The Works of Sir William Jones
With the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth

The complete thirteen-volume works, with memoir, of the orientalist and poet Sir William Jones (1746–94), first published in 1807.

William Jones (Author), Lord Teignmouth (Edited by)

9781108055710, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 March 2013

460 pages, 8 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.6 cm, 0.58 kg

A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, influencing Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. Volume 4 of his thirteen-volume works, published in 1807, contains Jones' extensive Indic scholarship and translations published in British periodicals such as Asiatick Researches and The Asiatick Miscellany, and includes the unprecedented 'On the Musical Modes of the Hindus' (1792) and 'On the Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindus' (1791).

1. On the chronology of the Hindus
2. A supplement to the essay on Indian chronology
3. Note to Mr Vansittart's paper
4. On the antiquity of the Indian zodiak
5. On the literature of the Hindus, from the Sanscrit
6. On the second classical book of the Chinese
7. The lunar year of the Hindus
8. On the musical modes of the Hindus
9. On the mystical poetry of the Persians and Hindus
10. Gitagovinda, or the song of Jayadeva
11. Remarks upon the island of Hinzuan, or Johanna
12. A conversation with Abraham, an Abyssinian
13. On the course of the Nile
14. On the Indian game of chess
15. An Indian grant of land
16. Inscriptions on the staff of Firuz Shah
17. On the baya or Indian gros-beak
18. On the pangolin of Bahar
19. On the loris, or slow-paced lemur
20. On the cure of the elephantiasis
21. On the cure of the elephantiasis, and other disorders of the blood
22. Tales and fables, by Nizami.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]