Vincent Arthur Smith (3 June 1843 – 6 February 1920) was an Irish Indologist, historian, member of the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British Raj, British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 3 ...

, and curator. He was one of the prominent figures in Indian historiography during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. In the 1890s, he was key to exposing the forgeries of Alois Anton Führer, then working for the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

, who Smith caught in the act of making fake inscriptions.

Biography

Smith was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

on 3 June 1843 which was then part of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

. His father was

Aquilla Smith Aquilla Smith (28 April 1806 – 23 March 1890) was a highly regarded medical doctor, numismatist and archaeologist. He represented the Irish College of Physicians on the General Medical Council for almost forty years, and was an authority on Ir ...

, well known in medical and numismatic circles in Dublin and London. After graduating from

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

, he passed the final examination for the

in 1871, at "the head of the list", and served in what is now

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

until 1900, in the regular ICS roles, rising to the post of Chief Secretary to the government in 1898, becoming a Commissioner the same year. Throughout this period he was a prolific writer on Indian history, and finally left the service early to devote more time to this, in 1900, returning to England. Moving first to

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

, by 1910 Smith was settled 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 ...

where he joined St John's College and was appointed a Curator of the Indian Institute. Following his retirement, Smith wrote several monographs on Indian history. These included two monographs on the emperors

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

and

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

respectively, which he went on to revise several times, updating them to reflect new research and information. He also wrote and published two comprehensive volumes on Indian history, ''The Early History of India'' and ''The Oxford History of India,'' as well as a book about the history of fine arts in India and Sri Lanka. Smith was honoured with the award of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire and awarded a doctorate by

in 1919. He died in Oxford on 6 February 1920.

Works

* ''General index to the reports of the Archaeological Survey of India: Volumes I to XXIII, with a glossary and general table of contents'', Simla, Government Central Press, 1887. - Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1969 * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1893). Editor of William Henry Sleeman'sbr>''Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official Volume 1''''Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official Volume 2''
Westminster Reprint edition of the 1893 (2 volumes) * Preface to Purna Chandra Mukherji: ''A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities of Kapilavastu Tarai of Nepal during February and March, 1899'', Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1901; Delhi Indological Book House, 1969. * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901)
''Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India''
1 ed. Oxford 1901; 3rd ed., Rulers of India series, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1920 * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1901)
''The Jain Stûpa and other antiquities of Mathurâ''
* "The Kushān, or Indo-Scythian, Period of Indian History, B.C. 165 to A.D. 320," pp. 1–64 in ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London)'', 1903. * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1903)
''The Indian civil service as a profession. A lecture delivered at Trinity College, Dublin, on June 10th, 1903''
* Smith, Vincent Arthur (1904)
''The Early History of India, from 600 B. C. to the Muhammadan conquest''
A revised fourth edition (1924) was edited by Stephen Edwardes. * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1906)
''Catalogue of the coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, including the cabinet of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: Volume 1''
The Early Foreign Dynasties and the Guptas, Oxford: Clarendon Press * * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1911)
''A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day'', First Edition

''A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day'', Second Edition revised by K Codrington, 1930

''A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day'', Third Edition revised and enlarged by Karl Khandalavala, 1962
* * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1919) Second and revised edition t
''François Bernier's Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656–1668'', 1914
* Smith, Vincent Arthur (1919)
''The Oxford history of India: from the earliest times to the end of 1911''
Oxford: Clarendon Press. The second edition (1923) was edited by Stephen Edwardes. * Smith, Vincent Arthur (1919)
''Indian constitutional reform, viewed in the light of history''
Oxford: University Press

Biography

Works

References

Further reading