Scribes, scholars and civil servants: Perceptions of India in Irish writing

Description

India has fascinated Irish scribes and scholars from at least the 12 th century AD when the pseudo-historical account on the origins of Ireland, The Book of Invasions (Lebor Gabála), relates of the Gaels, the last group of settlers to come to the island after having sailed across the whole world, as they started their journey “by way of India, by way of Cirord, by way of Golgardana, by way of the estuary of the Ganges”.
Early Modern Irish romances of chivalrous nature The Adventure of The Crop-Eared Dog (Eachtra Mhadra Mhaoil) and The Adventure of Melora and Orlando (Eachtra Mhélora agus Orlando) contain stories of Irish princes co-opting or else challenging their Indian counterparts as they are winning back the throne of the kingdom of Ireland. Description of India in Irish writing is found in medieval Irish translations of travelogues of Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, and John Maundeville, and legends of an Indian princess arriving to Ireland on a quest for the land of righteousness is contained in the 20 th c. Irish folklore tradition.
From a historical perspective, late 18 th and 19 th cc. provide us with a sequence of events and studies that bring India into the mainstream of Irish intellectual culture. The correspondence of Chief Engineer of Ireland, General Charles Vallancey, an antiquarian and a strong proponent of Irish Orientalism, with Sir William Jones, the President of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, influences the emergence of Indo-European theory that claimed common origins for Celtic and Sanskrit languages.
The establishment of the Chair of Sanskrit at Trinity College Dublin in 1858 with the
appointment of Prof. Thomas Siegfried in 1862, led to Sanskrit becoming part of the
University syllabus in Ireland. His celebrated student, Sir Whitley Stokes, became secretary to the Governor General’s Legislative Council in India during 1862-85, to be appointed President of the Indian Law Commission in 1879, which published Anglo-Indian Legislative Codes in 1887-88. Devoting his career to Celtic Studies from 1891, he inspired the next generation of scholars epitomised in the figure of Myles Dillon (1900-1972) to seek similarities and connections between Ireland and India in mythology, law, language and literature.

Period	27 Nov 2024
Degree of Recognition	International