Robert Caesar Childers (12 February 1838 – 25 July 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first

Pāli Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Buddhi ...

- English dictionary. Childers was the husband of

Anna Barton Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221) ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was the father of

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of ...

Erskine Childers and grandfather to the fourth

President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...

Erskine Hamilton Childers Erskine Hamilton Childers (11 December 1905 – 17 November 1974) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the fourth president of Ireland from June 1973 to November 1974. He is the only Irish president to have died in office. He also ...

Early life and marriage

He was born in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Piedmont-Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

, the son of Canon Charles Childers, chaplain to the English colony in Nice. His grandmother was Selina Eardley. In 1857, at the age of nineteen, he began the study of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Wadham College Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy ...

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, graduating in 1861. After some travels in

, he soon married Anna Barton of Glendalough House. The Bartons of

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

,Barton Collection, Wicklow County Archives

, were a very wealthy and respected family in Irish farming and politics.

Pali dictionary

Grave of Robert Childers in Highgate Cemetery

He then moved to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

for an official position in the civil service. During this period he studied

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language Sinhala ( ; , ''siṁhala'', ), sometimes called Sinhalese (), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language prima ...

culture, particularly the

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...

language. In 1869 he published the first Pali text in Britain, and began to work on a Pali dictionary, which was published 1872–75. In 1872 he was appointed sub-librarian at the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of ...

, and in the following year he became the first professor of Pali and

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

literature at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1876 Childers' dictionary was awarded the Volney Prize by the Institute of France. He died at the age of 38 in London the same year, apparently having succumbed to tuberculosis which had been troubling him for many years, and which grew worse after Childers contracted a cold in the early part of the year.- Childers, Robert Cæsar by Thomas William Rhys Davids
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 10, Wikisource He is buried with his wife Anna on the western side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

References

Sources

*http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/faclib/archive/rhys-index.html Rhys Davids Archives at Cambridge. Letters from Childers. *http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/frontmatter.html *http://www.quangduc.com/English/revival.htm *https://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/world/country/001-india.htm *
VII. Professor Robert Caesar Childers
a chapter of "From the Living Fountains of Buddhism" by Ananda W. P. Guruge {{DEFAULTSORT:Childers, Robert Caesar 1838 births 1876 deaths British Indologists Pali Irish Buddhists Robert Caesar English people of Portuguese-Jewish descent British scholars of Buddhism Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Academics of University College London Burials at Highgate Cemetery