__NOTOC__ Dimitrios Galanos or Demetrios Galanos (; 1760–1833) was the earliest recorded Greek Indologist. His translations of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

texts into Greek made knowledge of the philosophical and religious ideas of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

available to many

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

ans. Born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(present-day

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

) in 1760, he spent 47 years in India, where he translated many

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

sacred texts into Greek and compiled a Sanskrit-English-Greek

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of over 9000 words. He died on 3 May 1833 in

Varanasi Varanasi (, also Benares, Banaras ) or Kashi, is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.* * * * The city has a syncretic tradition of I ...

, India. He was buried in the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

cemetery there, and his tombstone is inscribed with the epitaph, "" ('in memory of Dimitrios Galanos the Athenian'). Munshi Sital Singh (a "wise Brahman" who was a friend and teacher of Galanos) wrote these verses in Hindustani, which he affixed above the tomb: "Woe, a hundred times! Dimitrios Galanos departed from this world to the eternal monads. Woe me! Weeping and wailing have I said it. I am out of myself. Ah, he has gone away, the Plato of this century) (Schulz 1969, p. 354). Preceded by a short remembrance in Persian, the following Greek dirge was also added by Ananias, curate to the Patriarch of Sinai: "Demetrios Galanos, the Athenian from Greece, died in the Indies. He was a friend of the Muses and a man of learning. He shone brightly in fame and vocation. He left this wearisome life and departed for a life without affiction and eternal. Out of gratitude, his nephew Pandoleon erects this cenotaph for his eternal memory" (Schulz 1969, p. 355). Galanos lived at

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

for 6 years. There he was teaching Greek language to the Greek community. Then, at 1793 he went to

and he started to translate ancient Indian scripts to Greek till his death. A "Dimitrios Galanos" Chair for Hellenic Studies was established at Jawaharlal Nehru University in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India in September 2000. An International Conference titled "Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018" was organized by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and was held in two phases, one – in New Delhi and the other – in Varanasi, in February, 2018. International Conference on "Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018

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Books by Demetrios Galanos

*Demetrios Galanos’ books edited by Georgios K.Typaldos are freely accessible in PDF format at th
Greek-Indian Digital Library
* Demetrios Galanos' Correspondence with Father Gregorios published in "Indiki Allilografia" by Ilias Tandalidis is freely accessible in PDF format at th
Greek-Indian Digital Library
*Galanos, Demetrios. ''LEXICON Sanskrit-English-Greek''. Konidaris Publications, Athens. (2010)

Notes

External links

Demetrios Galanos: Photo GalleryInternational Conference on “Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018”
Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts & Banaras Hindu University, New Delhi, Varanasi 2018.
Event “The research work of Indologist Miltiadis Spyrou and the unknown publications of Demetrios Galanos in India,”
Academy of Athens, 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Galanos, Dimitrios 1760 births 1833 deaths Writers from Athens Greek Indologists Greek translators

Books by Demetrios Galanos

Notes

Further reading

External links