JONES, SIR WILLIAM British orientalist and jurist, was born in London on Sept. 28, 1746. He distinguished himself at Harrow, and for three years there studied oriental languages, teaching himself the rudiments of Arabic, and reading Hebrew. In 1764 Jones entered University college, Oxford, where he studied oriental literature; he also studied Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese and various European languages. In 1766 he obtained a fellowship. When Christian VII. of Denmark visited England in 1768, bringing with him a life of Nadir Shah in Per sian, Jones was requested to translate the ms. into French. The translation appeared in 177o. In 1771 he published a Dissertation sur la litterature orientale, defending Oxford scholars against the criticisms made by Anquetil Du Perron in the introduction to his translation of the Zend-Avesta. In 1774 a treatise entitled Poeseos Asiaticae commentatorium libri sex definitely confirmed his au thority as an oriental scholar. For financial reasons Jones began to study law, and was called to the bar in 1774. In 1776 he was appointed a commissioner in bankruptcy. Besides writing an Essay on the Law of Bailments, which enjoyed a high reputation both in England and America, Jones translated, in 1778, the speeches of Isaeus on the Athenian right of inheritance. In 1783 he was ap pointed judge of the supreme court of judicature at Calcutta, then "Fort William," and was knighted. He founded, in Jan. 1784, the Bengal Asiatic Society, of which he remained president till his death. Convinced of the importance of consulting the
Hindu legal authorities in the original, he began the study of Sanskrit. He planned (1788) a digest of Hindu and Mohamme dan law, but did not live to complete it. Before his death he had published Institutes of Hindu Law, or the Ordinances of Manu (1794); his Mohammedan Law of Succession to Property of In testates; and his Mohammedan Law of inheritance (1792). His other publications include, Traite sur in poesie orientale (177o); a French metrical translation of the odes of Hafiz; Grammar of the Persian Language ( I771); Poems, Chiefly Translations from Asiatic Languages, etc. (1772); a translation of the seven ancient Arabic poems called Moallakcit (1783) ; a translation of K5,1idasa's famous drama, Sakuntala (1789). He also translated the collec tion of fables entitled the Hitopadesa, the Gitagovinda, and con siderable portions of the Vedas, besides editing the text of Kalidasa's poem Ritusamhara. He died at Calcutta on April 27, 1794. As a pioneer in Sanskrit learning and as founder of the Asiatic Society he rendered the language and literature of the ancient Hindus accessible to European scholars, and thus became the indirect cause of later achievements in the field of Sanskrit and comparative philology.
See the Memoir (1804) by Lord Teignmouth, published in the col lected edition of Sir W. Jones's works.