Q. Who of the following had first deciphered the edicts of Emperor Ashoka?

  • Georg Buhler
  • James Prinsep
  • Max Muller
  • William Jones

Answer: (b) James Prinsep

James Prinsep:
  • James Princep was a European scholar who deciphered the edicts of the Ashoka.
  • He was an English scholar, orientalist, and antiquarian.
  • He was the founding editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
  • He is best remembered for his understanding of the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts of ancient India.
Georg Bühler:
  • Professor Johann Georg Bühler was a German scholar of ancient Indian languages and law.
  • Bühler’s contributions to Indology still serve as an important cultural link between India and the German-speaking world.
  • He significantly contributed to the understanding of India through his extensive work in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit languages, as well as his collection of manuscripts and decipherment of inscriptions, particularly focusing on Dharmaśāstra, Jainism, and Sanskrit literature.
Max Müller:
  • Friedrich Max Müller was a German-born British comparative philologist and Orientalist.
  • The renowned Sanskritist Max Mueller committed his whole life to the study of Indian languages and scriptures, with an unwavering focus on Sanskrit literature.
Sir William Jones:
  • Sir William Jones is significant for his role as a judge, linguist, and founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which promoted the study of ancient Indian languages and culture, including his famous Third Discourse proposing a common origin for Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin.
    • He is particularly known for his proposition of the existence of a relationship among European and Indo-Aryan languages, which he coined as Indo-European.
  • His linguistic studies:
    • Jones’ was the first to suggest that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages had a common root and that indeed they may all be further related, in turn, to Gothic and the Celtic languages, as well as to Persian.
    • He also suggested that Sanskrit ‘was introduced to India by conquerors from other kingdoms in some very remote age’ displacing ‘the pure Hindi’ of north India
    • His claim rested on the evidence of several Sanskrit words that had similarities with Greek and Latin.