1. Charles Wilkins is notable as the first translator of the Bhagavad Gita into English.
20 Facts About Charles Wilkins
1. 2.
Charles Wilkins supervised Panchanan Karmakar to create one of the first Bengali typefaces.
3.
In 1788, Wilkins was elected a member of the Royal Society.
4.
Charles Wilkins was born at Frome in Somerset in 1749.
5.
Charles Wilkins created with his own hands the first type for printing Bengali.
6.
Charles Wilkins published the first typeset book in the language, earning himself the name "the Caxton of India".
7.
Charles Wilkins designed type for publications of books in Persian.
8.
Charles Wilkins successfully translated a Royal inscription in Kutila characters, which were thitherto indecipherable.
9.
In 1784, Charles Wilkins helped William Jones establish the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
10.
Charles Wilkins moved to Benares, where he studied Sanskrit under Kalinatha, a Brahmin pandit.
11.
Charles Wilkins had a hobby to learn about other religions.
12.
Charles Wilkins made visits to holy shrines of other religions to learn about their customs.
13.
Charles Wilkins wrote his account of this visit titled as 'Sikhs and their College at Patna'.
14.
Charles Wilkins writes about Dasam Granth there and notes in this article.
15.
Meanwhile, inscriptions of the 6th century CE in late Brahmi script were deciphered in 1785 by Charles Wilkins, who published an essentially correct translation of the Gopika Cave Inscription written by the Maukhari king Anantavarman.
16.
Charles Wilkins seems to have relied essentially on the similarities with later Brahmic scripts, such as the script of the Pala period and early forms of Devanagari.
17.
Charles Wilkins returned to England in 1786, where he married Elizabeth Keeble.
18.
In 1787 Charles Wilkins followed the Gita with his translation of The Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Sarma, in a Series of Connected Fables, Interspersed with Moral, Prudential and Political Maxims.
19.
Charles Wilkins was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1788.
20.
Charles Wilkins published a catalogue of the manuscripts collected by Sir William Jones, who acknowledged his indebtedness to Wilkins.