, which will be forthwith mentioned (that of Rāmāśrama). It contains a few passages not noticed by most of the commentators. They have been, however, retained on the authority of this scholiast. A like remark is applicable to certain other passages expounded in some commentaries, but not in others. All such have been retained, where the authority itself has been deemed good.
    

6. Recourse has been occasionally had to other copies of the text in the possession of natives, whenever it has been thought any ways requisite.

1. 1. At the head of the commentaries which have been used, must be placed that of Rāya Mukuṭa, (or Vṛhaspati, surnamed Rāya Mukuṭa Maṇi). This work, entitled Padacandrikā, was compiled, as the author himself informs us, from sixteen earlier commentaries, to many of which he repeatedly refers; especially those of Kṣīra Svāmī, Subhūti, Hāḍḍa Candra, Kaliṅga, Koṅkaṭa, Sarvadhara, and the Vyākhyāmṛta, Tīkaasarvaswa, &c. ¹
   
   Its age is ascertained from the incidental mention of a date, viz. 1353 Śaka, or 4532 of the Kaliyuga, corresponding to A.D. 1431.
   
   Though the derivations in Mukuṭa's commentary be often inaccurate, and other errors also have been remarked by later compilers, its authority is in general great; and accordingly it has been carefully consulted under every article of the present work.
    
2. Among the earlier commentaries named by Rāya Mukuṭa, that of Kṣīra Svāmī is the only one, which has been examined in the progress of this compilation. It is a work of considerable merit; and is still in general use in some provinces of India, although the interpretations not unfrequently differ from those commonly received.
    
3. The Vyākhyāsudhā, a modern commentary by Rāmāśrāma or by Bhānudīkṣita (for copies differ as to the name of the author), is the work of a grammarian of the school of Benares. He continually refers to Rāya Mukuṭa and to Svāmī ; and his work serves to confirm their scholia where accurate, and to correct them where erroneous. It has been consulted at every line.
    
4. The Vyākhyā pradīpa, by Acyuta Upādhyāya, is a concise and accurate exposition of the text; but adds little to the information furnished by the works above-mentioned. It has been, however, occasionally consulted.

¹ The following names may be selected from Mukuṭa's quotations, to complete the number of sixteen: Mādhavi, Madhumādhavi, Sarvānanda, Abhinanda, Rājadeva, Govardhana, Drāvīḍa, Bhoja Rāja. But some of these appear to be separate works, rather than commentaries on the Amarakośa. Mukuṭa occasionally cites the most celebrated grammarians, as Pāṇini, Jayāditya, Jinendra, Maitreya, Rackṣita, Puruṣottama, Mādhava, &c.

5. The commentary of Bharata Malla (entitled Mugdhabbohinī) has been as regularly consulted as those of Mukuṭa and Rāmāśrama. It is, indeed, a very excellent work; copious and clear, and particularly full upon the variations of orthography according to different readings or different authorities: the etymologies are given conformably with Vopadeva's system of grammar. The author flourished in the middle of last century.
    
6. The Sārāsundarī, by Mathureśa, has been much used. It is perspicuous and abounds in quotations from other commentaries, and is therefore a copious source of information on the various interpretations and readings of the text. The Supadma is the grammar followed in the derivations stated by this commentator. Mathureśa is author likewise of a vocabulary in verse, entitled Śabdaratnāvalī, arranged in the same order with the Amarakośa, and which might serve therefore as a commentary on that work. It was compiled under the patronage of a Musulman chieftain, Murcha Khān, whose name is prefixed to it. The author wrote not more than 150 years ago.<sup>1
   
   1</sup> His work contains the date 1588, Śaka, or A. D. 1666.
    
7. The Padārtha Kaumudī,  by Nārāyaṇa Cakravartī, is another commentary of considerable merit, which has been frequently consulted. The Kalāpa is the grammar followed in the etymologies here exhibited.
    
8. A commentary by Rāmanātha Vidyāvacaspati, entitled Trikāṇḍaviveka, is peculiarly copious on the variations of orthography, and is otherwise a work affording much useful information.
    
9. 9. Another commentary, which has been constantly employed, is that by Nīlakaṇṭha. It is full and satisfactory on most points for which reference is usually made to the expositors of the Amarakośa.
    
10. The commentary of Rāma Tarkavāgīśa has been uniformly consulted throughout the work. It was recommended for its accuracy; but has furnished little information, being busied chiefly with etymology. This, like the preceding, follows the grammar entitled Kalāpa.

Other commentaries were also collected for occasional reference in the progress of this work; but have not been employed, being found to contain no information which was not also furnished, and that more amply, by the scholiasts above mentioned.

The list of them contained in the subjoined note may therefore suffice.¹

¹ Kaumudī by Nayanānanda ; Trikāṇḍacintāmaṇi by Raghunātha Cakravartī ; both according to Pāṇini's system of etymology. Vaiśamyakaumudī by Rāmaprasāda Tarkālaṅkāra; Padamañjarī by Lokanātha ; both following the grammatical system of the Kalapa. Pradīpamañjarī by Rāmāśrama, a jejune interpretation of the text. Bṛhathardvalī by Rāmeśvara. Also commentaries by Kṛṣṇadāsa, Trilocanadāsa, Sundarānanda, Vanadīyalbhaṭṭa, Viśvanātha, Gopāl Cakravartī, Govindānanda, Rāmānanda, Bholanātha &c.

III. Sanskrit dictionaries and vocabularies by other authors.

Throughout the numerous commentaries on the Amarakośa, the text itself is corrected or confirmed, and the interpretations and remarks of the commentators supported, by reference to other Sanskrit vocabularies. They are often cited by the scholiasts for the emendation of the text in regard to the gender of a noun, and not less frequently for a variation of orthography, or for a difference of interpretation. The authority quoted has been in general consulted, before any use has been made of the quotations; or, where the original work cannot now be procured, the agreement of commentators has been admitted as authenticating the passage. This has been particularly attended to in the chapter containing homonymous words, it having been judged useful to introduce into the notes of that chapter the numerous additional acceptations stated in other dictionaries, and understood to be alluded to in the Amarakośa.

The dictionaries which have been consulted are,

1. The Medinī, an alphabetical dictionary of homonymous terms by Medinīkara.
    

2. The Viśva prakāśa by Maheśvara Vaidya, a similar dictionary, but less accurate and not so well arranged. It is the ground-work of the Medinī, which is an improved and corrected work of great authority. Both are very frequently cited by the commentators.
    
3. The Haima, a dictionary by Hemacandra, in two parts; one containing synonymous words arranged in six chapters; the other containing homonymous terms in alphabetical order. Both are works of great excellence.
    
4. The Abhidhānaratnamālā, a vocabulary by Halāyudha, in five chapters; the last of which relates to words having many acceptations. It is too concise for general use, but is sometimes quoted.
    
5. The Dharaṇī, a vocabulary of words bearing many senses. It is less copious than the Medinī and Haima; but being frequently cited by commentators, has been necessarily consulted.
    
6. The Trikāṇḍaśeṣa, or supplement to the Amarakośa, by Puruṣottama Deva.
    
7. The Hārāvalī of the same author.

The reader will find in the notes a list of other dictionaries quoted by the commentators, but the quotations of which have not been verified by reference to the originals, as these have not been procurable.

Works under the title of Varṇadeśana, Dvirūpa, and Unādi, have indeed been procured; but not the same with the books cited, many different compilations being current under those titles. The first relates to words, the orthography of which is likely to be mistaken from a confusion of similar letters; the second exhibits words which are spelt in more than one way; the third relates to a certain class of derivatives separately noticed by grammarians.

Grammar is so intimately connected with the subject of this publication, that it has been of course necessary to advert to the works of grammarians. But as they are regularly cited by the commentators, it is needless to name them as authorities, since nothing will be found to have been taken from this source, which is not countenanced by some passage in the commentaries on the Amarakośa.

Verbs not being exhibited in the Amarakośa, which is a vocabulary of nouns only, the treatises of Maitreya, Mādhava, and others, on the Sanskrit roots, though furnishing important materials towards a complete dictionary of the language, have been very little employed in the present work ; and a particular reference to them was unnecessary, as authority will be found in the commentaries on Amara, for any thing which may have been taken from those treatises.

Passages from the works of celebrated writers are cited by the commentators on the Amarakośa, and the scholiasts of classic poems frequently quote dictionaries in support of their interpretation of difficult passages. In the compilation of a copious Sanskrit dictionary ample use may be made of the scholia. They have been employed for the present publication so far only as they are expressly cited by the principal commentaries on the Amarakośa itself.

In regard to plants and animals, and other objects of natural history, noticed in different chapters of this vocabulary, and especially in the 4th, 5th, and 9th chapters of the second book, it is proper to observe, that the ascertainment of them generally depends on the correctness of the corresponding vernacular names. The commentators seldom furnish any description or other means of ascertainment besides the current denomination in a provincial language. A view of the animal, or an examination of the plant, known to the vulgar under the denomination, enables a person conversant with natural history to determine its name according to the received nomenclature of European Botany and Zoology : but neither my enquiries, nor those of other gentlemen, who have liberally communicated the information collected by them,¹ nor the previous researches of Sir William Jones, have yet discovered all the plants and animals, of which the names are mentioned by the commentators on the Amarakośa; and even in regard to those which have been seen by us, a source of error remains in the inaccuracy of the commentators themselves, as is proved by the circumstance of their frequent disagreement. It must be therefore understood, that the correspondence of the Sanskrit names with the generic and specific names in natural history is in many instances doubtful. When the uncertainty is great, it has usually been so expressed; but errors may exist where none have been apprehended.

¹ Drs. Roxburgh¹, F. Buchanan², and W. Hunter³ : and Mr. William Carey⁴.

It is necessary likewise to inform the reader, that many of the plants, and some animals (especially fish), have not been described in any work yet published. Of such, the names have been taken from the manuscripts of Dr. Roxburgh and Dr. F. Buchanan.

H. T. Colebrooke

Calcutta, December, 1807.

¹ William Roxburgh

Abb.: William Roxburgh

Jetzt grundlegend:

Robinson, Tim: William Roxburgh : the founding father of Indian botany. -- Chichester : Phillimore in association with Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2008.  -- XVIII, 286 S. : Ill.  ; 28 cm. -- ISBN: 9781860774348

"ROXBURGH, WILLIAM (1751–1815), botanist, was born at Underwood, Craigie, Ayrshire, 3 June 1751. From the village school he proceeded to the university of Edinburgh, where he studied botany under Professor John Hope (1725–1786) [q. v.] By Hope's influence, when qualified, he obtained in 1766 an appointment as surgeon's mate on one of the East India Company's ships. After making several voyages and graduating as M.D., he accepted an appointment as assistant surgeon on the company's Madras establishment. He arrived at Madras in 1776, and during the following two years he was, according to the manuscript of his ‘Flora Indica’ (now in the botanical department of the British Museum), ‘in large practice at the General Hospital at Madras.’ In 1780 he became full surgeon. In 1781 he was stationed at Samulcotta, about seven miles from Coconada, and twenty-two miles from one of the mouths of the Godavery. Here he cultivated coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg, arnatto, bread-fruit, indigo, and peppers, experimentally, and studied sugar-growing and silkworm-rearing with a view to improving native methods. He made large collections of plants, and until 1785 employed a native draughtsman, while he added sketches of dissections and notes on native uses of the plants. In 1785 he attended John Gerard Koenig professionally in his last illness, and at Koenig's request forwarded all his papers to Sir Joseph Banks. Roxburgh seems to have been formally appointed the company's ‘Botanist in the Carnatic;’ but in 1787 he lost most of his collections and papers in an inundation, and it was not until 1791 that the first parcel of his drawings was received by the company in England. By 1794 he had sent home five hundred, and from these Sir Joseph Banks selected three hundred which were reproduced life-size in colour in the three sumptuous folio volumes entitled ‘Plants of the Coast of Coromandel,’ published by the company in 1795, 1802, and 1819. Others were issued on a smaller scale in Robert Wight's ‘Illustrations of Indian Botany,’ 1838–40. On the death, in 1793, of Colonel Robert Kyd [q. v.], the founder and first superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, Roxburgh was appointed to his post. He built the existing residence in the garden for the superintendent. From 1797 to 1799 and from 1805 to 1808 he was in England, owing to ill-health. Roxburgh was an active member of the Asiatic Society; in 1790 he had been made M.D. of Marischal College and University of Aberdeen, and fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; he was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1799; and was also a fellow of the Society of Arts and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Society of Arts thrice awarded him its gold medal for his services in reference to Indian fibres. In 1813 his health finally broke down. He retired to the Cape, then to St. Helena, and to England. He died at Park Place, Edinburgh, 18 Feb. 1815, and was buried in the Greyfriars churchyard, in the tomb of the Boswells of Auchinlech, the family of his third wife. Roxburgh married (1) Miss Bonté, probably the daughter of the governor of Penang, by whom he had one daughter, Mary, who married Henry Stone, B.C.S.; (2) Miss Huttenmann, by whom he had five sons, three of whom entered the Indian army, and three daughters; and (3) Miss Boswell, by whom he had a son William and two daughters. In 1822 some of his friends erected a pillar to his memory on a mound near the great banyan tree in the Calcutta Garden, bearing a Latin inscription by Bishop Heber. Dryander dedicated to him the genus Roxburghia, an evergreen Indian climber which was said to symbolise the manner in which he had made Indian botany his ‘ladder of success’ (Cottage Gardener, 1851, vi. 65). On leaving India in 1813 Roxburgh left William Carey, D.D. [q. v.], in charge of the Calcutta Garden, leaving also in his hands the manuscript ‘Hortus Bengalensis,’ one of his two copies of his manuscript ‘Flora Indica,’ and 2,533 life-size coloured drawings of plants with dissections. Carey published the ‘Hortus Bengalensis’ in 1814. It is in two parts. Of these the first was a catalogue of 3,500 species in the Calcutta Garden, only three hundred of which had been there when Roxburgh arrived in 1793, while fifteen hundred had been named and described by him. The second part consisted of a catalogue of 453 species in the manuscript ‘Flora Indica’ which were not in the garden; most of them were also new to science. In 1820 Carey decided to publish the ‘Flora’ with additions by Nathaniel Wallich [q. v.], then superintendent of the Calcutta Garden, who had made large collections in Nipal and Malacca. The first volume, which contains little by Wallich, was printed at the Mission Press, Serampore, in 1820, and the second, which contains many notes by Wallich, in 1824; the scheme went no further. In 1832 Carey published a complete edition of the ‘Flora,’ without Wallich's additions, in three octavo volumes, at the request and expense of the author's two sons, Captains Bruce and James Roxburgh. This edition having become scarce and costly, Mr. C. B. Clarke in 1874 published, at his own expense, a verbatim reprint, in one volume, printed at Calcutta, with the addition of Roxburgh's account of the Indian cryptogams which had not been included by Carey, but had been printed by William Griffith [q. v.] in the ‘Calcutta Journal of Natural History,’ vol. iv. (1844). Though arranged on the Linnean system and with a nomenclature largely obsolete, Roxburgh's book is still not only a mine of wealth on Indian economic botany, but also the only compendious guide to the plants of the plains. The manuscript copy of the ‘Flora Indica’ which Roxburgh took to England with him he submitted to Robert Brown. This is now in the botanical department of the British Museum, and it contains many notes by both Roxburgh and Brown that are not in the printed editions. Besides these works, Roxburgh published a ‘Botanical Description of a New Species of Swietenia or Mahogany,’ London, 1793, 4to; a number of letters on Indian fibres in the ‘Transactions of the Society of Arts,’ vol. xxii. (1804), and papers in ‘Asiatic Researches,’ vols. ii.–xi., Nicholson's ‘Journal,’ ‘Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine,’ ‘Transactions of the London Medical Society,’ vol. i. (1810), and ‘Transactions of the Linnean Society,’ vols. vii. and xxi. These mostly deal with Indian botany, especially from an economic standpoint; they treat, for instance, of hemp, caoutchouc, teak, the butter-tree and the sugar-cane, but they include others on the lac insect, on a species of dolphin from the Ganges, on silkworms, and on land winds. Wallich seems to have distributed Roxburgh's dried specimens, so that no set now exists; but his numerous detailed drawings largely compensate for this loss. These drawings were copied for Kew, at the expense of Sir W. J. Hooker. There is an engraved portrait of Roxburgh by C. Warren in the ‘Transactions of the Society of Arts,’ vol. xxxiii. (1815), and an enlarged photo-etching of this forms the frontispiece of ‘Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta,’ vol. v. (1895), a volume which is dedicated to Roxburgh's memory. [Brief Memoir by Dr. G. King in Annals of Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, vol. v. (1895); The Cottage Gardener, 1851, vi. 65; the prefaces to Roxburgh's works.] George Simonds Boulger" [Quelle: Dictionary of Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49. -- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Roxburgh,_William_%28DNB00%29. -- Zugriff am 2010--10-28]

² Francis Buchanan-Hamilton

"Francis Buchanan-Hamilton (* 15. Februar 1762 in Callander, Perthshire, Schottland; † 15. Juni 1829 ebenda), auch als Francis Hamilton-Buchanan und Francis Hamilton bekannt, war ein bedeutender Erforscher und Entdecker südasiatischer Fischarten. Sein zoologisches Hauptwerk hat unter der Kurzbezeichnung "Hamilton's Fishes" bis heute große Bedeutung für die Taxonomie und systematische Ichthyologie. Herkunft und Leben Francis Buchanan wurde als dritter Sohn der Eheleute Thomas Buchanan of Spittal und Elisabeth Hamilton, heiress of Bardowie, in der Gemeinde Callander, Grafschaft Perthshire, Schottland, geboren. 1783 bestand er das medizinische Examen in Edinburgh und begann seine Laufbahn im Dienst der britischen Krone als Schiffsarzt der Kriegsmarine. Gesundheitliche Gründe führten bald zu seinem Abschied. Ab 1794 diente er der East India Company in deren bengalischer Niederlassung als Kolonialarzt. Kurz nach seiner Ankunft wurde er an den Gerichtshof von Ava versetzt, wo er sich erstmals intensiv seinen naturkundlichen Neigungen widmete: Er sammelte, registrierte und beschrieb nahezu die gesamte Flora dieses Verwaltungsbezirks einschließlich jener der Andamanen-Inseln. Nach dem Ende seiner Ava-Mission unterbrach Francis Buchanan die Rückreise in Lakkipur, nahe der Mündung des Brahmaputra. Dort entstand die bis heute bedeutende Beschreibung von Fischen aus dem Ganges und seinen Zuflüssen, die jedoch erst 1822 in London und Edinburgh veröffentlicht wurde. Diese Arbeit enthält zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Erstbeschreibungen. Später, mittlerweile dem Generalgouverneur Indiens direkt unterstellt, verfasste Buchanan seine größte und wichtigste Arbeit: To travel through and report upon the countries of Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, investigating the state of Agriculture, arts, and commerce; the religion, manners and customs; the history, natural and civil, and antiquities in the dominions of the Rájá of Mysore, and the countries aquiesed by the honorable East India Company in the late and former wars from Tippoo Sultan. 1806 kehrte Buchanan für kurze Zeit nach Großbritannien zurück, bereiste zuvor aber auch Nepal, wo er wiederum umfangreiche botanische Sammlungen durchführen konnte. Anschließend wieder in den indischen Kolonien tätig, arbeitete er zunächst vorwiegend in der Verwaltung der East India Company. 1814 ernennt ihn die Kolonialregierung zum Direktor des Botanischen Gartens von Kalkutta. Aber schon ein Jahr später kehrte er für immer nach Schottland zurück. Nach den Tod seines ältesten Bruders fiel das mütterliche Erbe an ihn. Dadurch wurde er auch zum Oberhaupt des Hamilton-Clans und führte fortan den zusätzlichen Namen Hamilton. Francis Hamilton (vormals Buchanan) starb im Alter von 67 Jahren auf „Branziet“, seinem Geburtshaus. Literatur Francis Hamilton: An Account of the Fishes found in the River Ganges and its branches. Edinburgh & London 1822 D. Prain: A sketch of the life of Francis Hamilton (once Buchanan) sometime Superintendent of the Honourable Company's Botanic Garden, Calcutta. In: Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden. Band 10, Nr. 2, S. (1), I–LXXV, Calcutta 1905 Leslie Stephen (Herausgeber): Dictionary of national Biography. Band VII, S. 186, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1886" [Quelle: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Buchanan-Hamilton. -- Zugriff am 2010-10-28. -- Creative Commons Lizenz (Nennung, share alike)]

³ William Hunter

"HUNTER, WILLIAM, M.D. (1755–1812), orientalist, was born at Montrose in 1755, and was educated at the Marischal College and university of Aberdeen, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1777. He began his career with mechanical contrivances, and an improvement of the screw invented by him was dignified by notice in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ in 1780 (Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. ii. p. 627; Phil. Trans. lxxi. 58). After serving as apprentice to a surgeon for four years, he became doctor on board an East Indiaman; but, on his arrival in India in 1781, was transferred to the company's service. In July 1782 he was medical officer on board the Success galley, which was employed to convey reinforcements from Bengal to the Carnatic. The ship was dismasted by a storm, and obliged to put into the river Syriam in Pegu, where it was detained for a month. In the interval Hunter gathered materials for his ‘Concise Account of the Kingdom of Pegu, its Climate, Produce, … the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants.… With an appendix containing an enquiry into the cause of the variety observable in the fleeces of sheep in different climates. To which is added a description of the Caves at Elephanta, Ambola, and Canara,’ Calcutta, 1785, 8vo; Lond. 1789, 12mo. This book obtained considerable popularity, and was translated into French by L. L——(i.e. Langlès) in 1793. Hunter was (according to Dodwell and Miles, East India Medical Officers) gazetted an assistant-surgeon in the company's service at Bengal 6 April 1783, and surgeon 21 Oct. 1794. For some time he was surgeon to the British residency at Agra, and accompanied the resident, Major Palmer, in his march with Madhuji Sindhia from Agra to Oujein and back. Of this expedition, which lasted from 23 Feb. 1792 to 21 April 1793, Hunter gave a detailed account in vol. vi. of the ‘Asiatic Researches.’ From 1794 to 1806 he held the post of surgeon to the marines. During two periods (from 17 May 1798 to 6 March 1802, and from 4 April 1804 to 3 April 1811) he acted as secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. On the foundation of the college of Fort William in 1801, Hunter was appointed regular examiner in Persian and Hindustani, and in July 1807 he succeeded Lumsden as public examiner. On 1 Nov. 1805 he succeeded Rothman as secretary of the college, a post which he retained until his resignation in 1811. In 1808, being then surgeon at the general hospital of Bengal, he received the degree of M.D. from a Scottish university (East India Register, 1808, pt. ii. p. 102; 1809, pt. i. p. 101). On the conquest of Java from the Dutch in 1811, Hunter received the special appointment of superintendent-surgeon in the island and its territories. He died there in December 1812. Hunter was a foreign member of the Medical Society of London and an honorary member of the Academical Society of Sciences of Paris. He contributed to the ‘Asiatic Researches’ a number of scientific articles, chiefly botanical and astronomical. The latter comprise the results of his own observations and an ‘Account of the Labours of Jayasimha,’ the celebrated Hindu astronomer, with a detailed account of his observatory at Delhi. He also contributed an essay on ‘Some Artificial Caverns near Bombay’ to ‘Archæologia,’ 1785, published separately Lond. 1788, 12mo. In 1808 Hunter published at Calcutta his valuable Hindustani and English dictionary in two volumes, 4to. This work was based on a vocabulary drawn up for private use by Captain Joseph Taylor. For some years Hunter was engaged in forming a ‘Collection of Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases in Persian and Hindustani, with Translations.’ This work was left incomplete at his death, and was finished and published by his friend Captain Roebuck and by Horace Hayman Wilson in 1824 (Calcutta, 8vo). In the introduction Wilson eulogises Hunter's ‘distinguished learning and merit.’ Hunter was also the author of an ‘Essay on Diseases incident to Indian Seamen, or Lascars, on Long Voyages,’ five hundred copies of which were printed at the expense of the government, Calcutta, 1804, and reissued in 1824, both in fol. In 1805 Hunter compared with the original Greek and thoroughly revised the Hindustani New Testament by Mirza Mohummed Fitrut, Calcutta, 4to. He also superintended the publication of the ‘Mejmua Shemsi,’ a summary of the Copernican system of astronomy translated into Persian by Maulavi Abul Khwa (new edition, Calcutta, 1826, 8vo). The earliest attempt to form a dictionary of the Afghan language was made by Amir Muhammed of Peshawar in accordance with Hunter's advice. Hunter also contributed to the ‘Memoirs’ of the Medical Society (v. 349) a ‘History of an Aneurism of the Aorta;’ and to the ‘Transactions’ of the Linnean Society (ix. 218) a paper ‘On Nauclea Gambir, the plant producing the drug called Gutta Gambier.’ [Asiatic Researches; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Roebuck's Annals of the College of Fort William; obituary notice in European Mag. for August 1813; Wilson's introduction to Hunter's Proverbs.] Edward James Rapson" [Quelle: Dictionary of Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28. -- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hunter,_William_%281755-1812%29_%28DNB00%29. -- Zugriff am 2010--10-28]

⁴ William Carey

Abb.: William Carey

"Carey (spr. kärĭ), William, engl. Missionar und Orientalist, geb. 12. Aug. 1761 in Paulersbury (Northamptonshire), gest. 9. Juni 1834, kam zu einem Schuhmacher in die Lehre, beschäftigte sich aber, durch die Kongregationalisten mächtig angeregt, nebenher eifrig mit theologischen Studien und wurde endlich in einer Dissentergemeinde Prediger. 1793 ging er, von einer Baptistenmissionsgesellschaft unterstützt, nach Kalkutta, erlangte hier eine gründliche Kenntnis des Sanskrit und Bengali, setzte auch seine Missionsarbeiten eifrig fort und übersetzte die Bibel in das Bengali. Mit andern Missionaren wandte er sich 1800 nach Serampur bei Kalkutta, wo er eine Buchdruckerei gründete und 1806 seine »Sanskrit-Grammatik« sowie mit I. Marshman zwei Bücher des großen Heldengedichts »Râmâyana« in Text und Übersetzung (1806–10) veröffentlichte. Zugleich organisierte und leitete er eine Anstalt für Übersetzung der Bibel in die verschiedenen Dialekte Indiens, die in wenigen Jahren 32 Übersetzungen, darunter 25 von ihm allein gemachte, herausgab. Dabei fand Carey noch Zeit, außer kleinern (landwirtschaftlichen, geographischen und linguistischen) Schriften eine »Bengali grammar« (1805) und ein bengalisches Lexikon (1825–27, 3 Bde.) herauszugeben, den Druck des tibetischen Lexikons des Missionars Schröder zu leiten und die erste birmanische Grammatik (1814) zu schreiben. Gleichzeitig wirkte er als Professor des Sanskrit am College des Fort William in Kalkutta und nahm noch wenige Jahre vor seinem Tode tätigen Anteil an der Errichtung und Leitung des Kollegiums von Serampur für Erziehung der Söhne von Europäern in Indien. Sein »Memoir« erschien 1836 in London. Sein Leben beschrieben G. Smith (Lond. 1834, neue Ausg. 1887) und Culroß (das. 1881)." [Quelle: Meyers großes Konversations-Lexikon. -- DVD-ROM-Ausg. Faksimile und Volltext der 6. Aufl. 1905-1909. -- Berlin : Directmedia Publ. --2003. -- 1 DVD-ROM. -- (Digitale Bibliothek ; 100). -- ISBN 3-89853-200-3. -- s.v.]