Post No. 5939 Pictures shown here are taken from various sources including google, Wikipedia, Facebook friends and newspapers. This is a non- commercial blog.
10 Dec 2011 – The Homa bird lives in the air, breeds in the air, lays eggs in the air, but before the eggs reach the surface of the earth they are hatched in the …
Date: 13 JANUARY 2019 GMT Time uploaded in London –7-25 am Post No. 5927
Pictures shown here are taken by London swaminathan. This is a non- commercial
blog.
Sir William
Jones who worked as a judge 200 years ago was a philologist. He translated
several works from Persian and Sanskrit. He translated Manu Smrti with the help
of Sanskrit scholars and published it. He is more famous for his comparative
linguistic studies. He showed the world the relationship between Sanskrit and
other European languages. He was one of the co- founders of Asiatic Society in
Calcutta. He published many research articles in the magazines of the society
and encouraged many people to write research works.
His statue
is in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. This is the most famous cathedral in
London frequented by thousands of tourists every week. The statue of Jones was
sculpted with the Manu Smrti in his hand. The Sanskrit word Manu is visible.
English spelling for Manu is given as Menu, probably that is the spelling he
used in his publication.
The statue was sculpted by John Bacon in 1799 after Jone’s death. Jones died at the age of 47. William Jones was knighted in 1783 and died in 1794.
When I went to
the Cathedral on 11 January, there was an entrance ticket priced at £20. So I
wanted to make sure whether the statue of William Jones is inside the cathedral
or outside. Nobody knew who he was. Many other statues of famous persons like
Nelson and Samuel Johnson inside the cathedral are known to those people. But I
bought the ticket and went inside and asked one of the staff. She was surprised
when I asked for William Jone’s statue. She told me,
“It is
strange that you asked for this man’s statue. He is the least known persons in
the cathedral. Tell me about him”
and then she showed me the statue.
I told her about William Jones and said that he is
one of the famous Indologists and even a stamp was released in India to
celebrate his contributions to the study of Indian culture.
Though photography was not allowed inside the cathedral I asked her permission to take pictures of only that statue. She gave me the permission and I took the pictures from various angles (Please see the attached pictures).
St Paul
Cathedral was seen by millions of people around the word when Charles and Diana
married there in 1981. The cathedral has a chequered history. It was burnt down several times and rebuilt in
the past 1400 years. The last fire accident was in 1666, what is known as the ‘Great
Fire of London’. The fire was raging for four days destroying the heart of London.
Now the cathedral looks beautiful and it is one of the tourist attractions. It
is huge like our South Indian Temples. Though £20 entrance ticket is too much,
they need money to maintain such a beautiful architecture. I was happy when I took
the pictures of William Jones with Manu Smrti in his hand.
Tamil and Vedas 