Sir William Jones(1746–1794)

British jurist and philologist who served as a judge in Calcutta and became one of the most influential early European scholars of South Asia. He founded the Asiatick Society and promoted comparative study of languages, law, and literature. His translations and essays profoundly shaped nineteenth-century European understandings—both scholarly and colonial—of Indian traditions.

Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Reading) & Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading & Library)

1 title in the Cabinet

The Laws of Menu. Translated by Sir William Jones

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Institutes of Hindu law : or, The ordinances of Menu, according to the gloss of Cullu̓ca. Comprising the Indian system of duties, religious and civil

The Dial's edition: Precise edition unknown.

Sir William Jones's English rendering helped define how many 18th-century European readers first encountered Manu/Manusmṛti as a wide-ranging code of ethics, ritual practice, social order, and penance.

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Read by Emerson (see Emerson's Library), Thoreau (see Thoreau's Reading) & Thoreau (see Thoreau's Library)