James Thomas Molesworth (1795 – 13 July 1871) was a military officer in the services of the

British 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 ...

, and one of the most prominent lexicographers of the

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 * * ...

language.

Early life

James was the youngest son of Richard and Catherine Molesworth, and nephew of William John, 6th

Viscount Molesworth Viscount Molesworth, of Swords in the County of Dublin, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1716 for Robert Molesworth. He was made Lord Molesworth, Baron of Philipstown, of King's County, at the same time, also in the Peerage ...

. James was educated at Exeter and arrived in India at the age of 16 after joining the East India Company as an

Ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

. His knowledge of the

and Hindustani languages enabled him to serve as an interpreter for the 6th and the 9th Native Infantry regiments. He was promoted

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

in 1816, and subsequently transferred to the Commissariat department. Gogate, Sharad. 'James Thomas Molesworth: A Biographical Sketch', Prefaced to Molesworth's Marathi-English Dictionary, Reprinted by Shubhada-Saraswat Publications, Pune, 1996.

The Dictionaries

In the year 1818, while Molesworth was stationed in

Solapur Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch lin ...

along with his fellow interpreter Thomas Candy, the two started compiling a glossary of Marathi words. This led to the design of a comprehensive dictionary. After an initial lukewarm response to this proposal from the British Government, the work was formally begun in 1825, when (now Captain) Molesworth was stationed in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

. The work was simultaneously carried out for a Marathi-Marathi and a Marathi-English dictionary, (republished in 1970s by Sharad Gogate's Shubhada - Saraswat Prakashan) with the assistance of the twin brothers George and Thomas Candy, and a team of native Marathi-speaking

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

. A preface to the first edition of the Marathi-English dictionary describes the process as follows: The manuscripts were completed in 1828. The Marathi-Marathi dictionary (titled महाराष्ट्र भाषेचा कोश a.k.a. The Dictionary of the language of Maharashtra), containing approximately 25,000 words, was printed and distributed by the Bombay Native Education Society. A delay in the printing of the Marathi-English dictionary was used to advantage by Molesworth by augmenting it to 40,000 words. It appeared in 1831, under the title ''A Dictionary, Murathee & English, compiled for the Government of Bombay, by Captain James T. Molesworth''.

Later life

A bout of ill health prevented Molesworth from completing his next project, namely an English-Marathi dictionary, and he returned to England in 1836. As he came to believe that military service was incompatible with his calling as a Christian, he resigned from the Army and chose to forgo his pension. Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, 'In Western India', Edinburgh, 1899. He was invited to India in 1851 to prepare a revised version of his Marathi-English dictionary. This work, containing 60,000 words, was published in 1857, and since then has been reprinted several times. Molesworth's fluency in Marathi was much admired by his Indian colleagues, and his name was affectionately Indianised to 'Molesarshastri' or 'Moreshwarshastri'.David Davidson, 'Memoirs of a Long Life', Edinburgh, 1899.A. K. Priyolkar, 'Dadoba Pandurang Atmacaritra : Caritra (in Marathi), Bombay, 1947. ('Shastri' is a Sanskrit honorific derived from the word

Shastra ''Shastra'' (, IAST: , ) is a Sanskrit word that means "precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise" in a general sense.Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'zAstra'' The wo ...

, loosely translatable as 'erudite'.) He returned to England in 1860. Molesworth was a devout Christian and contributed much effort to evangelical causes and scriptural studies. He remained a lifelong bachelor. He died in Clifton on 13 July 1871.

References

External links

A link to Molesworth's Marathi-to-English Dictionary in Searchable Format (courtesy of the University of Chicago).

A link to the 1857 edition of Molesworth's Marathi-English Dictionary (downloadable pdf).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Molesworth, James Thomas 1795 births 1871 deaths English lexicographers 19th-century lexicographers