Dimitrios Galanos

Dimitrios Galanos or Demetrios Galanos (Greek: Δημήτριος Γαλανός; 1760–1833) was the earliest recorded Greek Indologist. His translations of Sanskrit texts into Greek made knowledge of the philosophical and religious ideas of India available to many Europeans.

Portrait of Dimitrios Galanos by Spyridon Prosalentis. The original now resides in the gallery of the University of Athens

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.

A "Dimitrios Galanos" Chair for Hellenic Studies was established at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India in September 2000.

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

• Galanos, Demetrios. LEXICON Sanskrit-English-Greek. Konidaris Publications, Athens. (2010) ISBN 978-960-392-123-3

Notes

1. The biography of Galanos given in Prodromos (1845:λʹ) provides the following Ancient 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."
2. International Conference on "Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018"

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.
• Schulz, Siegfried A., 2004, "Demetrios Galanos: The Bhagavad Gita in Greek," INDIKA, Hellenic-Indian Society for Culture & Development (ELINEPA).
• Vassiliades, Demetrios Th., 2020, “Dimitrios Galanos (1760 – 1833) – the forerunner of Greek Indology,” INDIKA, Hellenic-Indian Society for Culture & Development (ELINEPA).
• Vassiliades, Demetrios Th. (2000). The Greeks in India (A Survey in Philosophical Understanding). Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 81-215-0921-1.
• Καργάκος (Kargakos), Σαράντος Ι. (Sarantos I.) (2006). Δημήτριος Γαλανός ο Αθηναίος 1760-1833 [Dimitrios Galanos the Athenian 1760-1833] (in Greek). Gutenberg. ISBN 9789600105209.
• 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). ISBN 978-618-82624-6-1.

External links

• Demetrios Galanos: Photo Gallery
• International Conference on “Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy: Indo-Greek scholarship 1790-2018” Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts & Banaras Hindu University, New Delhi, Varanasi 2018.
• Event “The research work of Indologist Miltiadis Spyrou and the unknown publications of Demetrios Galanos in India,” Academy of Athens, 2023.