William Jones. 1746-1794.

[Thanks: partly Wikipedia, partly ‘Orientalist Jones’, by M. J. Franklin, Oxford University Press, 2011].

Swamiji had read William Jones. His lecture in London on 7 May 1896, ‘History of the Aryan Race’, starts with Jones’ comment that many Sanskrit words were the same in Latin. [Further, Swamiji knew that the Lithuanian language had much in it from Sanskrit. In 1920s, see Antoine Meillet 1866-1936].

Jones: Calcutta high court judge. Brilliant linguist, poet, translator, scholar in various fields. He stated: Latin, Greek and Sanskrit were sister languages, there had to be a mother language somewhere. At 24 he wrote and had published a book of Persian grammar. Fluent in English, Welsh, Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, French, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Bengali, and in basic Chinese writing. Adequate in probably 5-10 more languages.

Jones was a radical political thinker.

Studied first at Oxford for a MA in 1768, then law at Middle Temple, London, 1770-1773. Practised as a ‘Circuit Judge’ in Wales. Worked with Benjamin Franklin in Paris on a failed attempt for a solution to the American Revolution in 1775. In 1780 he failed running as candidate for MP for Oxford (General election UK). In 1783 he was tried for seditious libel for his publication, ‘The Principles of Government; a dialogue between a scholar and a peasant’. Found ‘Not guilty’.

Aged 37, he is appointed as judge to the Supreme Court in Calcutta, where he arrived Sept 1783. This resulted in an automatic knighthood. Married Anna Shipley in the same year.  He founded the Asiatic Society in Jan 1784. He studied the Vedas under Ramalocana, at the Hindu University of Nadiya. He studied ancient Hindu laws under Hindu scholars. He made the first English translations of several Hindu classics. Fully versant with Islamic law too (having studied and translated Persian works), he published a range of articles on Asian and Indian culture. He composed poems in Sanskrit for evening gatherings with his Hindu friends, some of them writing poems too. Some 6 years after arriving in Calcutta, Jones made his translation of the Hindu play ‘Shakuntala’ (1789). Artur Schopenhauer (fluent in 12 languages) said of this work that it was written in the most beautiful English.

Schopenhauer (1788-1860) read the Upanishads (Forest Books – Hindu scriptures) every evening of life – he obtained a Latin copy when young. Schopenhauer had also studied Jones’ commentaries on the Vedas. It was Schopenhauer who discovered and realised the magnitude of these crystallising lines by Jones, also saying how early this basic truth was recognised by the ancient Hindu sages.

This ‘Basic Truth’ –

Jones crystallises Vedanta – 

‘The fundamental tenet of Vedanta: that matter is …  totally dependent on mental perception, furthermore, existence and a person’s perception are adjustable terms’. [Thank you Herr Schopenhauer. He was not a professor, he had no university position].

Kant – ‘It’s not the thing as such, it’s how you see it’. Kant, 1724-1806.

Swamiji – ‘Besides God, all things are merely relative’.                                                                    [Said on 8 Nov 1896. First Unitarian Church, Croydon, London, UK. This ‘Christian’ sermon in the main Sunday service was to 400 Christians!  Given at the invitation of the remarkable, free-thinking minister, Rev. John Hopps. Imagine the amazement of the Sunday worshippers as Swamiji walks up to the front, brown-skinned, blazing orange robe and turban with a crimson sash. The Rev. Hopps knew Swamiji would say something to enrich his parishoners. On 5 Sundays Swamiji gave 5 sermons in Rev. Hopps’ church. Book 5, Ch. 1]

[Few can compress the vastness of Vedanta into such words, by Jones. Tenet = handle/basic stance].