CINTHE (1731-1805), French orientalist, brother of Louis Pierre Anquetil, the historian, was born in Paris. He was educated for the priesthood in Paris and Utrecht, but his taste for Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and other languages of the East, developed into a passion, and he discontinued his theological course to devote himself entirely to them. With the idea of reaching India to search for the works of Zoroaster he enlisted as a private soldier, on Nov. 2 1754, in the Indian expedition which was about to start from the port of L'Orient. His friends procured his dis charge, and he was granted a free passage, a seat at the captain's table, and a salary, the amount of which was to be fixed by the governor of the French settlement in India. After a passage of six months, Anquetil landed, on Aug. so 1755, at Pondicherry. Here he remained a short time to master modern Persian, and then hastened to Chandernagore to acquire Sanskrit.
War began between France and England, Chandernagore was taken, and Anquetil-Duperron returned to Pondicherry by land. He found one of his brothers at Pondicherry, and embarked with him for Surat; but, with the idea of exploring the country, he landed at Mahe and proceeded on foot. At Surat he succeeded, by perseverance and address in his intercourse with the native priests, in acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the Zend and Pehlevi languages to translate the liturgy called the Vendidqd Sade and some other works. Thence he proposed going to Benares, to study the language, antiquities, and sacred laws of the Hindus; but the capture of Pondicherry obliged him to quit India.
Returning to Europe in an English vessel, he spent some time in London and Oxford, and then set out for France. He arrived in Paris on March 14 1762, in possession of 180 oriental manu scripts. In 1763 he began to arrange for the publication of the materials he had collected during his eastern travels. In 1771 he published his Zend-Avesta, containing collections from the sacred writings of the fire-worshippers, a life of Zoroaster, and fragments of works ascribed to him. In 1778 he published at Amsterdam his Legislation orientale. His Recherches historiques et geog raphiques sur l'Inde appeared in 1786, and formed part of Thief fenthaler's Geography of India. The Revolution seems to have greatly affected him. During that period he abandoned society, and lived in voluntary poverty on a few pence a day. He died in Paris on Jan. 17 1805.
See the Biographie universelle; Sir William Jones, Works (vol. x., 1807) ; and the Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society (vol. iii., 1856 57) . For a list of his scattered writings see Querard, La France litteraire. See also his Oupanishads (1804).