Thomas Maurice

Thomas Maurice (1754–1824) was a British oriental scholar and historian. The son of a schoolmaster, Maurice was educated at the Wesleyan seminary at Bristol before entering University College, Oxford in 1774, aged 19 (B.A. 1778, M.A. 1808); he was chaplain to the 87th regiment (about 1784), Vicar of Wormleighton, Warwickshire (1798–1824) and Cudham, Kent (1804–24). Maurice was a noted oriental scholar and historian, and assistant-keeper of MSS at the British Museum (1798–24).

Quotes

• In fact, Ram, or Rãma, was the sovereign of Ayodhya, or Audh, a city in the most ancient times of wonderful extent and magnificence, as may be inferred from the present Lucnow’s having been, according to the Brahmin accounts, only a lodge for one of its gates; that he is celebrated as a conqueror of the highest renown, and the deliverer of nations from tyrants, as well as of his consort Sita, from the giant Ravan, king of Lanca; that he was commander-in-chief of a numerous and intrepid race of those large monkeys, which some of our naturalists have denominated Indian satyrs; that the name of his general was Hanumat, the prince of satyrs; and that, by the wonderful activity of such an army, a bridge of rocks was raised over the sea, a part of which the Hindoos suppose still to remain; and he thinks it is probably that series of rocks, which, by Mussulmen and Portuguese, is mistakenly called Adam’s, for it should be Rama’s, bridge. “Might not,” subjoins Sir William, “this army of satyrs have been only a race of mountaineers, whom Rama, if such a monarch ever existed, had civilized.
  • ‘History of Hindustan’, Thomas Maurice. ..quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. chapter 11.

• Naturally, such drastic innovations were bitterly opposed by other segments of the intelligentsia. For well over a millennium, much of Europe had accepted the Old Tes- tament as an infallible testament documenting the history of the human race. Thomas Maurice, for example, complained bitterly in 1812 about "the daring assumptions of certain skeptical French philosophers with respect to the Age of the World . . . argu- ments principally founded on the high assumptions of the Brahmins . . . [which] have a direct tendency to overturn the Mosaic system, and, with it, Christianity." Such schol- ars were greatly relieved by "the fortunate arrival o f . . . the various dissertations, on the subject, of Sir William Jones" (22-23).
  • quoted from Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 1.

• "arguments principally founded on the high assumptions of the Brah- mins . . . could their extravagant claims be substantiated, have a direct tendency to over- turn the Mosaic system, and, with it, Christianity" (Maurice [1812] 1984, 22-23).
  • quoted from Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. Oxford University Press. chapter 2