Robert Caesar Childers
{{Short description|British Orientalist (1838–1876)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Robert Caesar Childers
| image = RobertCaesarChilders.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth year|1838}}
| birth_place = Cantley, South Yorkshire, England{{r|Gardiner}}
| death_date = {{death date and given age|1876|07|25|38|df=y}}
| death_place = Weybridge{{r|DONB}} or London,{{r|EB}} England
| resting_place = Highgate Cemetery
| alma_mater = Wadham College, Oxford
| known_for = A Dictionary of the Pali Language (1875)
| spouse = Anna Mary Henrietta Barton
| children = 5, including Erskine Childers
| relatives = {{ubl|Erskine Hamilton Childers (grandson)|Erskine Barton Childers (great-grandson)|Nessa Childers (great-granddaughter)}}
| awards = Prix Volney (1876)
}}
Robert Caesar Childers ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|ɪ|l|d|ər|z}}; 1838{{snd}}25 July 1876) was a British Orientalist and the compiler of the first Pali{{ndash}}English dictionary to be published. He was the father of the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers and the paternal grandfather of the fourth president of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.
Life
=Early years=
Childers was born in 1838 in Cantley, South Yorkshire, the son of Reverend Charles Childers, an English chaplain in Nice.{{r|Gardiner|Guruge|DONB|EB}}
In 1857, at the age of nineteen, he was admitted to Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied Hebrew.{{r|Gardiner|Guruge}}
=Ceylon=
From 1860 to 1864, Childers was employed by the civil service in Ceylon, first as private secretary to the governor, Charles Justin MacCarthy, and then as office assistant to the government agent in Kandy.{{r|Guruge|DONB}}
During his time in Ceylon, he studied Sinhala and Pali with Ven. Yātrāmulle Śrī Dhammārāma Thera at Bentota Vanavāsa Vihāra, and established a firm friendship with Ven. Waskaḍuwe Śrī Subhūti.{{r|Guruge|DONB}}
His time there was brought to an end when ill health forced him to return to England.{{r|DONB|EB}}
=Pali dictionary=
Upon his return to England, Childers continued his study of Pali, influenced by Reinhold Rost and Viggo Fausböll.{{r|Guruge}}
In 1870, he published the text of the Khuddaka Pāṭha with an English translation and notes in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. This was the first Pali text ever printed in England.{{r|Childers|DONB|EB}}
The first volume of his Pali dictionary was published in 1872. In the autumn of that year, he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office under Reinhold Rost, and early in the following year became the first professor of Pali and Buddhist literature at University College, London.{{r|DONB|Guruge}}
The second and concluding volume was published in 1875. A few months later, the dictionary was awarded the Prix Volney for 1876 by the Institut de France.{{r|DONB|EB}}
=Family=
Childers was married to Anna Mary Henrietta Barton, who came from an Anglo-Irish family with an estate in Glendalough, County Wicklow.{{r|Trinity}} Childers and his wife had five children (two sons and three daughters).{{r|Guruge}}
=Death=
Childers died from tuberculosis on 25 July 1876, at the age of thirty-eight.{{r|DONB|Trinity}} Thomas William Rhys Davids states in the Dictionary of National Biography that Childers died in Weybridge,{{r|DONB}} but the Encyclopædia Britannica records his place of death as London.{{r|EB}}
Notable works
=Papers=
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1870|title=Khuddaka Páṭha, a Páli Text, with a Translation and Notes|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=4|issue=2|pages=309{{ndash}}339|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00016002|jstor=25207679|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1871|title=Notes on Dhammapada, with Special Reference to the Question of Nirvâṇa|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=5|issue=2|pages=219{{ndash}}230|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00161246|jstor=44012782|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1875|title=Notes on the Sinhalese Language. No. I. On the Formation of the Plural of Neuter Nouns|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=7|issue=1|pages=35{{ndash}}48|doi=10.1017/S0035869X0001635X|jstor=25207694|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1875|title=The Pali Text of the Mahâparinibbâna Sutta and Commentary, with a Translation|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=7|issue=1|pages=49{{ndash}}80|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00016361|jstor=25207695|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1876|title=DAKKH in Pali|journal=Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen|volume=8|issue=2|pages=150{{ndash}}155|jstor=23458831|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1876|title=Notes on the Sinhalese Language. No. II. Proofs of the Sanskritic Origin of Sinhalese|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=8|issue=1|pages=131{{ndash}}155|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00016646|jstor=25207724|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1876|title=The Pali Text of the Mahâparinibbâna Sutta and Commentary, with a Translation (Continued from Vol. VII. N.S. p. 80)|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=8|issue=2|pages=219{{ndash}}261|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00016683|jstor=25207729|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1879|title=On Sandhi in Pali|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=11|issue=1|pages=99{{ndash}}121|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00017184|jstor=25196820|jstor-access=free}}
- {{cite journal|last1= Vijasinha|first1=L. Comrilla|last2=Childers|first2=R. C.|date=1871|title=On the Origin of the Buddhist Arthakathás|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=5|issue=2|pages=289{{ndash}}302|doi=10.1017/S0035869X0016126X|jstor=44012784|jstor-access=free}}
=Books=
- {{cite book|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1875|title=A Dictionary of the Pali Language|url=https://archive.org/details/a-dictionary-of-the-pali-language-robert-caesar-childers-1875|location=London|publisher=Trübner & Co}}
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite journal|last=Childers|first=R. C.|date=1870|title=Khuddaka Páṭha, a Páli Text, with a Translation and Notes|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=4|issue=2|pages=309{{ndash}}339|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00016002 |jstor=25207679|jstor-access=free}}
{{cite web|title="It doesn't matter what you think of me. I know you love me-" – Erskine Childers' goodbye|url=https://trinitycollegelibrarycambridge.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/it-doesnt-matter-what-you-think-of-me-i-know-you-love-me-erskine-childers-goodbye/|publisher=Trinity College Library, Cambridge|date=24 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221124164042/https://trinitycollegelibrarycambridge.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/it-doesnt-matter-what-you-think-of-me-i-know-you-love-me-erskine-childers-goodbye/|archive-date=24 November 2022|url-status=live}}
}}
{{Wikisource author}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Childers, Robert Caesar}}
Category:Academics of University College London
Category:Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford
Category:British lexicographers
Category:British scholars of Buddhism
Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery