Lot 161
Hoisington, Henry Richard (translator)
The Oriental Astronomer
Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208
Description
being a Complete System of Hindu Astronomy, accompanied with a Translation and Numerous Explanatory Notes. Jaffna: American Mission Press, 1848, Jaffna: American Mission Press, 1848. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed ‘H. R. Hoisington, jun., from his aff[ectiona]te Father, W[illia]mstown, June 1850’ on the initial blank, ‘2 parts in 1 volume, 8vo (21 x 13cm), modern calf-backed marbled boards, [4] 177, [2] 2 145 [2] pp., text in Tamil and English, separate dated title-page to second part, corrigenda leaf to rear, ink annotation in Hoisington’s hand to part 2 p. 3 [Houzeau & Lancaster 496]
Provenance
INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA
Footnote
Henry Hoisington (1801-1858), an American missionary, travelled to Ceylon in the 1830s and was later appointed principal of the Batticotta Seminary on the Jaffna peninsula. The work is a bilingual English and Tamil edition of a Sanskrit work which Hoisington names the ‘Parakitham’, the Tamil translation being attributed to a scholar named Ullamudeian.