Jean François Pons, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Jean François Pons

French Jesuit

Date of Birth: 06-Dec-1698

Place of Birth: Rodez, Occitania, France

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1752

Profession: missionary, Catholic priest, linguist, Sanskrit scholar

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Jean François Pons (1688–1752) was a French Jesuit who pioneered the study of Sanskrit in the West. He published a survey of Sanskrit literature in 1743, where he described the language as "admirable for its harmony, copiousness, and energy", reporting on the parsimony of the native grammatical tradition, informing the works of de Brosses, Dow, Sinner, Voltaire, Monboddo, Halhed, Beauzée, and Hervás, and was plagiarized by John Cleland (1778).