Papers of Charles Philip Brown

The papers of Charles Philip Brown consisting of three leather-bound volumes being a catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts held in the the Madras College Manuscript Library comprising the author's collection; part of Colonel Mackenzie's collection; part of the East India House Library:

• Catalogues of Paper Volumes in Sanskrit, Teugu, Tamil, Marata, Malaysian in the Madras Library which are transcriptions of the originals on paper and bound as English books;
• Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts - originals in Telugu, Karnataca, Grandha, Devanagara, Malaya, Odhra, Bangla;
• Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts written on palm leaves and on paper.

Charles Philip Brown was born in Calcutta on November 10, 1798 to Rev. David Brown, a missionary, who learnt Sanskrit and other native languages to help him in his work. After his father's death in 1812, Brown moved to England and was selected for a job with the East India Company. He arrived in Madras in 1817, proceeded to learn Telugu, and by 1824 had formed a life-long interest in the literature of the language. His frustrating experiences in learning Telugu caused him to begin compiling a dictionary and grammar text which are still used today.

He also amassed collection of more than 5000 manuscripts in Telegu, Sanskrit and other languages, either as originals or transcriptions at a cost of some 30,000 rupees. By 1845, he had placed his collection with the Madras Literary Society and had compiled the catalogues which comprise this collection in 1847.

Ill heath caused him to leave India in 1855, but he retained his interest in Telugu and was appointed professor of Telugu in London University in 1865, continuing to add new words to his dictionary almost till the end of his life. He died on the 12th of December 1884.

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The source of acquisition is unknown.

In his autobiographical Narrative of the literary life of Charles Philip Brown , the author describes the commissioning, in 1847, of a catalogue of the manuscripts in the Madras College Library. Therefore these documents were dated to 1847-8.

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In his autobiographical Narrative of the literary life of Charles Philip Brown , the author describes the commissioning, in 1847, of a catalogue of the manuscripts in the Madras College Library. The custodial histopry of the items in this collection is otherwise unknown.

A digital copy of the autobiographical Narrative of the literary life of Charles Philip Brown can be found at Google Books.