WATHEN, William Henry. 1794/95? — Cape Town 28.6.1866, when 71. British Civil Servant in India. In Bombay as early as 1810. In the 1820s and early 1830s Persian secretary to Bombay Government, in 1837/38 Chief Secretary to it. Introduced to Oriental studies by Elphinstone. Last mention in 1844, still in Bombay. He wrote the first Sindhi grammar using Persian grammar as a model
Publications: “Memoir on the U’sbek state of Kokan, properly called Khokend (the Ancient Ferghana), in Central Asia”, JASB 3, 1834, 369-378; “Note on a Pilgrimage undertaken by an U’sbek and his two sons from Khokend, or Kokand, in Tartary, through Russia, &c., to Mecca”, JASB 3, 1834, 379-382; “Account of the Inscriptions upon two sets of Copperplates, found in the Western part of Gujerat”, JASB 4, 1835, 477-487, 1 pl.; “Memoir on Chinese Tartary and Khoten”, JASB 4, 1835, 653-664.
– “Ten Ancient Inscriptions on Stone and Copper found on the Western side of India and translated”, JRAS 2, 1835, 378-393; “Translation of an Inscription on three copper plates found near Bhandúp Village in Salsette. Dated Saka 948 (A.D. 1027)”, JRAS 4, 1837, 109-114; “Translation of an Inscription in the Sanskrit Language and inscribed in the Purvada Halla Character, on three copper-plates, found in the Karnataka … Saka 980 (A.D. 1058)”, JRAS 4, 1837, 281-286; “Abstract Translation of an Inscription engraved on copper plates, in a very ancient type of the Purvada Hâlla Cánara character, and in the Sanskrita language, in the possession of Capt. T. B. Jervis, of the Bombay Engineers, which was found in the Southern Mahratta Country, or Karnáta; the date of which is Saca 411 (A.D. 490)”, JRAS 5, 1839, 343-349.
– “A translation, from Sanskrit into English, of an Inscription at Pattan Somnath, relative to the restoration of the temple in Samvat 1272, A.D. 1215, by W. H. Wathen”, JBRAS 2:1, 1844, 16-21 (appendix to an article on Somnath by J. Bird)..
– A Grammar and Vocabulary of Sindhi Language. Bombay 1836.
Sources: Stray notes (mainly on letters and articles by him) in Internet; death in findagrave.com; not in the D.N.B.
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