[q. v.] in the foundation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Leaving India for health in 1786, he resided for a time at Bath, occupied with translations from the Sanskrit; and later on at Hawkhurst, where he commenced the formation of a fount of Nagari type for printing Sanskrit. But in 1800 he re-entered the service of the East India Company as librarian, an office then established mainly for the custody of oriental manuscripts taken at Seringapatam and elsewhere. On the establishment in 1805 of the company's college at Haileybury he accepted the offices of examiner and visitor, and continued the duties without any intermission up to his death in London on 13 May 1836; he was interred at the chapel in Portland Town. His portrait was painted in later life by J. G. Middleton, and a mezzotint by J. Sartain was published in 1830.
Wilkins was twice married and left three daughters, one of them being married to the numismatist, William Marsden (1754–1836) [q. v.]
Wilkins's literary achievements were recognised by his being elected F.R.S. on 12 June 1788, and created D.C.L. Oxon. in 1805; while in 1825 the Royal Society of Literature awarded him their medal as ‘princeps litteraturæ Sanscritæ.’ He was knighted in 1833, and was also an associate of the Institut de France.
Wilkins was the first Englishman to gain a thorough grasp of Sanskrit, and as such was greatly esteemed (as may be seen in extant correspondence) by Sir William Jones, who stated that ‘but for’ Wilkins's ‘aid he would never have learned’ Sanskrit. In Indian epigraphy he was especially a pioneer, being the first European to study Sanskrit inscriptions, which were unintelligible to the pandits of his day. Of five articles by him in the earlier volumes of ‘Asiatic Researches,’ four are on this subject, one of primary importance to the real history of India, which still has to be written.
Besides these articles he published the following works:
Translations from the Sanskrit:
- ‘The Bhagavad-gitā,’ one of the most remarkable philosophical poems of the world, issued in London in 1785 by the East India Company, with an introductory letter by Warren Hastings (republished in French by J. P. Parraud, 1787).
- ‘Hitopadesa,’ Bath, 1787.
- ‘Story of Sakuntalā, from the Mahābhārata,’ 1793 (in ‘Oriental Repertory’), and 1795 (separate).
Grammatical and lexical works:
- ‘New Edition of Richardson's “Persian, Arabic, and English Dictionary,”’ 1806.
- ‘Grammar of the Sanskrĭta Language,’ commenced in India, continued at Hawkhurst, and finally issued mainly for use at Haileybury in 1808.
- ‘Radicals of the Sanskrita Language’ (from ancient sources), 1815.
He also compiled in 1798 a catalogue of Sir William Jones's manuscripts.
[Gent. Mag. 1836, ii. 97–8; English Cyclop. and Penny Cyclopædia; Annual Register for 1836; Centenary volume Asiatic Soc. Bengal; letters in Journal Amer. Oriental Society, 1880, vol. x.; prefaces to Sir W. Jones's Sacontala, and to Wilkins's Sanskrita Grammar.]
WILKINS, DAVID (1685–1745), scholar, was born of Prussian parentage in 1685. His true name was Wilke, which he latinised as Wilkius, and then anglicised into Wilkins, a name already renowned in the person of John Wilkins [q. v.], bishop of Chester. He led for some years the life of a migratory student, visiting Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Oxford, and Cambridge. Oxford denied him the M. A. degree (23 May 1712); but at Cambridge he was created D.D. in October 1717, and appointed lord almoner's professor of Arabic in 1724. Besides Arabic he was versed in the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Coptic, Armenian, and Anglo-Saxon tongues–a width of erudition purchased by a certain want of accuracy. Wilkins was ordained in the church of England, and found a patron in Archbishop Wake, who made him in 1715 librarian at Lambeth Palace, and rewarded his services with the Kentish rectories of Mongeham Parva (30 April 1716) and Great Chart (12 Sept. 1719), both of which he resigned upon his collation in November 1719 to the rectories of Hadleigh and Monks Eleigh, Suffolk, and the place of joint commissary of the archiepiscopal deanery of Bocking, Essex. In the same year he was appointed (21 Nov.) domestic chaplain to the primate. To these preferments were added the twelfth prebend in the church of Canterbury (26 Jan. 17201721) and the archdeaconry of Suffolk (19 Dec. 1724). On 13 Jan. 1719-20 he was elected F.S.A.
Wilkins died at Hadleigh on 6 Sept, 1745. His remains were interred in the chancel of Hadleigh church. His portrait is in Lambeth Palace library. He married on 15 Nov. 1725, Margaret, eldest daughter of Thomas, fifth lord Fairfax, of Leeds Castle, Kent, by whom he left no issue. She died on 21 May 1750. Her brother Robert (afterwards seventh Lord Fairfax) is supposed to have
