Dictionary of Indian Biography/Colebrooke, Henry Thomas
COLEBROOKE, HENRY THOMAS (1765–1837)
Son of Sir George Colebrooke, Bart., Chairman of the E.I. Co.'s Directors in 1769 : born June 15, 1765 : privately educated: went to India in 1782–3. In his early years, as Assistant Collector in Tirhut and Purnea, he took keenly to sport : his first literary work was on the Agriculture and Commerce of Bengal, in which he opposed the monopoly policy of the E. I. Co. At first he disliked Oriental literature, but feeling compelled, in the exercise of his duties, to learn law through the Sanskrit language, he published a translation of a Digest of Hindu Law, 1791, in which his appointment in 1795 to Mirzapur, near Benares, facilitated his Sanskrit studies : also wrote in the Asiatic Researches, his first paper, in 1794, being "On the Duties of a Faithful Hindu Widow" : also, on the "Origin of Caste" : was sent on a mission to the Raja of Berar at Nagpur in 1799–1801, without success : appointed in 1801 to be a Judge of the Sadr Diwani Adalat, and four years later became the Head of that Court : was also, unsalaried. Professor of Hindu Law and Sanskrit at the College of Fort William, Calcutta : was a Member of the Supreme Council from 1807 to 1812, retaining his seat in the Sadr Court : after his 5 years in Council, Colebrooke returned to the Court, and next became a Member of the Board of Revenue, till the close of 1814 : was President of the Asiatic Society of Bengal from 1807 to 1814, when he left India. He made a voyage to the Cape on business in 1821–2 : after his return thence, he became Director of the Royal Asiatic Society, which he helped to found in 1823 : became totally blind, and died March 10, 1837. His literary and scientific labours were immense. A great mathematician, a zealous astronomer and profound Sanskrit scholar, his writings always commanded the highest attention : he has been described as facile princeps among Sanskrit scholars. He wrote also on the Vedas, on Sanskrit grammar, and a lexicon, on the Sect of Jains, on Indian Jurisprudence and Roman law, besides other papers on Hindu Law, philosophy and customs, Indian algebra, on astronomy, the height of the Himalayas, botany, geology, comparative philology, etc., in contributions to the Transactions of the learned Societies—the Astronomical, Linnaean. Geological and Asiatic—to which he belonged, as well as to the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh : he was a Member of several foreign Academies also : he gave, in 1818, his valuable collection of Sanskrit MSS. to the E. I. Co.'s Library.