Vincent Arthur Smith

Vincent Arthur Smith, CIE, (1848–1920) was a British Indologist and art historian.

Biography

Smith was born in Dublin on 3 June 1848 which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. His father was Dr Aquilla Smith, well known in medical and numismatic circles in Dublin and London.^[1]

He passed the Indian Civil Services exam in 1871 and was appointed to what would become the United Provinces in India. He would go to serve between 1871–1900 in a variety of magisterial and executive positions including terms as district and sessions judge eventually retiring as commissioner in July 1900.^[1]

By 1910 Smith was settled in Oxford where he joined St. John's College and was appointed a Curator of the Indian Institute.^[1]

After his return to England, Smith wrote books on various rulers such as the Buddhist emperor, Ashoka and the Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a history of fine arts in India and Ceylon. He also published two comprehensive volumes on Indian history, The Early History of India and The Oxford History of India.^[1]

Smith was honoured with the award of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire^[2] and awarded a doctorate by Dublin University in 1919.^[1]

Works

• General index to the reports of the Archaeological Survey of India: Volumes I to XXIII, with a glossary and general table of contents, Simla, Government Central Press, 1887. - Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1969
• William Henry Sleeman (ed.): Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official, Westminster Reprint edition of the 1893 (2 volumes), New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1995
• Preface to Purna Chandra Mukherji: A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities of Kapilavastu Tarai of Nepal during February and March, 1899, Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1901; Delhi Indological Book House, 1969.
• "The Kushān, or Indo-Scythian, Period of Indian History, B.C. 165 to A.D. 320," pp. 1–64 in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London), 1903.
• "Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum Calcutta", in The Cabinet of the Asiatic Society of Bengal: Part 1, Oxford, 1906
• Smith, Vincent Arthur (1906). Williams Jackson, A. V., ed. History of India: From Sixth century B.C. to Mohammedan Conquest. History of India. 2. London: Grolier Society. 
• A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day, Oxford, 1911
• Smith, Vincent Arthur (1917). Akbar the Great Mogul, 1542-1605. Oxford at The Clarendon Press. 
• The Oxford history of India : from the earliest times to the end of 1911, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1920
• Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India, 1 ed. Oxford 1901; 3rd ed., Rulers of India series, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1920
• A history of fine art in India and Ceylon from the earliest times to the present day, 2. rev ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930
• François Bernier (ed.), Travels in the Mogul Empire, AD 1656–1668. Reprint, Delhi: Low Price Publications, 1994.
• The Jain Stûpa and other antiquities of Mathurâ, 2nd ed., Varanasi : Indological Book House, 1969.
• Early History of India

References

Further reading

• "Smith, Vincent Arthur". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36164.  (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)