author
Sir Monier Monier-Williams
1819–1899
A Victorian Sanskrit scholar and lexicographer, he helped shape how generations of English-speaking readers approached Indian languages and literature. Best known for his Sanskrit-English dictionary, he also spent decades teaching at Oxford and building the India Institute there.
1 Audiobook
Buddhism, in Its Connexion with Brahmanism and Hinduism, and in Its Contrast with Christianity
by Sir Monier Monier-Williams
About the author
Born in Bombay in 1819, Monier Monier-Williams grew up to become one of Britain’s best-known scholars of Sanskrit. He studied at Oxford, taught oriental languages early in his career, and in 1860 was elected Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, a post he held for the rest of his life.
He is remembered above all for his work as a lexicographer and interpreter of Indian texts for English readers. His Sanskrit-English dictionary became one of his most lasting achievements, and he also wrote widely on Indian religion, literature, and language. Alongside his scholarship, he played a leading role in founding the India Institute at Oxford, which was intended to support the study of South Asia.
Monier Monier-Williams died in 1899. Today he remains an important, if sometimes debated, figure in the history of Oriental studies: a prolific Victorian scholar whose books and reference works still echo through the study of Sanskrit.