A. C. Clayton was a British missionary and scholar who spent decades working in South India, developing deep expertise in Tamil culture, Dravidian religious practices, and Vedic studies. His work represents early 20th-century missionary scholarship that sought to understand Indian religious traditions.
Major Works
Clayton authored several significant works during his time in India:
- The Rig-Veda and Vedic Religion (1913) - A comprehensive introduction to Vedic literature and early Aryan religion
- The Paraiyan - Published in the Madras Government Museum Bulletin
- Gangai’s Pilgrimage - A literary work
- The Tamil Bible Dictionary - A reference work for Tamil-speaking Christians
The Rig-Veda and Vedic Religion
His most substantial scholarly contribution was The Rig-Veda and Vedic Religion (1913), published by the Christian Literature Society for India. This work was intended as a revised and expanded treatment of Dr. Murdoch’s earlier account of the Vedas, incorporating modern scholarship and interpretation methods available at the time.
Friedrich Max Müller was one of the most influential scholars of the 19th century, a towering figure in the fields of comparative philology, mythology, and religion. Though he never visited India, his work did more than perhaps any other single scholar’s to bring Sanskrit literature to Western attention.
The Rig Veda Edition
Müller’s crowning achievement was his critical edition of the Rig Veda with Sayana’s Sanskrit commentary, published in six volumes between 1849 and 1874. This monumental work, sponsored by the East India Company, made the oldest Hindu scriptures accessible to European scholars for the first time in a reliable text.
Harihar Das was an Indian scholar and biographer whose meticulous research and dedication rescued the poet Toru Dutt from comparative oblivion. Born in the village of Sidhipasa, Bengal, Das first encountered Toru Dutt’s poetry as a schoolboy when reading “Buttoo” in an examination textbook. This early encounter sparked a fascination that would shape his life’s work.
The Biography Project
Despite the passage of forty-three years since Toru Dutt’s death in 1877, no comprehensive biography of the remarkable poet existed when Das began his research in December 1911. Indian writers had traditionally neglected biography as a literary form, and Toru’s name was sinking into obscurity despite her extraordinary achievements in English, French, and Sanskrit literature.
Henry Beveridge was a Scottish historian and colonial administrator whose comprehensive histories of India remain valuable sources for understanding the subcontinent’s past. A distinguished member of the Bengal Civil Service, he combined administrative duties with serious historical scholarship.
A Comprehensive History of India
Beveridge’s most ambitious work was his three-volume A Comprehensive History of India, published in 1862. Written just five years after the Sepoy Mutiny, this sweeping narrative covered India from ancient times through the rebellion and its aftermath. The work is notable for:
Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri stands as one of the most distinguished historians of modern India and the preeminent authority on South Indian history. Born in 1892 in Tirunelveli district to a Telugu Niyogi family, Sastri dedicated his life to rigorous historical scholarship, producing works that continue to serve as standard references decades after their publication.
Academic Career
After completing his Master’s degree at Madras Christian College in 1913, Sastri began his teaching career at Hindu College, Tirunelveli. His brilliance soon earned him positions at India’s premier institutions: Banaras Hindu University (1920-1922), Madras University (1922-1946), and University of Mysore (1952-1955). From 1957 to 1972, he directed UNESCO’s Institute of Traditional Cultures of South East Asia, where he fostered international scholarship on Asian civilizations.
Maurice Bloomfield was one of America’s foremost Sanskrit scholars, whose meticulous philological work established lasting standards in Vedic studies. As Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at Johns Hopkins University for nearly half a century, he trained generations of scholars and produced foundational reference works.
The Vedic Concordance
Bloomfield’s greatest contribution to scholarship was his Vedic Concordance (1897), published as part of the Harvard Oriental Series. This exhaustive index of every phrase in Vedic literature remains an indispensable tool for scholars. The work’s painstaking accuracy and comprehensive coverage exemplified Bloomfield’s exacting scholarly standards.
Romesh Chunder Dutt, C.I.E. (Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire) was a pioneering Indian civil servant, historian, and translator who bridged Eastern and Western cultures through his scholarly work. A barrister-at-law and member of both the Royal Asiatic Society and the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Dutt dedicated his life to making Indian civilization, history, and literature accessible to English readers.
Literary Contributions
Dutt’s most enduring literary achievement is his translation work, which introduced English readers to the wealth of ancient Indian poetry. His Lays of Ancient India (1894) presented carefully selected passages spanning five distinct periods of Indian literary history:
Sophia Dobson Collet was an English author and dedicated scholar who devoted her life to preserving the story of Raja Rammohun Roy, the father of modern India. Despite being a lifelong invalid who collected materials and wrote portions of her work from her sickbed, she demonstrated remarkable determination and scholarly rigor.
The Biography Project
To be the biographer of Rammohun Roy was, for Miss Collet, “the supreme mission of life.” This passionate zeal was matched by the complete detachment of her outlook and a phenomenal capacity for collecting facts and verifying them. She spent years conducting patient research, gathering materials through long and laborious efforts.