>GiantSnowman at 09:11, 5 May 2021

2021-05-05T09:11:02Z

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{short description|British civil servant in North-Western Provinces, India}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Frederic Growse
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = Frederic Salmon Growse
| birth_date = 1836
| birth_place = [[Suffolk]], England
| death_date = 19 May {{death year and age|1893|1836}}
| death_place = [[Haslemere]], Surrey, England
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = [[District magistrate|District magistrate and collector]] for [[Indian Civil Service]]
| years_active = 1860-1890
| known_for = *Founded [[Government Museum, Mathura|Government Museum]] at Mathura
| notable_works = *English translation of the ''[[Ramcharitmanas|Ramayana]]'' of [[Tulsidas]]
}}
'''Frederic Salmon Growse''' {{post-nominals|list=[[Order of the Indian Empire|C.I.E.]]}} (1836 — 19 May 1893) was a British civil servant of the [[Indian Civil Service]] (ICS), Hindi scholar, archaeologist and [[District magistrate|collector]], who served in [[Mathura]] and [[Bulandshahr]] in the [[North-Western Provinces]] during [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British rule in India]].

He studied Indian literature and languages, and founded the [[Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart]] and the Government Museum, both at Mathura. Between 1876 and 1883, he published in series, the first English translation of the ''[[Ramcharitmanas|Ramayana]]'' of [[Tulsidas]]. He also wrote ''Mathurá: A district memoir'' (1880) and a description of the district of Bulandshahr (1884) and of its new architecture (1886).

Described as "never a ''[[persona grata]]'' to his superiors", he was nonetheless [[Gazetted Officer (India)|gazetted]] CIE in 1879.<ref name=JRAS1893/> At Bulandshahr between 1878 and 1884 he caused a number of buildings to be constructed using local designs and craftsmen. In 1882, he donated a collection of Indian pottery to the [[British Museum]].

==Early life and education==
Frederic Growse was born in [[Suffolk]], England, in 1836, the third and youngest son of Robert<ref name="who">{{cite web |title=Growse, Frederic Salmon – Persons of Indian Studies by Prof. Dr. Klaus Karttunen |url=https://whowaswho-indology.info/2458/2458/ |access-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124033648/https://whowaswho-indology.info/2458/2458/ |archive-date=13 April 2021}}</ref><ref name="Luzac1894">{{cite book|title=Luzac's Oriental List and Book Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X4spAAAAYAAJ|year=1894|publisher=Luzac & Company|page=118}}</ref> and Mary Growse.<ref>[https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWJQ-FZD Frederic Salmon Growse England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975.] Family Search. Retrieved 15 April 2021. {{subscription required}}</ref> He [[matriculation|matriculated]] from [[Oriel College]] in 1855 and then gained a scholarship at [[Queen's College, Oxford|Queen's College]], Oxford, from where he received a master's degree after being in the first class of [[moderations]] and second class of [[classics]]. He was a contemporary of [[Charles Crosthwaite]].<ref name=JRAS1893>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25197161 "Notes of the Quarter (April, May, June, 1893) III Obituary Notices"], ''[[Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]]'', July 1893, pp. 650–652.</ref><ref name="who"/> In 1859, he passed the ICS examination.<ref name=JRAS1893/><ref name="who"/> At an unknown date he converted to [[Catholicism]] and was described as a "zealous observer of its precepts" but "without any bigotry".<ref name=OUI1893/>

==Career==
[[File:Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Mathura.png|thumb|Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Mathura<ref name="Growse1883Mathura"/>]]
[[File:Collector's House, Bulandshahr.jpg|thumb|Collector's House, Bulandshahr<ref name=today/>]]
Having joined the Indian Civil Service in 1860,<ref name=JRAS1893/> Growse went to India in either 1860<ref name=OUI1893>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AGAaAQAAIAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA223 "Obituary"], ''[[The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record]]'', New Series, Vol. VI, Nos. 11 & 12 (1893). pp. 223–225.</ref> or 1864.<ref name=stamp>Stamp, Gavin. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41373304 "British Architecture in India 1857-1947"], ''[[Journal of the Royal Society of Arts]]'', Vol. 129, No. 5298 (May 1981), pp. 357–379. {{subscription required}}</ref> He was posted to the [[North-Western Provinces]], one of the [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|regions of British India]], where at first he studied Indian literature and languages.<ref name=JRAS1893/> In 1868, he was a district assistant in [[Mainpuri]] (western UP)<ref name="Talbot2016">{{cite book|last=Talbot|first=Cynthia|title=The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3DjCgAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|language=English|isbn=978-1-107-11856-0|page=210}}</ref> and in the 1870s he was appointed district collector at [[Mathura]],<ref name=MathuraMuseum>[http://www.mathura-vrindavan.com/mathura/museum.htm Government Museum], Mathura - Vrindavan. Retrieved 15 April 2021.</ref> the birth place of [[Krishna]].<ref name="Morris2005">{{cite book|last=Morris|first=Jan |title=Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8zD1Ugfq9KwC|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-280596-7|page=165}}</ref> There he built the [[Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart]], paying for a third of its cost.<ref name=JRAS1893/><ref name=OUI1893/> Its design was based on [[John Ruskin|John Ruskin's]] principles of architecture, and it was built using local craftsmanship,<ref name="Morris2005"/> but was unfinished at the time of his transfer out of the district.<ref name="Growse1883Mathura">{{cite book |last1=Growse |first1=Frederic Salmon |title=Mathurá: A district memoir|date=1883 |publisher=North-western provinces and Oudh government Press |location=Allahabad |pages=160–162 |url=https://archive.org/details/mathurdistrict00growrich/page/n203/mode/2up?view=theater}}</ref> He also founded the [[Government Museum, Mathura|Government Museum]] there in 1874.<ref name=MathuraMuseum/>

He was subsequently [[district magistrate and collector]] at Bulandshahr where he lived at Collector's House from 1876 to 1884.<ref name=today>{{Cite web|title=Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in the New Buildings of Bulandshahr District, Part II · Highlights from the Digital Content Library|url=https://dcl.dash.umn.edu/highlights/items/show/256|access-date=15 April 2021|website=dcl.dash.umn.edu}}</ref> By that time he was a fellow of [[Calcutta University]].<ref name="Growse1883">{{cite book |last1=Growse |first1=F. S. |title=The Ramayana of Tulsidas |date=1883 |publisher=Allahabad |pages=i-xx |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283665 |chapter=Inside cover and introduction}}</ref> At Bulandshahr between 1878 and 1884 he caused a number of buildings to be constructed using native designs and craftsmen which he saw as more in keeping with his "[[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic principles]]" than the utilitarian colonial buildings preferred by the Public Works Department (PWD). According to [[Gavin Stamp]], Growse so irritated the PWD that they had him moved to another district.<ref name=stamp/>

Growse was district magistrate and collector at [[Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh|Fatehpur]], Uttar Pradesh, from 1885 to 1886 where he produced a supplement to the ''Fatehpur Gazetteer'' paying particular attention to architecture and archaeology which had been largely ignored by the author of the original gazetteer in 1884 who Growse thought had probably not visited any of the places about which he had written, relying instead on native informants who were not equipped to comment on such matters.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/supplementtofact00growrich/page/n5/mode/2up "Preface"] in F. S. Growse. (1887) ''A Supplement to the Fatehpur Gazetteer''. Allahabad: Government Press. pp. 1-3 (p. 1).</ref>

He donated a collection of Indian pottery to the [[British Museum]] in 1882.<ref name="BrMuseum">{{cite web |title=Frederic Salmon Growse|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG10266 |website=www.britishmuseum.org |access-date=13 April 2021}}</ref>

==Writing==
In 1868 at Mainpuri, Growse produced an article on the ''[[Prithviraj Raso]]'', a poem about the 12th-century Hindu Emperor, [[Prithviraj Chauhan]].<ref name="Talbot2016">{{cite book|last=Talbot|first=Cynthia|title=The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3DjCgAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|language=English|isbn=978-1-107-11856-0|page=210}}</ref><ref name=Talbot2015>{{Citation|title=Validating Pṛthvīrāj Rāso in colonial India, 1820s–1870s|date=2015|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/last-hindu-emperor/validating-prthviraj-raso-in-colonial-india-1820s1870s/990D880379981B38AC277B561F52A60A|work=The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Chauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000|pages=183–218|editor-last=Talbot|editor-first=Cynthia|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-11856-0|access-date=19 April 2021|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 1874, six years after the first local text on the subject was published,<ref name=JRAS1893/> the government press at Allahabad published his enlarged version in a book titled ''Mathura: A District Memoir'' with illustrations by the [[Autotype Fine Art Company]].<ref name=JRAS1893/><ref name="BaylyBayly1999">{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Christopher Alan |title=Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bqEzPPp8xIC|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-57085-9|page=356}}</ref> In it he included early [[Buddhist]] archeology, and chapters on [[Hindu denominations|Hindu sects]] and the origin of place names.<ref name=JRAS1893/>

In Mathura, he became intrigued by the popularity among its ordinary people of the ''[[Ramcharitmanas|Ramayana]]'' of [[Tulsidas]].<ref name="BurgerPozza2010">{{cite book|last1=Burger|first1=Maya |last2=Pozza|first2=Nicola|title=India in Translation Through Hindi Literature: A Plurality of Voices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obTJsLl_YTQC&pg=PA164|volume=2|year=2010|publisher=Peter Lang|location=Bern|language=English|isbn=978-3-0343-0564-8|pages=164–180}}</ref> In 1876 he published his translation into English<ref name="Growse1883"/><ref name="BaylyBayly1999"/> of the original text by Tulsidas. Growse published a revised version in 1880 as a four-volume second edition and published a full version in 1883.<ref name="BOA">{{cite web |title=The Ramayana of Tulsi Das. Tulsi Das; Frederic Salmon Growse, translator |url=https://www.booksofasia.com/stock_detail.php?stockid=116347 |website=www.booksofasia.com |access-date=19 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419163957/https://www.booksofasia.com/stock_detail.php?stockid=116347 |archive-date=19 April 2021}}</ref> It was the first illustrated version of the complete English translation of the ''Ramcharitmanas'',<ref name="BOA"/> which he completed in Bulandshahr.<ref name="Growse1883"/> He writes in the introduction that the epic [[Sanskrit]] ''Ramayana'' of [[Valmiki]] had been translated into several languages including English, but the more popular [[Awadhi language|Hindi]] version, a retelling of [[Rama]]'s life, titled ''Ramcharitmanas'' by Tulsidas, previously had not been translated into English.<ref name="Growse1883"/>

In 1884 he published ''Bulandshahr; or, Sketches of an Indian district; social, historical and architectural''.<ref name=JRAS1893/> His obituary in the journal of the ''[[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]]'' describes this work as "chiefly interesting as showing how he was able to transfer his sympathies from a Hindu to a [[Musulman]] population, when the requirements of a bureaucratic regime compelled his removal".<ref name=JRAS1893/>

==Later life==
Due to ill-health, Growse retired to England in 1890,<ref name="who"/><ref name=OUI1893/> where he lived at [[Thursley Hall]], [[Haslemere]], and was active in the [[Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History]].<ref name="SIA1891">[https://archive.org/details/proceedingssuff01histgoog/page/n26/mode/2up "List of Members, 1892"], ''[[Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History]]'', Vol. VIII (1894), Part I, pp. iii-ix (p. v.)</ref> He updated and revised their volume of materials on the history of the Suffolk parish of [[Bildeston]] in 1891 which was published in 1892.

==Death and legacy==
Growse died from [[tuberculosis]] at Haslemere, Surrey, on 19 May 1893.<ref name=JRAS1893/> Probate was granted to Lydia Catherine Growse on an estate of £5,224.<ref>[https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar/GetImgSrc?filePath=%2F1893%2FG%2F000905_groves_1893.Png 1893 Probate Calendar.] p. 256.</ref> Growseganj Gate, one of Bulandshahr's four gates is named for him.<ref name=2011CensusBulandshahr>[https://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB_A/09/0911_PART_A_DCHB_BULANDSHAHR.pdf "Census of India 2011: Bulandshahr village and town directory"]. Series 10, PART XII-A.</ref><ref name="Nevill1922">{{cite book |last1=Nevill |first1=H. R. |title=District Gazetteers Of The United Provinces Of Agra And Oudh Bulandshar Vol-V |date=1922 |publisher=Government Branch Press |location=Lucknow |pages=204–208|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.1369/page/n217/mode/2up?q=Growseganj+}}</ref>

In 2014, a seminar was given at the [[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]] titled "Familiarity with the Familiar: Frederick Salmon Growse's Fragmentary Visions of the Architecture of Bulandshahr, 1878-1886".<ref>[https://www.indiaculture.nic.in/sites/default/files/Annual_Reports_Organizations/AnnualReportEnglishNehruMemorialMuseumandLibrary_2014-2015_05.04.2018.pdf ''49th Annual Report 2014-2015'']. Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 2015. p. 28.</ref>

==See also==
*[[John Beames]]

==Selected publications==
===Articles===
* [https://archive.org/details/journalofasiatic48asia/page/270/mode/2up "Bulandshahr Antiquities"], ''[[Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal]]'', Vol. 48 (1879), No. 4, pp. 270–276.

===Books===
* ''[https://archive.org/details/mathurdistrict00growrich Mathurá: A district memoir'']. Allahabad: North-western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1874.
* ''The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás, Book 1. Childhood''. Allahabad: North-western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1876.
*[https://archive.org/details/rmyanatulsids04growgoog/page/n3/mode/2up ''The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás, Book 1. Childhood'']. Allahabad: North-western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1880.
*[https://archive.org/details/rmyanatulsids05growgoog ''The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás. Part III-VI'']. Allahabad: North-western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1880.
*[https://archive.org/details/rmyanatulsids05growgoog ''The Rámáyana of Tulsi Dás'']. Allahabad: North-western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1883.
* [https://archive.org/details/bulandshahrorsk00growgoog/page/n8 ''Bulandshahr; or, Sketches of an Indian district; social, historical and architectural'']. Benares: Medical Hall Press, 1884.
* ''Indian Architecture of To-day as Exemplified in New Buildings in the Bulandshahr District Part I''. North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, 1885. ''Part II''. Benares: Medical Hall Press, 1886.
* ''[https://archive.org/details/supplementtofact00growrich/page/n3/mode/2up A Supplement to the Fatehpur Gazetteer]''. Allahabad: Government Press, 1887.
* ''Materials for a History of the Parish of Bildeston, in the County of Suffolk. With pedigrees and genealogical notices ... Compiled in the year 1859, revised and brought up to date in 1891, by F. S. Growse''. London: Mitchell & Hughes, 1892.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{commons category inline|Frederic Growse}}

{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Growse, Frederic Salmon}}
[[Category:1836 births]]
[[Category:1893 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British civil servants]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in England]]
[[Category:Indian Civil Service (British India) officers]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:Indologists]]
[[Category:Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:People from Suffolk]]
[[Category:English collectors]]
[[Category:English Catholics]]
[[Category:Magistrates]]
[[Category:English non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Converts to Catholicism]]

Frederic Growse - Revision history

>GiantSnowman at 09:11, 5 May 2021