Thomas Maurice

Maurice, an English divine and scholar, noted particularly for his studies of the antiquities of India, was born about 1755 at Hertford. His turn for historical studies had been fostered at University College by his distinguished tutor Lord Stowell, and he now began to concentrate his attention on the history of India, for treating upon which he made proposals in 1790 in a published letter addressed to the East India directors. The irreligious spirit of the French Revolution, alarming Maurice’s mind, induced him to remodel his first work after it was nearly completed, and to devote a considerable proportion of it to dissertations on the Hindu mythology. In 1791 he came before the public with two volumes of his Indian Antiquities: the rest were brought out at intervals, the completion of the work being mainly owing to the liberality of the early of Harborough; and the seventh and last volume appeared in 1797. This work remains to our day a trustworthy book of reference. Meantime he had undertaken a History of Hindostan, the three volumes of which, in quarto, were published in 1795, 1798, 1799, and a second edition appeared in 1821.