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the Upaniṣads first made it into Latin through Anquetil-Duperron’s retranslation (1801-02; also into French but unpublished) of a Persian translation.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: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Web: http://people.smu.edu/slindqui<http://faculty.smu.edu/slindqui> From: INDOLOGY <[email protected]> on behalf of Nemec, John William (jwn3y) via INDOLOGY <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 8:51 AM To: Indology <[email protected]> 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 [email protected] https://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec
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