Jean François Pons (1688–1752) was a French

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

who pioneered the study of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

in the West. He published a survey of

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as ...

in 1743, where he described the language as "admirable for its harmony, copiousness, and energy", reporting on the parsimony of the native grammatical tradition, informing the works of de Brosses, Dow, Sinner,

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—e ...

, Monboddo, Halhed, Beauzée, and Hervás, and was plagiarized by John Cleland (1778).

References

*Rosane Rocher, "Discovery of Sanskrit by Europeans" in ''Concise history of the language sciences from the Sumerians to the cognitivists'', E. F. K. Koerner & R. E. Asher (eds.), 1995, p. 188. *Rosane Rocher, ''Lord Monboddo, Sanskrit and Comparative Linguistics'', Journal of the American Oriental Society (1980). * H.W. Bodewitz, ''De late ‘ontdekking’ van het Sanskrit en de Oudindische cultuur in Europa'', Leiden University thesis (2002

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pons, Jean-Francois 18th-century French Jesuits French philologists French Indologists 1688 births 1752 deaths