The Gardez Ganesha is a statue of the Hindu god Ganesha , discovered in Gardez , near Kabul in Afghanistan . It is considered as "a typical product of the Indo-Afghan school". It was dedicated by a king named Khingal .
41-430: D.C. Sircar has dated the statue to the 6th-7th century CE, and more precisely 7th century CE based on the paleography of the inscription on its base. Some authors have attributed the statue to the transitional period between Kushan art to Gupta art , to the 5th or even 4th century CE. The statue of Ganesha from Gardez is now attributed to the period of Turk Shahis in the 7-8th century CE, rather than to their successors
82-554: A French translation of a work originally written in Persian by Mirza Mehdi Khan Astarabadi . This was done at the request of King Christian VII of Denmark : he had visited Jones, who by the age of 23 had already acquired a reputation as an orientalist , and in appreciation of his work he was granted membership in the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters . This would be the first of numerous works on Persia , Anatolia , and
123-551: A letter published in French (1771), that the translator Anquetil-Duperron had been duped, that the Parsis of Surat had palmed off upon him a conglomeration of worthless fabrications and absurdities. In England, Jones was supported by Richardson and Sir John Chardin; in Germany, by Meiners. Anquetil-Duperron was labelled an impostor who had invented his own script to support his claim. This debate
164-568: A proto-language uniting Sanskrit, Iranian, Greek, Latin, Germanic and Celtic, but in many ways, his work was less accurate than his predecessors, as he erroneously included Egyptian , Japanese and Chinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindustani and Slavic . Jones also suggested that Sanskrit "was introduced [to north India] by conquerors from other kingdoms in some very remote age" displacing "the pure Hindi" of north India. Nevertheless, Jones's third annual discourse before
205-637: A scholar of ancient India . He is particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indo-Aryan languages , which later came to be known as the Indo-European languages . Jones also founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta in 1784 and continued to expand his knowledge of Eastern languages, particularly Sanskrit , at the University of Nadiya. William Jones
246-517: A stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a similar reason, though not quite so forcible, for supposing that both the Gothic and the Celtic , though blended with
287-552: A very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit ; and the old Persian might be added to the same family. This common source came to be known as Proto-Indo-European . Jones was the first to propose the concept of an " Aryan invasion " into the Indian subcontinent , which according to Jones led to a lasting ethnic division in India between descents of indigenous Indians and those of
328-756: Is known from the dynasty of the Alchon Huns , and one of his coins has the legend " Deva Shahi Khingila " ( [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] "God-King Khingila"), but he is dated quite earlier, to the 5th century CE. Given the stylistically probable mid-8th century date for the Ganesha, the Śrī Ṣāhi Khiṃgāla of the inscription may have been identical with the Turk Shahi ruler of Kabul known in Arab sources as Khinkhil or Khingala , who, according to Al-Yakubhi , gave his submission to Al-Mahdi in 775–785. The Khinkhil of
369-578: The American Revolution in concert with Benjamin Franklin in Paris, and ran for the post of Member of Parliament from Oxford in the general election of 1780, but was unsuccessful. Jones was a radical political thinker, a friend of American independence. His work, The principles of government; in a dialogue between a scholar and a peasant (1783), was the subject of a trial for seditious libel (known as
410-524: The Asiatic Society (1786) he suggested that Sanskrit , Greek and Latin languages had a common root, and that indeed they might all be further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages , as well as to Persian . Although his name is closely associated with this observation, he was not the first to make it. In the 16th century, European visitors to India became aware of similarities between Indian and European languages and as early as 1653,
451-730: The Case of the Dean of St Asaph ) after it was reprinted by his brother-in-law William Davies Shipley . He was appointed puisne judge to the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta, Bengal , on 4 March 1783, and on 20 March he was knighted . In April 1783 he married Anna Maria Shipley, the eldest daughter of Jonathan Shipley , Bishop of Llandaff and Bishop of St Asaph . Anna Maria used her artistic skills to help Jones document life in India. On 25 September 1783 he arrived in Calcutta . In
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#1732852768333492-680: The Chinese were originally Hindus belonging to the Kshatriya caste. Jones, in his 1772 Essay on the Arts called Imitative , was one of the first to propound an expressive theory of poetry, valorising expression over description or imitation: "If the arguments, used in this essay, have any weight, it will appear, that the finest parts of poetry, music, and painting, are expressive of the passions...the inferior parts of them are descriptive of natural objects". He thereby anticipated Wordsworth in grounding poetry on
533-617: The Hindu Shahis (9th-10th century) as formerly suggested. The datation is essentially based on stylistic analysis, as the displays great iconographical and stylistic similarities with the works of the Buddhist monastery of Fondukistan , which is also dated to the same period. The statue of Ganesha is also considered as contemporary to the famous Hindu statue of Surya in tunic and boots discovered in Khair Khaneh near Kabul, also attributed to
574-650: The Subcontinent he was entranced by Indian culture , an as-yet untouched field in European scholarship, and on 15 January 1784 he founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta . He studied the Vedas with Rāmalocana, a pandit teaching at the Nadiya Hindu university, becoming a proficient Sanskritist. Jones kept up a ten-year correspondence on the topic of jyotisa or Hindu astronomy with fellow orientalist Samuel Davis . He learnt
615-509: The nom de plume Youns Uksfardi (یونس اوکسفردی, "Jones of Oxford"). This pen name can be seen on the inner front cover of his Persian Grammar published in 1771 (and in subsequent editions). He died in Calcutta on 27 April 1794 at the age of 47 and is buried in South Park Street Cemetery . Jones is known today for his propositions about relationships between the Indo-European languages . In his Third Anniversary Discourse to
656-679: The Arabs may also be identical with the Turk Shahi Bo Fuzhun (勃匐準) of the Chinese sources, which mention that he was the son of Fromo Kesaro and acceded to the throne precisely in 745 CE. Dineshchandra Sircar Dineshchandra Sircar (1907–1985), also known as D. C. Sircar or D. C. Sarkar , was an epigraphist , historian, numismatist and folklorist , known particularly in India and Bangladesh for his work deciphering inscriptions. He
697-459: The Aryans. This idea fell into obscurity due to a lack of evidence at the time, but was later taken up by amateur Indologists such as the colonial administrator Herbert Hope Risley . Jones also propounded theories that might appear peculiar today but were less so in his time. For example, he believed that Egyptian priests had migrated and settled down in India in prehistoric times. He also posited that
738-598: The Asiatic Society on the history and culture of the Hindus (delivered on 2 February 1786 and published in 1788) with the famed "philologer" passage is often cited as the beginning of comparative linguistics and Indo-European studies . The Sanscrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek , more copious than the Latin , and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them
779-557: The Dutch scholar Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for Germanic , Romance , Greek , Baltic , Slavic , Celtic and Iranian . Finally, in a memoir sent to the French Academy of Sciences in 1767 Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux , a French Jesuit who spent all his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the existing analogy between Sanskrit and European languages. In 1786 Jones postulated
820-657: The Honourable Sir William Jones. Containing a Retrospective Survey of the Progress of Science, and the Mohammedan Conquests in Asia . Arthur Schopenhauer referred to one of Sir William Jones's publications in §1 of The World as Will and Representation (1819). Schopenhauer was trying to support the doctrine that "everything that exists for knowledge, and hence the whole of this world, is only object in relation to
861-638: The Middle East in general. In 1770, Jones joined the Middle Temple and studied law for three years, a preliminary to his life-work in India. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 30 April 1772. In 1773, he was elected a member of The Club , of which he became president in 1780. He spent some time as a circuit judge in Wales, and then became involved in politics: he made a fruitless attempt to resolve
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#1732852768333902-559: The Sperm Whale's brow? I put that brow before you. Read it if you can. Edgar Allan Poe 's short story " Berenice " starts with a motto, the first half of a poem, by Ibn Zaiat: Dicebant mihi sodales si sepulchrum amicae visitarem, curas meas aliquantulum fore levatas. It was taken from the works of William Jones, and here is the missing part (from Complete Works, Vol. 2, London, 1799): Dixi autem, an ideo aliud praeter hoc pectus habet sepulchrum? My companions said to me, if I would visit
943-521: The Turk Shahis in the 7-8th century CE. Archaeologically, the construction of the Khair Khaneh temple itself is now dated to 608-630 CE, at the beginning of the Turk Shahis period. Brahmanism seems to have flourished to some extent under the Turk Shahis, who were primarily supporters of Buddhism, with various works of art also attributed to their period of the 7-8th century CE. After its discovery in Gardez,
984-501: The Vedânta school consisted not in denying the existence of matter, that is solidity, impenetrability, and extended figure (to deny which would be lunacy), but in correcting the popular notion of it, and in contending that it has no essence independent of mental perception; that existence and perceptibility are convertible terms." Schopenhauer used Jones's authority to relate the basic principle of his philosophy to what was, according to Jones,
1025-435: The ancient concept of Hindu Laws from Pandit Jagannath Tarka Panchanan . Over the next ten years, he would produce a flood of works on India, launching the modern study of the subcontinent in virtually every social science. He also wrote on the local laws, music, literature, botany, and geography, and made the first English translations of several important works of Indian literature. Sir William Jones sometimes also went by
1066-458: The basis of a Romantic subjectivity. Jones was a contributor to Hyde's Notebooks during his term on the bench of the Supreme Court of Judicature. The notebooks are a valuable primary source of information for life in late 18th-century Bengal, and are the only remaining source for the proceedings of the Supreme Court. After reaching Calcutta, Jones was unhappy with the appointed pandits of
1107-408: The court, who were tasked with interpreting the laws of Hinduism and contributing to judgements. After a number of cases in which different pandits came up with different rulings, Jones determined to thoroughly learn Sanskrit so that he could independently interpret the original sources. Jones's final judicial project was suggesting and leading the compilation of a Sanskrit "digest of Hindu Law," with
1148-487: The first translation of the Avesta scriptures arose. It was the first evidence of an Indo-European language as old as Sanskrit to be translated into a modern European language. It was suggested that the so-called Zend-Avesta was not the genuine work of the prophet Zoroaster , but was a recent forgery. Foremost among the detractors, it is to be regretted, was the distinguished (though young) orientalist William Jones. He claimed, in
1189-502: The god of sport, who creates the game of chess as a gift for Mars to win Caissa's favour. Mars wins her over with the game. Caissa has since been characterised as the "goddess" of chess, her name being used in several contexts in modern chess playing. Thomas Maurice (1754–1824) published An Elegiac Poem in 1795; full title: An Elegiac and Historical Poem: Sacred to the Memory and Virtues of
1230-667: The most important underlying proposition of Vedânta. He made more passing reference to Sir William Jones's writings elsewhere in his works. On 28 September 1822, the Dutch orientalist Hendrik Arent Hamaker , who accepted a professorship at the University of Leiden , gave his inaugural lecture in Latin De vita et meritis Guilielmi Jonesii (The Life and Works of William Jones)(Leiden, 1823). Herman Melville 's Moby-Dick mentions William Jones in Chapter 79, "The Prairie": Champollion deciphered
1271-403: The original plan of translating the work himself. After his death, the translation was completed by Henry Thomas Colebrooke . Jones said that "either the first eleven chapters of Genesis ... are true, or the whole fabrick [sic] of our national religion is false, a conclusion which none of us, I trust, would wish to be drawn." (1788, 225) He also said that "I... am obliged of course to believe
Gardez Ganesha - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-456: The others independently. This biographical article about an Indian historian is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . William Jones (philologist) Sir William Jones FRS FRAS FRSE (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a Welsh philologist , orientalist and a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal , and
1353-513: The sanctity of the venerable books [of Genesis]." (1788, 225) Jones "traced the foundation of the Indian empire above three thousand eight hundred years from now" (Jones, 1790). Jones thought it was important that this date would be between Archbishop Ussher 's Creation date of 4004 BC and the Great Flood that Jones considered to have been in 2350 BC. In Europe a discussion as to the authenticity of
1394-855: The statue was transferred to the Hindu temple of Dargah Pir Rattan Nath in Kabul, near the Pamir Cinema. The inscription appears on the base of the statue. It is written in the Siddhamatrika script, a development of the Brahmi script , or in proto- Sharada script : An analysis of the writing suggests a date from the 6th or 8th century CE. 1. sarṃvatsare aṣṭatame saṃ 8 jyeṣṭha-māsa-śukla-pakṣa-tithau ttrayodaśyāṃ śu di 10-3 rikṣe viśākhe śubhe siṃhe[citra-] 2. [-ke] mahat pratiṣṭhāpitam idaṃ māha-vināyaka paramabhaṭṭeraka mahārājādhirāja-śri-ṣāhi-khiṃgālauḍyāna-ṣāhi-pādaiḥ. On
1435-580: The subject, perception of the perceiver, in a word, representation." He quoted Jones's original English: ... how early this basic truth was recognized by the sages of India since it appears as the fundamental tenet of the Vedânta philosophy ascribed to Vyasa , is proved by Sir William Jones in the last of his essays: "On the Philosophy of the Asiatics" ( Asiatic Researches , vol. IV, p. 164): "The fundamental tenet of
1476-596: The thirteenth day of the bright half of the month of Jyestha, the [lunar] mansion being the Visakha, at the auspicious time when the zodiacal sign Lion was bright on the horizon (lagna), in the year eight, this great [image] of the Mahavinayaka was consecrated by the supreme lord, the great king, the king of the kings, the Sri Shahi Khiṃgāla, the king of Odyana.. The identity of this Khingala is uncertain. A famous Khingila
1517-447: The wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man's and every being's face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of
1558-494: Was aged three, and his mother Mary Nix Jones raised him. He was sent to Harrow School in September 1753 and then went on to University College, Oxford . He graduated there in 1768 and became M.A. in 1773. Financially constrained, he took a position tutoring the seven-year-old Lord Althorp , son of Earl Spencer . For the next six years he worked as a tutor and translator. During this time he published Histoire de Nader Chah (1770),
1599-529: Was born in London; his father William Jones (1675–1749) was a mathematician from Anglesey in Wales, noted for introducing the use of the symbol π . The young William Jones was a linguistic prodigy , who in addition to his native languages English and Welsh, learned Greek , Latin , Persian , Arabic , Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age. By the end of his life, he knew eight languages with critical thoroughness. Jones's father died when he
1640-457: Was not settled for almost a century. In 1763, at the age of 17, Jones wrote the poem Caissa in English, based on a 658-line poem called "Scacchia, Ludus" published in 1527 by Marco Girolamo Vida , giving a mythical origin of chess that has become well known in the chess world. In the poem, the nymph Caissa initially repels the advances of Mars , the god of war. Spurned, Mars seeks the aid of
1681-1026: Was the Chief Epigraphist of the Archaeological Survey of India (1949–1962), Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture at the University of Calcutta (1962–1972) and the General President of the Indian History Congress . In 1972, Sircar was awarded the Sir William Jones Memorial Plaque. Sircar was born in Krishnanagar in 1907, which is in present day West Bengal (India). He authored more than forty books both in Bengali and English . Some of his best known books include: He edited Epigraphia Indica volumes XXVIII to XXXVI, three of them jointly and