author
A. C. (Arthur Coke) Burnell
1840–1882
A gifted Sanskrit scholar and civil servant in British India, he is remembered for tracking down and cataloguing South Indian manuscripts and for helping shape the classic Anglo-Indian glossary Hobson-Jobson. His work connected administration, language study, and manuscript history in a way that still interests readers of Indian and colonial history.
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About the author
Born in Gloucestershire in 1840, Arthur Coke Burnell was educated at Bedford School and King’s College London before joining the Indian Civil Service and going to Madras in 1860. Alongside his official duties in the Madras Presidency, he developed a deep scholarly interest in Sanskrit and the languages and scripts of southern India.
Burnell became known for his work on Sanskrit manuscripts, especially in South India and in the collections at Tanjore. He studied Indian paleography, edited and translated important texts, and built a reputation as a careful and energetic orientalist scholar. He is also remembered as the co-compiler, with Henry Yule, of Hobson-Jobson, the well-known glossary of Anglo-Indian words and phrases.
His health was poor for much of his life, and he died in 1882 at only forty-two. Even so, his career left a lasting mark on the study of South Asian manuscripts, languages, and textual history.