Dimitrios Galanos or Demetrios Galanos (
Greek: Δημήτριος Γαλανός; 1760–1833) was the earliest recorded
GreekIndologist. His translations of
Sanskrit texts into
Greek made knowledge of the philosophical and religious ideas of
India available to many
Europeans.
Born in
Athens,
Ottoman Empire (present-day
Greece) in 1760, he spent 47 years in India, where he translated many
Hindu sacred texts into Greek and compiled a Sanskrit-English-Greek
dictionary of over 9000 words. He died on 3 May 1833 in
Varanasi, India. He was buried in the
Catholic cemetery there, and his tombstone is inscribed with the epitaph, "ΕΙΣ ΜΝΗΜΗΝ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ ΓΑΛΑΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΥ" (in memory of Dimitrios Galanos the Athenian).
Munshi Sital Singh (a "wise Brahman" who was a friend and teacher of Galanos) wrote these verses in Hindustani, which he affixed above the tomb: "Woe, a hundred times! Dimitrios Galanos departed from this world to the eternal monads. Woe me! Weeping and wailing have I said it. I am out of myself. Ah, he has gone away, the Plato of this century) (Schulz 1969, p. 354).[1] Preceded by a short remembrance in Persian, the following Greek dirge was also added by Ananias, curate to the Patriarch of Sinai: "Demetrios Galanos, the Athenian from Greece, died in the Indies. He was a friend of the Muses and a man of learning. He shone brightly in fame and vocation. He left this wearisome life and departed for a life without affiction and eternal. Out of gratitude, his nephew Pandoleon erects this cenotaph for his eternal memory" (Schulz 1969, p. 355).
Galanos lived at
Calcutta for 6 years. There he was teaching Greek language to the Greek community. Then, at 1793 he went to
Varanasi and he started to translate ancient Indian scripts to Greek till his death.
An International Conference titled "Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018" was organized by the
Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and was held in two phases, one – in New Delhi and the other – in Varanasi, in February, 2018. [2]
Books by Demetrios Galanos
Demetrios Galanos’ books edited by Georgios K.Typaldos are freely accessible in PDF format at the
Greek-Indian Digital Library
Demetrios Galanos' Correspondence with Father Gregorios published in "Indiki Allilografia" by Ilias Tandalidis is freely accessible in PDF format at the
Greek-Indian Digital Library
^The biography of Galanos given in
Prodromos (1845:λʹ) provides the following Greek translation of Sital Singh's verses: "βαβαὶ ἑκατοντάκις! Ὅτ' ὁ Δημήτριος Γαλανὸς Ἀπῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ Κόσμου τούτου εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους μονὰς, Μετὰ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ ὀδυρμοῦ τὸ οἴμοι! Εἶπον ἔξω φρενῶν. Ἀπῆλθε φεῦ! ὁ Πλάτων τοῦ Αἰῶνος."
^International Conference on "Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018"
[1]
Further reading
Burgi-Kyriazi, M., 1984, Demetrios Galanos - Énigme de la Renaissance orientale, Lίbrairie d' Amerique et d' Οrient, Paris.
Schulz, Siegfried A., 1969, "Demetrios Galanos (1760-1833): A Greek Indologist," Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun.), pp. 339–356.
Vassiliades, Demetrios Th. (2000). The Greeks in India (A Survey in Philosophical Understanding). Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN81-215-0921-1.
Καργάκος (Kargakos), Σαράντος Ι. (Sarantos I.) (2006). Δημήτριος Γαλανός ο Αθηναίος 1760-1833 [Dimitrios Galanos the Athenian 1760-1833] (in Greek). Gutenberg.
ISBN9789600105209.
Σπύρου (Spyrou), Μιλτιάδης Αθαν. (Miltiadis A.) (2023). Δημήτριος Γαλανός - Η ζωή και το άγνωστο έργο του στις Ινδίες] [Dimitrios Galanos - His Life and Unknown Work in India] (in Greek). Hellenic Indian Society for Culture & Development (ELINEPA).
ISBN978-618-82624-6-1.