Papers of John Dowson

• Copy of inscriptions from the East, West and South Walls of a "large cave" in Nanaghat. This document is dated as being in Edinburgh in 1877.
• Collection of Urdu letters which have been identified as dating to around 1866 and being addressed from Punjab. They appear to be petitions from soldiers addressed to the British authorities. There are 8 letters.
• Collection of John Dowson's notebooks. They include three of Dowson's personal English-language notebooks dated to 1844, which tell the story of Drona from the first book of the Mahabharata (possibly copied from another source). There is also a fourth notebook in Urdu which seems to be a diary, journal or copies of more letters, and includes a 1 page Urdu-English dictionary.

John Dowson M.R.A.S.(1820–1881) was a British indologist notable for his work on Hindu texts. Widely considered to be a preeminent authority of Hinduism in his time, Dowson taught in both India and Britain, eventually being made Professor at University College London (1855) as well as teaching at the East India Company College and the Staff College, Sandhurst.

Dowson contributed to the publications of the Royal Asiatic Society throughout his career, having been introduced to the Society by his uncle Edwin Norris, himself a notable Assyriologist.

Open. Please contact the archivist. Details can be found here. The archive is open on Tuesdays and Fridays 10-5, and Thursdays 2-5. Access is to any researcher without appointment but it will help if an appointment is made via phone or email. Please bring photo ID.

Source of Acquisition is unknown.

This material was cataloged by Jake Todd, RAS Volunteer, under the supervision of Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2023.

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These papers are all associated with John Dowson.

The society holds in it's collection several books by John Dowson looking at Indian history and languages.