James Robert Ballantyne (1813–1864) was a Scottish Orientalist. From 1832 to 1845 he was a master at the

Scottish Naval and Military Academy The Scottish Naval and Military Academy in Edinburgh was a school opened on 8 November 1825 and closed in 1869. It catered mostly to young gentlemen intending a career with the Army, Navy or, especially, the forces of the East India Company. In 18 ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, teaching

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

to prospective officers of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. From 1845 he was superintendent of the Sanskrit College (Benares) in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

(then known as Benares). He went to England in 1861 where he was elected librarian of the

India Office The India Office was a British government department established in London in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of India. These territories comprised most of the modern-day nations of I ...

. Ballantyne published grammars of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(2nd edition, 1868), and

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, and published an edition of the ''Laghukaumudi'' of

Varadarāja Varadarāja was a 17th-century Hindu Sanskrit grammarian. He compiled an abridgement of the work of his master, the ''Siddhānta Kaumudī'' of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, in three versions, referred to as ''madhya'' "middle", ''laghu'' "short" and ...

1849-52 and the first part of the ''

Mahabhashya ''Mahabhashya'' ( sa, महाभाष्य, IAST: '','' , "great commentary"), attributed to Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of Sanskrit grammar from Pāṇini's treatise, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', as well as Kātyāyana's ''V� ...

'' of

Patanjali Patanjali ( sa, पतञ्जलि, Patañjali), also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it i ...

in 1856, for the first time opening native Indian grammatical tradition to a wider European scholarly audience.

Works

* ''Hindustani Grammar and Exercises'', 1838 * '' Mahratta Grammar'', 1839 * ''Elements of Hindu and

Braj-Bhaka The Braj language, ''Braj Bhasha'', also known as Vraj Bhasha or Vrij Bhasha or Braj Bhāṣā or Braji or Brij Bhasha or Braj Boli, is a Western Hindi language. Along with Awadhi (a variety of Eastern Hindi), it was one of the two predominant ...

Grammar'', 1839 * ''Hindustani Selections'', 1840 * ''Pocket Guide to Hindustani Conversation'', 4th ed. 1841 *''Persian Calligraphy'', 2 ed. 1842 * ''Practical Oriental Interpreter'', 1843 * ''Catechism of Sanskrit Grammar'', 2 ed. 1845 * ''A Synopsis of Science from the Stand-point of the Nyáya Philosophy'', 1852 * ''Christianity Contrasted with Indian Philosophy, 1859 * ''First Lessons in Sanskrit Grammar', 3 ed. 1862

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballantyne, James R. British Indologists Sanskrit grammarians 1813 births 1864 deaths British Sanskrit scholars German Sanskrit scholars