author
A. C. (Arthur Coke) Burnell
1840–1882
A scholar-administrator in British India, he became one of the key early experts on Sanskrit manuscripts and South Indian scripts. He is still remembered for helping preserve rare texts and for co-compiling the classic Anglo-Indian glossary Hobson-Jobson.
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About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1840, Arthur Coke Burnell went to Madras in 1860 as a member of the Indian Civil Service. Alongside his official work, he devoted himself to studying Sanskrit and the languages and writing systems of South India.
Burnell is best known for cataloguing important manuscript collections in southern India, especially at Tanjore, and for collecting and copying Sanskrit manuscripts at a time when many were difficult to access. His Handbook of South Indian Palaeography became an important reference for reading and dating old South Indian inscriptions and manuscripts.
He also worked with Henry Yule on Hobson-Jobson, the famous dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases. Burnell died in 1882 at just 42, but his work left a lasting mark on Indology, manuscript studies, and the study of South Asian languages.