‘[A] Place Among the Hindu Poets’: Orientalism and the Poetry of Sir William Jones (1746–1794)

Abstract

As a scholar, linguist and legal authority, Sir William Jones played a major role in shaping Europe's understanding of India and the Middle East, not only through his involvement in tasks such as the establishment of the Asiatic Society or the codification of Indian laws, but also through his own literary work. His writings on Persian and Indian literature have inspired a significant body of postcolonial critique, while their impact on poets such as Southey, Shelley, Byron and Coleridge has attracted the attention of scholars of Romantic literature. More importantly, however, scholars are now increasingly beginning to recognise the importance of Jones's work in illuminating a crucial stage of British colonial history, when the eighteenth-century scholarly pursuit of ‘Oriental’ studies became increasingly embroiled in problematic negotiations with European imperialism. This article examines the role played by Jones's scholarship and poetry, particularly that produced during his tenure in India, in his efforts to mediate between two changing societies – India under British rule on the one hand, and the increasing professionalisation of knowledge in eighteenth-century England on the other.