Franklin Edgerton (July 24, 1885 – December 7, 1963) was an American

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

scholar. He was Salisbury Professor 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 ...

and Comparative Philology at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

(1926) and

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Benares Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a Collegiate university, collegiate, Central university (India), central, and Research university, research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and fou ...

(1953–4). Between 1913 and 1926, he was the Professor of Sanskrit at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. He is well known for his exceptionally

literal translation Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is the translation of a text done by translating each word separately without analysing how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence. In translation theory, anoth ...

of the

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

which was published as volume 38-39 of the Harvard Oriental Series in 1944. He also edited the parallel edition of four recensions of the ''Simhāsana Dvātrṃśika'' ("32 Tales of the Throne", also known as ''Vikrama Charita'': "Adventures of Vikrama"), and a reconstruction of the (lost) original Sanskrit text of the ''

Panchatantra The ''Panchatantra'' ( IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, , "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.

''. Edgerton was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1920, the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1935.

Publications

* Edgerton, Franklin (1924). ''Panchatantra reconstructed''. 2 Volumes. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society. , * Edgerton, Franklin (1926). ''Vikrama's Adventures''. Harvard Oriental Series, Volumes 26 & 27. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. , * Edgerton, Franklin (1931
The elephant-lore of the Hindus
Yale University Press. *Edgerton, Franklin (1944) The Bhagavad Gita, Translated and interpreted from the Sanskrit, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass. * Edgerton, Franklin (1953). Buddhist hybrid sanskrit grammar and dictionary, Vol. 1
Grammar
New Haven: Yale University Press * Edgerton, Franklin (1953). Buddhist hybrid sanskrit grammar and dictionary, Vol. 2
Dictionary
New Haven: Yale University Press * Edgerton, Franklin (1965). The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy: Selections from the Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Upanisads, and Mahabharata, Translated from the Sanskrit with an Introduction, notes, and glossarial index. Harvard University Press & George Allen & Unwin London

References

External links

Franklin Edgerton
at

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Franklin Edgerton
at

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Franklin Edgerton Papers (MS 1720).
Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. 1885 births 1963 deaths Translators to Sanskrit Translators of the Bhagavad Gita Linguistic Society of America presidents 20th-century American translators American Sanskrit scholars Yale University faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty 20th-century American linguists {{US-linguist-stub Members of the American Philosophical Society Panchatantra