A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.7

v1.c7.s2.7

The first Englishman who acquired a knowledge of Sanskrit was Charles Wilkins, who had been urged by Warren Hastings to take instruction from the Pandits in Benares, the chief seat of Indian learning. As the first-fruits of his Sanskrit studies he published in the year 1785 an English translation of the philosophical poem "Bhagavadgītā," which was the first time a Sanskrit book had been translated directly into a European language. Two years later there followed a translation of the book of fables, "Hitopadeśa," and in 1795 a translation of the Śakuntalā episode from the Mahābhārata. For his Sanskrit Grammar, which appeared in 1808, Sanskrit type was used for the first time in Europe, a type which he himself had carved and cast. He was also the first who occupied himself with Indian inscriptions and translated some of them into English.