Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Boden Professor of Sanskrit/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by Giants2008 20:08, 25 July 2012 [1].

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Boden Professor of Sanskrit

Boden Professor of Sanskrit (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

• Featured list candidates/Boden Professor of Sanskrit/archive1

Nominator(s): Bencherlite^Talk 21:31, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Back in the days of the ever-expanding British empire in the 19th century, an army officer called Boden left a small fortune to Oxford University to establish a Sanskrit professorship. But there was an overt purpose: not scholarship for its own sake, but scholarship with the purpose of bringing Christianity to India. Over time, this all got a bit embarrassing, and not without a major fight between scholarship and religious fervour at one election (see Boden Professor of Sanskrit election, 1860 now at WP:GAN (hint, hint) - spoiler alert, religious fervour wins...). Nowadays the professor teaches Sanskrit without worrying about whether his scholarship is going to convert the masses. This started life as an attempt to fill a couple of redlinks on previous lists, and as usual I ended up having to write a couple of articles about missing professors to make it complete. Apologies to TRM that it's another dark blue list; I'll do something for Cambridge one of these days. Enjoy! Bencherlite^Talk 21:31, 18 June 2012 (UTC)

Resolved comments from The Rambling Man (talk) 19:47, 19 June 2012 (UTC)

Some quickies another nice bit of work, I enjoyed reading it and despite my natural inclination to incinerate the article, I've provided some "constructive" comments herewithbelow: Our article (specifically about the British Army) seems to use Lieutenant colonel (note both link and capitalisation). Just a thought. A Google Books search for usage at the time has "LC" and "L-C", the ODNB has "l-c" (but not as a title), so there are multiple ways... In fact, the source given by the WP article on LC(UK) is this one, which uses "LC", so I'll stick with what I've got apart from refining the link as you suggest. B You haven't linked "sanskrit" early doors. Done. B And "a Sanskrit chair " may be a little odd to most people who recognise that a chair is something one place's one's backside on.... Done. B "by Convocation (a large body of Oxford graduates)" judging by our article, Convocation is not just about Oxford grads which this note seems to imply. removed from the lead, because it's too complicated to explain in brackets there. We need a decent article on the topic for Oxford. B "The first two professors were elected by Convocation (a large body of Oxford graduates). Horace Hayman Wilson won by a narrow majority in 1832" mildly confused (I know, I would be) but on nearly immediate retrospect, perhaps put a semi-colon instead of a full stop here so we know the first two profs are the two you go on to talk about in the following sentences... I used a colon instead. B Just a note, I love the fact that the lead image photo was taken by Lewis Carroll. Fantabulous. Indeedy. B "when the university statutes were revised," is there a good link for uni statutes? Or more specifically those dark blue stats? We need some decent articles on 19th-century reforms at Oxbridge (note to self), and there's no useful link I can find. B Consider linking British India. Changed "India" to "British India" on first appearance and linked. B "has held the chair for the longest period" is period really needed? period B "(professor 1860–1899)" followed by "Since 1882, the professors have been appointed as fellows of Balliol College, Oxford" seem strange to me, what has 1882 go to do with it if the prof ruled supreme from 1860 to 1889? Shifted to the previous para and reworded. When the university commissioners were rewriting the regulations of the university and its colleges, Monier suddenly found himself a fellow of Balliol midway through his professorship. Lucky chap. B " His daughter Elizabeth died in August 1827, ..." don't easily see the relevance, since original Boden died 16 years prior to this. Yeh, but no, but yeh, but the thing is, like, yeh, like the money didn't go to Oxford when Boden died in 1811, but only when his daughter died in 1827 - it's the reason why there's such a long gap between the colonel's death and the professorship's birth. Not as exciting as the litigation about Downing College, Cambridge, I suspect... B "As the religious historian Gwilym Beckerlegge has put it," seems odd "has put it", maybe "notes" or "states"? Done. B Youse use fellow and Fellow (sorry, Jamie Carragher just appear on my TV, so I've slipped into Scouse innit?) I've got Alan Green on in the background AND IT'S SO TEMPTING TO SHOUT ALONG WITH HIM as I listen to England being awful. Think it's consistent now. B Why not "Monier Monier-Williams" per his article? (And because I love the splendidly stupid repetition....) Ah, this is fun. He was "Monier Williams", then he was knighted for the first time in 1886, becoming "Sir Monier Williams", then was knighted again (for luck) the following year as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) and then changed his name so that he was "Sir Monier Monier-Williams", probably because it sounded better. So, I've called him "Monier Williams" as that's what he was when he was appointed and for the majority of his time as professor. Does that make sense, Sir Rambling Rambling-Man? B " and credited his victory to the university's realisation that it was the last chair in Sanskrit left in the United Kingdom." (lead) vs "and credited his victory to the university's realisation that it was the last chair in Sanskrit left in the United Kingdom" => so repetitive, I called Legal aid to help me sue.... When one reaches perfection... hey-ho, reworded for variety. B "Educated at schools in England and Balliol," reads odd, like Balliol could be a country. It just thinks it is. Excised. B A lot of X University where our articles are University of X. Any reason why? None that survives your scrutiny... B Ref 10 has a raw URL. Is that because of a template? I would avoid the template or change the template if we have to put up with grubby text like that...... No, it was because I forgot that the "jstor" parameter just takes a number not a full url. B

• Support dirty as it makes me feel. Great work!! The Rambling Man (talk) 19:47, 19 June 2012 (UTC)
• Support – No concerns. Great list, meets the criteria. ZiaKhan 19:01, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Comments –

• Is "of" missing from "removed all mention Boden's original purpose from the statutes"?
• In note 2, is "updating" supposed to be "updated"? Giants2008 (Talk) 00:47, 11 July 2012 (UTC)
  • Yes, fixed. Well spotted!
  • Either works in Br. Eng. Bencherlite^Talk 10:08, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Support - Overall looks great; I just have one minor comment that doesn't affect my support:

• Do we know which battalion/regiment of the Bombay Native Infantry Boden served in? It looks like there are quite a few to choose from.

I also made a couple of minor tweaks to the article; please check to see that I didn't inadvertently change any meaning. Nice work, Dana boomer (talk) 17:25, 18 July 2012 (UTC)

• • The source says "His name was borne at various times on the rolls of the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th native infantry" but there doesn't seem to be a decent target for that. Your c/e was fine. Thanks for that and for your support. Bencherlite^Talk 06:01, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.