HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Arthur Berriedale Keith (5 April 1879 – 6 October 1944) was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and
Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') i ...
. He became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire in the University of Edinburgh. He served in this role from 1914 to 1944.


Biography

Arthur Berriedale Keith was born in Edinburgh, the fourth child and third son of Davidson Keith (1842–1921), an advertising agent, and Margaret Stobie Keith, ''
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Drysdale (1851–1911). All his five siblings were associated with the British Empire in Burma and India: Sir William John Keith KCSI, ICS, was acting governor of Burma in 1925, Steuart Keith (died 1925) was a sessions judge in Burma, Alan Davidson Keith (died 1928) was a barrister in Burma. Both of his sisters married British expatriates in the region. Keith was educated at the
Royal High School, Edinburgh The Royal High School (RHS) of Edinburgh is a co-educational school administered by the City of Edinburgh Council. The school was founded in 1128 and is one of the oldest schools in Scotland. It serves 1,200 pupils drawn from four feeder primar ...
, the University of Edinburgh (MA 1897; DLitt 1914), and
Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
(BA 1900; BCL 1905; DCL 1911). At Oxford he took
Firsts First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
in firsts in classical moderations (1899), in Sanskrit and Pali (1900), and in '' literae humaniores'' (1901). He was
called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
by the Inner Temple in 1904 and became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1921. He joined the Colonial Office as a clerk in 1901, having ranked first in the Home and Indian civil service examinations; he was said to have received the highest marks ever. He remained in the department until 1914, except for a period with the
Crown Agents Crown Agents Ltd is a not-for-profit international development company with head office in London, United Kingdom, and subsidiaries in USA and Japan. Crown Agents fully owns Greenshields Cowie, a freight forwarding limited company incorporated in ...
from 1903 to 1905. From 1912 to 1914 he was private secretary to the permanent under-secretary, Sir John Anderson. In 1914, he became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh. In 1927 he additionally became Lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire. Keith was awarded an honorary LLD from the University of Leeds in 1936. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1935, but resigned in 1939. He is buried in
Grange Cemetery The Grange (originally St Giles' Grange) is an affluent suburb of Edinburgh, just south of the city centre, with Morningside and Greenhill to the west, Newington to the east, The Meadows park and Marchmont to the north, and Blackford Hil ...
in Edinburgh with his wife, Margaret Balfour Allan (died 1934). The grave lies on the south side of the central vaults, adjacent to the central archway through the vaults.


Works


Constitutional law and history

* * (Revised Edition, 1912 , , ) (Second Edition, 1928 , ) * * , * * * * , * * * * * * * * * * * * * , * *


Indian culture and literature

* * * * () * * *
‘The Period of the Later Samhitās, the Brahmaņas, the Āraņyakas, and the Upanishads
�� in ''The Cambridge History of India'', vol. i (Cambridge: University Press, 1922). * * * * *


Translations

* * * * *


References

; Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Arthur Berriedale 1879 births 1944 deaths Academics from Edinburgh People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Academics of the University of Edinburgh British Sanskrit scholars Scottish civil servants 20th-century Scottish historians Scottish Indologists Scottish legal writers Scottish philologists Scottish religious writers Scottish political writers Scottish translators British barristers Lawyers from Edinburgh Burials at the Grange Cemetery