DIALOGUE OF CIVILIZATIONS: William Jones and the Orientalists

• Total Pages: xvi + 440
• Format: HB (Hardback)
• ISBN: 9788173053634
• Edition: 1st
• Publisher: Aryan Books International
• Book Size: 15 cm x 22 cm
• Year of Publication: 2009

Dialogue of Civilizations ? William Jones and the Orientalists is a sweeping account of the movement that began in 1784 by Warren Hastings ? the then Governor General of India, Sir William Jones, Halhed, Wilkins, Colebrooke, Prinsep, Wilson and others to rediscover the civilization of India. It is no small irony that this movement began in the heyday of a nascent imperialism and under the patronage of the East India Company. The authors describe how this happened, set against the turbulence of the times in India. The work of the early British scholars aroused the curiosity of scholars in Germany where Indology and Sanskrit studies rose to brilliant heights.The vast and comprehensive work of German scholars made Berlin the Benaras of India. Since Germany had no empire in India, German Indology was different in flavour and spirit from British Indology. Simultaneously Russian Indology developed on its own, with a growing sympathy for a nation of great heritage who was under alien rule. Their contribution to Indology in the nineteenth and twentieth century was formidable. Italy and Hungary too had their share of outstanding Indologists and Tibetologists.The authors give a comprehensive description of the contribution of these great scholars. The theory of civilization, its clashes, conflicts, and interactions is discussed at some length with erudition and originality. No other book has brought together all these diverse contributions to Indology and Orientalism with particular relevance to contemporary debates on the dialogue of civilizations.