MILL, William Hodge. Hackney, Middlesex 18.7.1792 — Brasted, Kent 25.12.1853. Rev. British Teacher and Indologist in India. Son of John Mill, of Dundee, and Martha Hodge. Privately educated by Dr. Belsham, a Unitarian preacher, studies at Trinity College, Cambridge: B.A. 1813, Fellow 1814, M.A. 1816. In 1818 ordained priest, still living in Cambridge and studying Oriental languages. From 1820 first Principal of the new Bishop’s College in Calcutta. In 1838 returned to England because of health problems. Applied for the Sanskrit chair at Oxford but failed as Wilson got it. From 1839 Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1840 Christian Advocate in Cambridge. From 1848 Regius Professor of Hebrew there. Also Canon of Ely. D.D. Married Maria Elphinstone (d. 1858), at least one daughter.
Mill was originally a Hebrew and Arabic scholar and in India he edited some Arabic Christian texts. In Calcutta he soon started learning Sanskrit and NIA languages. He was an active member of the A.S.B. (Vice-President) and specially interested in Indian epigraphy. His decipherment of the Allahabad inscription of Samudragupta was important in its times. He collected manuscripts and sent that of the Nirukta to Roth. He was also much interested in education and in preaching Christianity. His Christa-saṅgīta, prepared in collaboration with a Pandit, is a Purāṇa style metrical life of Jesus in 5000 stanzas. At Cambridge his teaching mainly dealt with the Hebrew text of the Psalms.
Publications: Proposed Version of Theological terms, with a view to uniformity in translations of the Holy Scriptures, etc. into the various languages of India. 1. Sanscrit. Calcutta 1824.
– “Kumárasambhava, exordium”, JASB 1, 1833, 329-358 (KS 1, 1-28 edited & translated).
– “Restoration of the Inscription, Nr. 2, on the Allahabad Column”, JASB 3, 1834, 257-270 & 339-344; “Restitution and Translation of the Inscription found in the Ruins of the Mountain Temple of Shekáwati”, JASB 4, 1835, 367-385; “Restoration and Translation of the Inscription on the Bhitárí Lát, with critical and historical remarks”, JASB 6, 1837, 1-17.
– Translated into Sanskrit: Christa-saṅgīta, Or the Sacred History of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Sanskrit Verse. 1-2. Calcutta 1831-34, 2nd ed. 1837 (Khṛṣṭasaṅgīta); The Sermon on the Mount. 183?.
– Also wrote on Hebrew and Arabic philology, Christian works.
Sources: C. B[endall], D.N.B. 37, 1894, 400; Buckland, Dictionary; Wikipedia.
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