Horace Hayman Wilson, an English orientalist, born in London in 1786, died there, May 8, 1860. He studied medicine, and went to Calcutta in 1808 as assistant surgeon in the East India company's service, but was attached to the mint at Calcutta, and afterward became assay master and secretary. In 1812 he was elected secretary of the Asiatic society of Bengal, and in 1819 was appointed on the commission to remodel the Sanskrit college at Benares. He was elected Boden professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1833, and was appointed librarian at the East India house, and director of the royal Asiatic society. He published a " Sanskrit and English Dictionary" (Calcutta, 1819; 2d ed., enlarged, London, 1832); "Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus, with Plays " (2 vols., Calcutta, 1826-'7; 2d ed., London, 1835), with translations and valuable disquisitions; "History of British India from 1805 to 1835 " (3 vols., London, 1844-'8); " Sanskrit Grammar" (2d ed., London, 1817); besides translations of the Meghadata,, the Sakuntalâ, the Vishnu-Parana, a great part of the Rig- Veda,, and other works.

He made a Bengalee translation of Todd's edition of Johnson's English dictionary (2 vols., Calcutta, 1843).