Lancelot Wilkinson (22 June 1805 – 13 November 1841) was a British political officer and civil servant who worked in the service of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

in India in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

, in the Bombay Presidency. He was also an

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

, publishing translations of Indian works including the '' Siddhanta Shiromani'', an astronomical text, and ''

Vajrasuchi The ''Vajrasuchi Upanishad'' (, IAST: Vajrasūcī Upaniṣad) is an important Sanskrit text and an Upanishad of Hinduism. It is classified as one of the 22 Samanya (general) Upanishads, and identified as a Vedanta text. It is attached to the Sama ...

'', an ancient text against Brahminism.

Biography

Wilkinson was born in Crosby-Ravensworth, Cumbria, son of James and Nanny née Eggleston and went to India after receiving training at

Haileybury College Haileybury is a co-educational public school (fee-charging boarding and day school for 11- to 18-year-olds) located in Hertford Heath, Hertfordshire. It is a member of the Rugby Group and enrols pupils at the 11+, 13+ and 16+ stages of edu ...

. He started working in India Writer from 1822, an assistant to the collector of south Konkan from 1824, an assistant Resident at Nagpur from 1826, and lastly as a Political Agent in Bhopal from 1836. He was a proponent of education in Indian languages and opposed William Bentinck on anglicism. He interacted with Indian scholars and came to learn of Bhaskara's 12th century '' Siddhanta Shiromani'', an astronomical text and worked on translating it into English. He found it to be very advanced, with a heliocentric model which contrasted with the Puranas which promoted a geocentric, flat-earth view. Wilkinson worked with Bapu Deva Sastri (Narasimha Deva Paranjpe; 1821–1890) who he appointed from Pune to the

Benares Sanskrit College Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya (IAST: ; formerly Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya and Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi) is an Indian university and institution of higher learning located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It is one of t ...

. Wilkinson also wrote against female infanticide, supported widow remarriage and translated the ''

'', an anti-Brahminical text. Notable protégés of Wilkinson included

Subaji Bapu Subaji Bapu (IAST: Subājī Bāpū) was an early 19th-century Hindu astrologer (''jyotisha'') and astronomer from British India. Under the influence of the British civil servant Lancelot Wilkinson, he gave up his belief in Hindu cosmology, Puran ...

, Omkar Bhatt, and Bapudeva Sastri.

References

External links

Wujra Soochi
{{authority control British Indologists 1805 births 1841 deaths People from Crosby Ravensworth People from Bombay Presidency British people in colonial India