Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (25 May 1826 – 7 November 1906) was an English Indologist. He was a member of the Indian education service, and was among the first Europeans to translate the

Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

into English. He had lived in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

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

, and in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

Life

Griffith was born at Corsley,

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, on 25 May 1826. The son of the Reverend R. C. Griffith (Chaplain to the Marquess of Bath 1830), he was educated at Warminster School, Uppingham School, and Queen's College, Oxford, where he graduated BA and was elected Boden Professor of Sanskrit on Nov 24, 1849."Griffith, Ralph Thomas Hotchkin"
''Who Was Who'', online edition by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1 December 2007 The Boden Sanskrit professorship had been established in 1832 with money bequeathed to the university by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Boden to assist in the conversion of the people of India to Christianity. Griffith took up this objective and translated the

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...

scriptures into English. He also produced translations of other Sanskrit literature, including a verse version of the

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

and the Kumara Sambhava of Kalidasa. He held the position of principal at the Benares College in India and later lived in Kotagiri, Nilgiri. Griffith was more interested in translating Vedic books into English, and did most of his translations while living, teaching and researching in

Kotagiri Kotagiri is a hill station and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the India, Indian state, Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiri hills have been the traditional home of the "Kota" tribes. The name 'Kota-giri' itself means 'mountains of the kotas'. ...

in the Nilgiris. His translation of the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

follows the text of

Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born British comparative philologist and oriental studies, Orientalist. He was one of the founders of the Western academic disciplines of Indology and religious s ...

's six-volume Sanskrit edition. His readings generally follow the work of the great scholar Sayana, who was Prime Minister at the court of the King of Vijaynagar in what is now the District of Bellary in the

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 ...

n state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

during the fourteenth century. On his retirement he withdrew to

, a hill station, some 7000 feet high, in the

Nilgiris district The Nīlgiris district is one of the 38 List of districts of Tamil Nadu, districts in the South India, southern Indian States and union territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. Nilgiri () is the name given to a range of mountains spread acro ...

, residing with his brother Frank, an engineer in the public works department of the Bombay presidency, who had settled there in 1879. At Kotagiri he tranquilly engaged in the study and translation of the Vedas. He died on 7 November 1906, and was buried there.

Works

Copies of his translation of the

, Samaveda, Yajur Veda,

Atharvaveda The Atharvaveda or Atharva Veda (, , from ''wikt:अथर्वन्, अथर्वन्'', "priest" and ''wikt:वेद, वेद'', "knowledge") or is the "knowledge storehouse of ''wikt:अथर्वन्, atharvans'', the proced ...

and

are available on the internet. *''The Ramayan of Valmiki'' (published 1870)
''read online''
*''Hymns of the Rigveda'' (published 1889)

*''Hymns of the Samaveda'' (published 1893)

*''Hymns of the Atharvaveda'' (published 1896)

*''The Texts of the White Yajurveda'' (published 1899)

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Ralph T.H. 1826 births 1906 deaths English Indologists Fellows of the University of Calcutta People educated at Lord Weymouth's Grammar School People educated at Uppingham School