WHISH, Charles M.

WHISH, Charles Matthew. London 9.1.1795 — Cuddapah (Kadapa) 14.4.1833. British Civil Servant in India. Son of Martin Whish, a Commissioner of Excise, and Harriet Tysson. After studies at Haileybury served in Madras Presidency from 1812, in Zillah Court of South Malabar. Then criminal judge in Cuddapah. He was the first European to note the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. He also achieved a considerable collection of palm-leaf manuscripts, left in 1836 by his brother to the R.A.S. At the time of his death he was preparing a grammar and dictionary of Malayālam (mathshistory claims they were published, but e.g. L.S.I. bibliography does not know them).

Publications: “On the Origin and Antiquity of the Hindu Zodiack”, Tr. of Lit. Soc. of Madras 1, 1827, 63-77 (directly borrowed from Greeks).

– “On the Hindú Quadrature of the Circle and the infinite Series of the proportion of the circumference of the diameter exhibited in the four S´ástras, in Tantra Sangraham, Yucti Bháshá, Carana Paddhati, and Sadratnamála”, TrRAS 3, 1835, 509-523.

Sources: J.J. O’Connor & E.F. Robertson in https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Whish/;Wikipedia.

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