ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Linguistic Survey of India is a comprehensive survey of the Language of British India, describing 364 languages and dialects. At the Oriental Congress held at Vienna, it was noted that the number of Indian Languages was unknown with estimates varying from twenty to 250. A resolution was passed urging the government to undertake a deliberate systematic survey of the languages of India. In 1900 the author moved to England for convenience of consulting European libraries and Scholars. By 1903 most of the data had come in. On Tibetan Languages the author worked with Sten Kono. On 8 may 1928 the completion of the Linguistic Survey of India was celebrated at the Criterion Restaurant by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland with Lord Birkenhead. It is a monumental publication describing every known Languages and dialects of South Asian subcontinent.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sir George Abraham Grierson, OM, KCIE (1851-1941) was an Irish administrator and Linguist in India. He won Prizes for studies in Sanskrit and Hindustani, become magistrate and collector at Patna. He proposed a formal Linguistic survey at the Oriental Congress in 1886 at Vienna. The congress recommended the idea to the British Government and he was appointed Superintendent of the newly created Linguistic Survey of India in 1898. He continued the work until 1928 and published the findings of the Linguistic Survey in a series that consisted of volumes and parts. Grierson received an honorary Doctorate (D. Litt) from the University of Dublin in June 1902. In 1928 he was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM) and was a Sir William Jones Gold medallist in 1929. He was appointed CIE in 1894 and KCIE in 1912. |
