HAMILTON, Alexander. 3.10.1762 — Liverpool 30.12.1824. British (Scottish) Pioneer of Indology. Born in Scotland (if not in India), son of William H., a merchant in Greenock (Inverclyde), and Jean Donald, and grandson of Alexander H., Laird of Grange in Ayrshire, brother of Major Walter Hamilton (1779–1818), who also wrote on India. After studies of Greek and Latin in an unknown university joined in 1783 Bengal Army as a cadet. Then lieutenant and from 1785 ensign in infantry. Became soon interested in Oriental Studies and joined the Asiatick Society in the 1780s. From a Pandit he learned Sanskrit, further Persian, Arabic and Bengali. Retired from the army 6.10.1790 and concentrated on Sanskrit studies (and probably also on private trade – Brockington). Apparently he was a Secretary to Lord Cornwallis. He seems to have had an Indian wife and a son with her. In 1795 left India and returned to Scotland, first to Greenock, 1798 to Edinburgh. In Edinburgh he joined Fr. Jeffrey’s Whig group and contributed to their Edinburgh Review.
In 1802/03 Hamilton came to Paris to examine Sanskrit manuscripts there. As the first scholar there actually knowing Sanskrit he soon became popular. When the war began in 23.5.1803 he was taken prisoner, but allowed to remain in Paris in a nominal custody. Apparently he had mighty patrons (perhaps Volney). He lived in the house of Fr. Schlegel and taught Sanskrit to a small circle including Schlegel, Hagemann, Volney and Fauriel. Langlès and Chézy were his friends, but did not attend his lectures (Chézy started Sanskrit alone in 1806), while A. W. von Schlegel never actually met him. Free from captivity in 1806 Hamilton returned to the U.K., where he was given, on recommendation of Wilkins, the new chair of “Sanscrit and Hindoo Literature” at East India College in Hertford (soon Haileybury). Taught there also Bengali, perhaps also Sanskrit and Marathi. In 1814 he had O. Frank as a private student in Sanskrit. In summer 1817 visited France and Germany. Retired in 1818. Member of Royal Society 1808, of Bavarian Academy 1815. In retirement apparently lived in London, where he supported Bopp in 1818. F.R.S. 1808. In March 1823 he was among the founders of R.A.S. He was often ill during his last years and died in Liverpool.
As a scholar Hamilton admired Jones and Wilkins, who was also his close friend, and sharply criticized Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo and Wilford. His own interests included ancient geography and Purāṇa literature, but his plan of a dictionary of ancient geography of Asia remained unachieved. He was a cool and sharp critic, who rejected e.g. the then fashionable theories of Egyptian connections of ancient India. On the other hand, he claimed that Buddhism was a Vaiṣṇava sect. He was not much interested in publication, writing only anonymous reviews and text-books for Haileybury. The catalogue of Paris manuscripts (excluding the Vedic texts), compiled by Hamilton and edited by Langlès, is the only publication, where his name is mentioned. His (anonymous) school edition of the Hitopadeśa was the first Sanskrit text printed in Europe (although soon criticized by Schlegel and Lassen). In his late years he was apparently disappointed with the meagre interest Sanskrit had roused in Britain. According to Rocher, he had understood the fundamentals and methods of comparative IE linguistics before Bopp.
It must be emphasized that Hamilton had been an infantry officer and never served in the navy (as often has been claimed). His few students are listed above.
Publications: Anonymous articles in Asiatic Annual Register: Khondemir’s Persian description of Vijayanagar, transl. and notes in 2, 1801; “Biography … of Hyder Ally Khan”, transl. from Persian with notes, 2, 1801; anonymous reviews in the same and in Edinburgh Review (1802-04, 1806-11, 1814-16, 1820).
– With L.-M. Langlès (who transl. and edited it with some notes): Catalogue des manuscrits sanskrits de la Bibliothèque Impérial, avec des notices… 118 p. P. 1807.
– Edited: The Hitopadeśa in the Sanscrita Language. 8+119+4 p. 4°. L. 1810 (anonymous, sometimes erroneously ascribed to Wilkins); [Grammatical analysis of the Sanscrita Hitopadeśa, for the first 11 pp. of the printed edition]. 72 p. 4o. Henington 1810.
– Terms of Sankrit Grammar. 13 p. 4o. L. 1814.
– Lost manuscript of a Sanskrit–English dictionary. Though so claimed in British Museum Catalogue, A key to the chronology of the Hindus. 1820, is not by AH, but by an anonymous missionary.
Sources: J. Brockington, “Force Majeure: A.H. and the Start of Sanskrit Studies in Continental Europe”, Ph. Bornet & N. Cattoni (eds.), Significant Others, Significant Encounters. Essays on South Asian History and Literature. Heidelberg 2023, 137-149; Buckland, Dictionary; *Biographie nouvelle des contemporains 1823; *Biogr. univ. nouv. ed. 1857; *Nouv. biogr. gén. 1858, J.G.A[lger] briefly in D.N.B. 24, 1890, 134; *Chambers & Norman, Studies in English Philology. E. Klaeber Vol. Minneapolis 1929, 457-466; K. Raj, D.O.L.F. 480 briefly; *R. Rocher, “New data for the Biography of the Orientalist A.H.”, JAOS 90, 1970, 426-448; *R. Rocher, “A.H., and the ‘Monthly Review’”, JAOS 88, 1968, 781f.; *R. Rocher, Oxford D.N.B.; R. Rocher & M.A. Scorgie, “A Family Empire: The Alexander Hamilton Cousins, 1750–1830”, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 23, 1995, 189-210; R. Rocher, personal e-mail 24.12.2017; Wikipedia.
R. Rocher: Alexander Hamilton (1762–1824). 12+128 p. A.O.S. 51. New Haven 1968.
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