ARNOLD, Edwin Laster. Gravesend, Kent 10.6.1832 — London 24.3.1904. Sir. British Poet and Journalist interested in Sanskrit and India. Son of Robert Coles Arnold (1797–1866), a magistrate, and Sarah Ann Pissey. Grew up in Southchurch, Essex. Educated at King’s School in Rochester and King’s College in London. From 1851 studies at Oxford (University College): B.A. 1854 and M.A. 1856. Principal of the College (future Deccan College) in Poona in 1856-61, then 28 years reporter and (1873) editor of the Daily Telegraph in London. Travelled in 1889-91 in India and Japan, in 1891 in the U.S.A. Three times married, first 1855 Catherine Elizabeth Biddulph (1828–1864), then Jennie Channing (d. 1889), and third time Kama Kurokawa (1869–1962) of Japan, six children. C.S.I. 1877, K.C.I.E. 1888. His poem The Light of Asia was important in making Buddhism known in the West.
Publications: Edited: Hitopadesa being the Sanskrit text, partial translation, and analysis. 296 p. Bombay 1859.
– Education in India. 40 p. L. 1860.
– Translated: The Book of Good Counsels. From the Sanskrit of the Hitopadesa. 1861, new ed. 162 p. 1893; The Indian Song of Songs, from the Sanskrit of the Gïta Govinda of Jayadeva. 16+144 p. L. 1875; Indian Poetry. 270 p. L. 1881, 5th ed. L. 1890 (Gītagovinda, extracts from the Mahābhārata, and ślokas of the Hitopadeśa, etc.); Indian Idylls from the Mahábhárata. 282 p. 1883; The Secret of Death. L. 1885 (Kaṭhopaniṣad); The Chaura Panchásika. L. 1896; Sa‘di’s Gulistan. 1–4. L. 1899.
– The Light of Asia, or The Great Renunciation (Mahābhinishkramana) being the Life and Teachings of the Buddha. 238 p. L. 1879, many editions and translations (German 1891).
– The Song Celestial. 185 p. L. 1885 and new editions, also edited by F. Edgerton in his Bhagavadgītā 1944 (poetic Bhg. translation).
– “How the Mahábhárata Begins”, JRAS 14, 1882, 246-263.
– The Light of the World. 295 p. L. 1891 (on Christ).
– History of the Marquis of Dalhousie’s Administration. 1–2. L. 1862-65.
– Poems (e.g. Lotus and Jewel. Poems about India. 263 p. L. 1887), travel books (India revisited. 324 p. L. 1886), translations from Japanese etc.
Sources: Allen 2002, 242ff. & fig. 24; *M. Moses & A. Moulik: Dialogue of Civilizations. William Jones and the Orientalists. New Delhi 2009, 411-413; *V.S. Naravane, “E.A. and the Light of Asia”, Indian Horizons 29:1, 1980, 17-33; *W. Peiris, E.A. 102 p. The Wheel Publ. 159/161. Kandy 1970; T.S. in D.N.B. 2nd Suppl. 1, 58-60; *B. Wright, Interpreter of Buddhism to the West: Sir E.A. N.Y. 1957; parents and first wife in ancestors.familysearch.org; Wikipedia with photo; drawing in Sardesai, photos in Peiris and BDCRI 50, 1990, 4.
Cl. Bennett in D. Thomas & Cl. Chesworth (eds.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Vol. 17. Great Britain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia (1800–1914). Leiden & Boston 2021, 278-285.
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