Larisa Dmitrievna Bondar,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Siberian Lessons of the Indian Language: on the History of D.G. Messerschmidt’s Study of Oriental Languages in the Expedition of 1719–1727
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-2-16
The article presents one of the aspects of the activity of the first researcher of Siberia, German physician and naturalist Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt (1685–1735) during his scientific journey of 1719–1727 – the learning of Indian languages. Despite the fact that the primary tasks assigned to him in the expedition concerned the natural science sphere, the traveler collected information about the languages of all the peoples encountered on his route: both the indigenous Siberian peoples and foreigners who lived in Siberian cities. In the first case, the traveler purposefully engaged in fixing vocabulary, compiling dictionaries; with regard to written languages, it should be said rather that the scientist was engaged in their study – both the languages themselves and their writing. Among theme were languages of India. The main teacher of D.G. Messerschmidt was an Indian merchant from Delhi named Parasotamagire, who lived in Irkutsk and accompanied D.G. Messerschmidt on his short journey in 1724 Irkutsk–Udinsk–Selenginsk–Udinsk. The travel journal of D.G. Messerschmidt mentions two more Indian informants (the name of one of them, received in baptism, was Vasily), with whom he had short-term meetings. The article does not consider D.G. Messerschmidt’s studies in the Indian language, which he had in St. Petersburg, after returning from the expedition. The main source of information is his travel journal, which allows us to get an idea of the possibilities of learning Oriental languages from their native speakers in Siberia at the beginning of the 18th century. Journal notes reveal the personality traits of Messerschmidt-researcher – a consistent, purposeful and conscientious scientist who sought to accumulate the fullness of information that circumstances could offer; his amazing organization and ability to work are vividly presented. Despite the fruitful studies in Indian languages, their results in the form of a dictionary or some other special manuscript have not been preserved in the papers of D.G. Messerschmidt, but there are separate dictionary entries among Messerschmidt’s scattered linguistic materials, along with also some dozen Indian words in the final manuscript of D.G. Messerschmidt “Sibiria Perlustrata”, which is a report of his eight-year journey.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 06.01.2023
How to cite: Bondar L.D. Siberian Lessons of the Indian Language: on the History of D.G. Messerschmidt’s Study of Oriental Languages in the Expedition of 1719–1727 // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 2 (28), pp. 192–207. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-2-16.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2023
Keywords: Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt; Oriental languages; Indian languages; study; expedition to Siberia