OVER the centuries, there have been many a European who learnt and loved Urdu and then carried out some academic work on the language or its literature. Many of them are remembered and admired.

But then there are some others, forgotten and little known. So much so that even some serious students of Urdu will draw blank stares if you name these scholars. AnquetilDuperron belongs to this second order, thoughhe deserves kudosfor what he did some two-and-a-half century ago.

Unlike Garcin de Tassy (17941878), the great French scholar of Urdu who never travelled to the Indo-Pak subcontinent but wrote a lot on its language and literature Anquetil-Duperron did come to the subcontinent. He sailed in February 1755 and landed in August 1755 atPondicherry, the French colony in south-eastern India. He lived in India for about eight years, travelling far and wide.

Anquetil-Duperron intended to gain knowledge of eastern religions, learn eastern languages, especially Sanskrit and Avestan, and, if possible, collect their manuscripts.

Avestan, a very old language of Zoroastrians or Parsees, was used in religious gatherings and rituals centuries ago. It had become extinct but its texts were committed to writing between 400 and 500 AD.

Sanskrit, the religious language of Hinduism, had also been used in some historical works of Jainism and Buddhism. Anquetil-Duperron`s inquisitiveness had sparked in him an extreme love of these languages.

Born in Paris in December 1731, Abraham Hyacinthe AnquetilDuperron had studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew but later on developed an interest in eastern languages,particularly Arabic. His curiosity and desire to learn eastern religious languages and get their manuscripts increased manifold when he was shown a facsimile of an eastern language manuscript that had not been deciphered. The original was at Oxford`s Bodleian Library.

Duperron also came to know of nearly 200 manuscripts of Sanskrit and Avestan that James Fraser had brought from India but could not work on them as he died at a young age in 1754. Duperron decided to travel to India and obtain such manuscripts as Fraser had collected.

Anquetil-Duperron is, in fact, one of the earliest Frenchmen who did academic work on eastern languages and literatures and brought many oriental manuscripts to France from India.

While in India, Duperron learnt Sanskrit, Persian and Avestan. He visited sacred places of Hinduism, stayed in Surat, Gujarat, for quitesome time, where he met Zoroastrian priests and then travelled to Bengal and southern and central parts of India. He returned to Paris in 1762, bringing with him a treasure of about 180 manuscripts and other antiquities. In 1762, he published a report on his travel to India and became quite famous. He also published several other works including a summary of manuscripts that he had collected. His French translation of Zend-Avesta, attributed to Zoroaster, however, became controversial as questions were raised about its authenticity and genuineness.

According to Dr Agha Iftikhar Husain, the Anquetil-Duperron`s manuscripts housed at National Library, Paris, also include a 17thcentury manuscript of a dictionary.

On that manuscript, AnquetilDuperron had written in French a note and Agha Sahib translated it into Urdu. What Duperron wrote issummed up here: when I was in Surat in 1758, I saw a very old and precious manuscript in possession of a Capuchin missionary. It was a Moor-French dictionary [Europeans often referred to Urdu as Moor or Moorish back then]. But I could not copy it down. I read a book published in 17771 from Rome and it said at the Library of Propaganda, Rome, there was a similar manuscript. By the grace of God and great Papal kindness, I was able to get that manuscript named `Thesaurus Linguae Indianae`, a dictionary in four languages, i.e. Latin, Hindi, French and Moor. I have copied it down very carefully. This dictionary was deposited in the Library of Propaganda at Rome in 1704 and was written by F. Francisiain Marie de Tours at Surat, probably in the second half of 17th century.

(Anquetil-Duperron, Paris, March 10, 1784). G. A. Grierson has also mentioned this dictionary`s manu-script and according to him he tried to trace it in Rome in 1890 but could not find it (Linguistic Survey of India, Vol. 9).

Many of Anquetil-Duperron`s manuscripts and some other manuscripts -especially Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and Persian manuscripts were preserved at Bibliotheque Nationale, or National Library, Paris, and Guimet Museum, Paris, as Agha Iftikhar Husain mentioned in his three books: Europe Mein Tehqeeqi Mutal`e (Lahore, 1967), Europe Mein Urdu (Lahore, 1968) and Makhtootaat-i-Paris (Karachi, 1967). Agha Iftikhar Husain had prepared a catalogue of Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and Sindhi manuscripts preserved at these museums while he was in Paris and later on it was published from Pakistan.

Anquetil-Duperron died in Paris on Jan 17, 1805.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com