Knowra Indology Indology Indology is the scholarly study of the Indian subcontinent’s history, languages, literature, religions, and cultures, using textual, linguistic, archaeological, and historical evidence.
Sanskrit : An ancient Indo-Aryan language used in South Asian religious, literary, and scholarly traditions. Sanskrit texts have been central sources for the study of South Asian history and thought.
Asiatic Society : A scholarly society founded in Calcutta in 1784 to investigate Asian history, languages, and cultures. Its founding marked an institutional beginning of European organized scholarship on India.
Vedic studies : The study of the Vedas, their language, transmission, ritual settings, and historical contexts. Vedic materials are among the oldest and most influential sources examined by Indologists.
South Asian studies : An interdisciplinary field examining the societies, histories, languages, and cultures of South Asia. This broader field includes modern and social-scientific work beyond Indology’s traditional textual focus.
Prakrit : A group of Middle Indo-Aryan languages used in ancient and medieval South Asia. Prakrit sources broaden Indology beyond the elite Sanskrit textual record.
William Jones : An English jurist and Orientalist who helped found the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Jones’s Sanskrit studies and institutional work helped establish early Indological scholarship.
Buddhist studies : The interdisciplinary study of Buddhist texts, practices, histories, and communities. South Asian Buddhist traditions are studied through languages and sources central to Indology.
Oriental studies : A historical scholarly field devoted to the languages, histories, and cultures of regions broadly called the Orient. Indology developed within Oriental studies but focuses specifically on the Indian subcontinent.
Philology : The study of language in historical sources through close analysis of texts and their transmission. Philological methods help establish, date, and interpret manuscripts central to Indological research.
Henry Thomas Colebrooke : An English scholar of Sanskrit, Indian law, mathematics, and religion in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Colebrooke’s careful studies helped move the field beyond its earliest speculations.
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