Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron

Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (1731-1805) was a French Orientalist. He gave up studying for the priesthood to pursue his deep interest in Eastern languages.

In India, he learned Persian, Sanskrit, Zend, Avestan, and Pahlavi. He also translated the Upanishads into Latin (1804) and wrote several works on India.

He spent seven-year in India, had recorded in his moving testimony in 1778: "Peaceful Indians,... did the rumor of your riches have to penetrate a clime in which artificial needs know no bounds? Soon, new foreigners reached your shores; inconvenient guests, everything they touched belonged to them....

"If the British ...neglect any longer to enrich Europe's scholars with the Sanskrit scriptures...they will bear the shame of having sacrificed honor, probity, and humanity to the vile love for gold and money, without human knowledge having derived the least luster, the least growth from their conquests."

(source: The Invasion That Never Was - By Michel Danino and Sujata Nahar).