author
Edward Washburn Hopkins
1857–1932
A pioneering American Sanskrit scholar, he helped introduce English-language readers to the literature, religion, and social history of ancient India. His work combined close philological study with a broad curiosity about epic tradition and religious thought.
1 Audiobook
The Religions of India Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
by Edward Washburn Hopkins
About the author
Born in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1857, Edward Washburn Hopkins studied at Columbia College and then at Leipzig, where he earned his Ph.D. He taught at Columbia and Bryn Mawr before joining Yale in 1895 as professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology.
Hopkins became one of the best-known American scholars of Sanskrit and ancient Indian civilization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He wrote widely on Indian religion, epic literature, and social life, with books including The Religions of India, The Great Epic of India, and Epic Mythology.
Remembered as a leading figure in early American Indology, he spent decades building the study of Sanskrit at Yale and contributing to the wider understanding of South Asian texts and traditions. He died in 1932.