When did Eastern Religious Texts become Available in the West? A Links-Resource Page

BEFORE EASTERN RELIGIOUS texts became available, Western interpreters had to rely on guesswork. Very often this involved little more than looking at the iconography of Buddhism and Hinduism and trying to interpret them on the basis of alleged parallels to the stories of the Bible. My purpose here is to provide a list of when texts first became available in translated in Western languages. I hope to add to this list as I run across further information. If anyone is better informed than I am at any point I would very much appreciate receiving your corrections. In addition I want to include a number of key moments contributing to the more general Western understanding of Eastern Religions and Texts

KEY MOMENTS

1784: Sir William Jones founds the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, which published its work in a journal called Asiatick Researches.

Asiatick Researches, Vol 1 here, Vol 2 here, Vol 3 here, Vol 4 here and here, Vol 5 here, Vol 6 here, Vol 7 here, Vol 8 here, Vol 9 here, Vol. 10 here, Vol 11 here, Vol 12 here,Vol 13 here, Vol 14 here, Vol 15 here.

1810: Edward Moor published his book The Hindu Pantheon with illustrations form his own collection to provide the British public with an introduction to the Hindu gods.

1827: The journal Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland began publication: 

Vol 1 (1827) here, Vol 2 (1820) here, Vol 3 (1835) here

-1818: Arthur Schopenhauer: “Up till 1818,” the philosopher writes (referring to the date when an earlier work of his own had been published), “there were to be found in Europe only a very few accounts of Buddhism, and those extremely incomplete and inadequate, confined almost entirely to a few essays in the earlier volumes of the Asiatick Researches, and principally concerned with the Buddhism of the Burmese.” (Quoted in Nichols, 1999, 178-9).

1828: Victor Cousin's Cours de philosophie (Paris: Pichon et Dideon, 1828) included a summary of the Bhagavad Gita. The French edition is here. It was translated into English in 1832 under the title Introduction to the History of Philosophy (see here). It was through this work that Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson first came into contact with a summary of the teaching of the Bhaghavad Gita.

1845: Ralph Waldo Emerson finally gets a chance to hold a copy of the Bhagavad Gita in his hands, on loan apparently from James Elliot Cabot. He famously misidentifies it as "the much renowned book of Buddhism." By the end of September that same year he was able to obtain a copy from London. (Flood, 2015, 175)

1893: The World's Congress of Religions is held in Chicago, a key moment in shaping Western perceptions of Eastern Spirituality. The rising star at that event was Swami Vivikenanda. The contribution can be consulted here and here. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda are available here.

HINDU TEXTS

Bhagavad Gītā

1785: The Bhagavad Gītā was translated by Sir Charles Wilkins a co-founder of the Asiatick Society, who is sometimes identified as the “first Englishman to comprehend Sanskrit” (Gunn, 2003, 231). Access  here.

Charles Wilkins, The Bhăgvăt-gēētā, or, Dialogues of Krĕĕshnă and Ărjŏŏn
(London: for C. Nourse, 1785)

1787: J. P. Paurraud's French translation of Wilkins's Gītā

Charles Wilkins, Le Bhaguat-Geeta; ou, Dialogues de Kreeshna et d'Arjoon
contenant un précis de la religion & de la morale des indiens.
Traduit du Samscrit, la language sacrée des Brahmes, en anglois,
par M. Charles Wilkins (trans. M. Parraud; Paris: Buisson, 1787).

1802: The Bhagavad Gītā was translated into German by Frederich Maier as "Der Bhaguat-Geeta,oder Gespräche zwishen Kreeshna und Arjoon," Asiatische Magazin 1.1.406-453; 1.2 (1802):105-35, 229-55, 273-93, 454-71, 478-90.


1823: August Wilhelm von Schlegel produced an edition which included the Sanskrit text, followed by But these texts, although very important, scarcely gave a full picture.

Harivaṃśa  

1834-1835: The earliest translation of the Harivaṃśa into the Western language was that of A. Langlois's French translation, in two volumes published in 1834 (here and here) and 1835 (here). As Richard Davis writes in his biography of the Bhagavad Gītā, the Harivaṃśa, "presented itself as a supplement (khila) to the Mahābhārata, to relate the story of Krishna (Hari) and his lineage (vamsha)" (Davis 2015, 45). It contains the earliest account of the birth and childhood of Krishna.

Viṣṇu Purāṇa

1840: The Viṣṇu Purāṇa, appeared for the first time in a Western Language in an English translation of 1840. It was another source telling the Krishna story. See H. H. William translation in the Works of the Late H. H. Williams Vol 6 and Vol 7.

Rig Veda

1848-1851: Langlois, Le Rig-Veda (Paris: Firmin, Didot, 1848-51). The first complete translation of the Rig Veda in a Western Language (Preciado-Solis, 1984, 12). Here is Vol 1, Vol 2, and Vol 3. Here is a text edition and you can access all three in digital versions here.

1850-1888: First complete translation of the Rig Veda was in English was done by H. H. Wilson (d. 1860). See Vol 1 (1850) here, Vol 2 (1854) here, Vol 3 (1857) here, Vol 4 (1866) here, Vol 5 (1888) here, Vol 6 (1888) here. Wilson had finished his translation before his death. The latter two volumes represent edited versions. 

Bhāgavata Purāṇa

1840: The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells the story of Krishna, appeared for the first time in a Western language translation, in this case French, in 1840.

Mahābhārata

1842: Mahābhārata: In this year a volume of selections from the Mahabharata appeared in English translation by F. Johnson, with a summary of the whole work by H. H. Wilson.

1883-1886:The first complete edition of the Mahabharata was done in English. This is the earliest account of Krishna's death. The Bhagavad Gita is often regarded as a scene from this work.

The 150th Anniversary of the First Translation of the Mahabharata in Prose by Pradip Bhattacharya (boloji.com)

Ramayana

1806-1810: The Ramayana first translated into English by the Baptist Missionary William Carey and Joshua Marshman. See Vol 1 (1806) here and here, and Vol 2 (1808) here and here. I have yet to find the third and final volume (See Brockington 1998, 548). See further for a large Ramayana links page here. For full text material relating to William Carey see here.

PROBLEM TEXTS

The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa

One of the 18 major purāṇas, the Bhaviṣya Purāṇa has unfortunately been corrupted. Parts of it were written in light of both the biblical book of Genesis and events in modern European history including, for example, British rule. The Bhaviṣya Purāṇa is mistakenly appealed to as an authentically ancient text by the Ahmaddya Muslims to prove that Jesus traveled to India. See Abubakr Ben Ishmael Salahuddin, "Evidence of Jesus(as) in India," Review of Religions (April 2002): 50-51. 

IMPORTANT EARLY BOOKS

R.G. Bhandarker, Vaiṣṇạvism,Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner, 1913).

Edward Upham, The history and doctrine of Budhism, popularly illustrated (London: R. Ackermann, Bath: J. Upham, Exeter: C. Upham, Paris: Dondey-Dupré, Librairie Orientale, Rue Richelieu 1829)

BUDDHIST TEXTS

1844: The Lotus Sūtra translated into French, the first Buddhist sūtra to be translated from Sanskrit into a European Language. In this same year it became the first Buddhist sūtra also to have selections published in America in "The Preaching of Buddha," The Dial 4.3 (Jan 1844): 391-401 (Lopez 2016, 4).

1927: The Tibetan Book of the Dead first translated into a Western language: English. (Lopez, 2011, 3).

????: The Diamond Sūtra was the first Māhāyana sūtra translated. It was translated into German by the Moravian Missionary Isaac Jakob Schmidt (Lopez, 2013, 180-81).

1855: The first complete translation of The Dhammapada into a Western language was Viggo Fausbøll’s in Latin.

1862: The first German translation of The Dhammapada was by Albrecht Weber. 

1870: The Dhammapada was translated into English by F. Max Müller for inclusion in the introduction to Captain T. Rogers, Buddhaghisha’s Parables (London: Trūbner, 1870).

1881: F. Max Müller's The Dhammapada included it in volume 10.1 of his Sacred Books of the East series. (A very nice summary of the history of the English translation of the Dhammapada is provided in the introduction to the 2010 Penguin Classics edition, translated by Valerie J. Roebuck).

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BIBILIOGRAPHY

John Brockington. 1998. The Sanskrit Epics. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Richard H. Davis. 2015. The Bhagavad Gita: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Gavin Flood, ed. 2015. The Bhagavad Gita: Norton Critical Editions. New York.London: W. W. Norton. 

Geoffrey C. Gunn. 2003. First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500 to 1800. Landham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.

Donald S. Lopez Jr. 2016. The Lotus Sūtra: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books; Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 

Daniel S. Lopez Jr. 2013. Stone to Flesh: A Short History of Buddhism. Chicago & London: University of Chicago.

Donald S. Lopez Jr. 2011. The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Biography. Lives of Great Religious Books; Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. 

Moira Nicholls. 1999. "The Influence of Eastern Thought on Schopenhauer’s Doctrine of the Thing-In-Itself,” in The Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer. Ed. by Christopher Janaway. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1999.

Benjamin Preciado-Solis. 1986. The Krsna Cycle in the Puranas: Themes and Motifs in a Heroic Saga. Dehli, India, Motilal Banarsidass.

https://archive.org/details/RocherThePuranas1986400dpiLossy_201803