Lancelot Wilkinson (22 June 1805 – 13 November 1841) was a British political officer and civil servant who worked in the service 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 South ...

in India in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

, in the Bombay Presidency. He was also an

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'') is ...

, publishing translations of Indian works including the ''Siddantasiromani'', an astronomical text, and ''Vajrasuci'', an ancient text against Brahminism. Wilkinson was born in Crosby-Ravensworth, Cumbria, son of James and Nanny née Eggleston and went to India after receiving training at

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ** Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an internatio ...

. He started working in India Writer from 1822, an assistant to the collector of south Konkan from 1824, an assistant Resident at Nagpur from 1826, and lastly as a Political Agent in Bhopal from 1836. He was a proponent of education in Indian languages and opposed William Bentinck on anglicism. He interacted with Indian scholars and came to learn of Bhaskara's 12th century Siddantasiromani, an astronomical text and worked on translating it into English. He found it to be very advanced, with a heliocentric model which contrasted with the Puranas which promoted a geocentric, flat-earth view. Wilkinson worked with Bapu Deva Sastri (Narasimha Deva Paranjpe; 1821–1890) who he appointed from Pune to the

Benares Sanskrit College Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya ( IAST: ; formerly Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya and Government Sanskrit College, Varanasi) is an Indian university and institution of higher learning located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, specializing ...

. Wilkinson also wrote against female infanticide, supported widow remarriage and translated the '' Vajrasuci'', an anti-Brahminical text.

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Wujra Soochi
{{authority control British Indologists 1805 births 1841 deaths People from Crosby Ravensworth