DESVAULX, Nicolas-Jacques, baron d’Oinville. Chandernagor 28.3.1745 — Paris 9.7.1817. French Officer in India. Son of an officer working in India for the French Company, grew up in Paris. In 1762 he joined the army and after a few years was sent according to his own wish to India. In 1778…
DESIDERI, Ippolito. Pistoia 21.12.1684 — Rome 14.8.1733. S.J. Italian Missionary and a Pioneer of Tibetology, in Tibet in 1715-21, in India 1714-15, 1721-27, last years in Rome. Son of Iacopo D. and Maria Maddalena Cappellini, a patrician family. Joined Jesuits in 1700 and studied in Rome, from 1706 taught literature…
DESGRANGES, Jean-François (Pouillon-Desgranges). Bonneval (Eure-et-Loir) 30.9.1765 — Paris 8.11.1848 (or 1851). French Former Priest and Teacher, the author of the first French Sanskrit grammar. Because of missing information and misinformation (he is often claimed to be an officer), this was very hard nut to crack, only solved through the valuable…
DELAMAINE, James. 17?? — Cape of Good Hope 1829?. British Colonial Officer. Ensign (1798), Captain (1823) and Major in Bengal Army (1827), then Lieutenant-Colonel and Political Agent at Nemaur. Served long under John Malcolm and knew Sanskrit and Persian. In 1823 the first European to visit Nasik Caves. Left India…
DAVIS, Samuel. West Indies 1760 — Croydon 16.6.1819. British Engineer and Civil Servant in India, interested in Indian Astronomy. Son of an officer, John D., lost early his father and came to England with his mother. He “went to Bengal as an officer of Engineers, was an excellent artist. Accompanied…
DANIELL, William. Kingston upon Thames 1769/70 — Camden Town, London 16.8.1837. British Painter in India. Nephew of —> Thomas D. After his father’s, the innkeeper William D., premature death in 1779 came to live with his uncle. “Accompanied his uncle … to India. In ten years they travelled many thousand…
DANIELL, Thomas. Kingston upon Thames 1749 — Kensington, London 19.3.1840. British Landscape Painter in India. Uncle of —> William D. Studied and worked in London, in India 1785-94. “Son of an innkeeper… Was in India painting for ten years, from 1784, with his nephew… and published his pictures… Royal Academician…
CSOMA DE KŐRÖS, Alexander (Kőrösi Csoma Sándor). Kőrös, Kovászna, Transylvania (now Chiuruş, Covasna in Romania) 27.3.1784 — Darjeeling 11.4.1842. Hungarian Tibetologist, in Ladakh and India 1822-42. Born of poor parents, András Csoma, a peasant and soldier, and Krisztina Getse (Ilona Göcz), belonging to the military nobility known as Székely (Sicules). Birth…
CRAWFURD, John. Islay, Hebrides 13.8.1783 — South Kensington, London 11.5.1868. British (Scottish) Physician, Colonial Officer and South-East Asian Scholar. Son of the physician Samuel Cr. and Margaret Campbell, educated at Bowmore. Then studies of medicine at Edinburgh, M.D. From 1803 served as an army medical officer chiefly in Upper India…
COURT, Claude Auguste. Grasse (or Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, both in Alpes-Maritimes) 24.9.1793 — Paris 21.1.1880. French soldier serving as a General under Rañjit Singh. Son of an officer, André Ambroise C. Educated at Lycée de Casale in Piémont in 1804-10, at École polytéchnique and in 1812-13 at the military academy of Saint-Cyr…