Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson

“ He soon interested himself in Indian religions, especially that of the Paris, the ancient faith of Zoroaster. A visit to the Indian cave-temples at Elephanta, near Bombay, in March 1846, drew his attention to Hindu antiquities; and a vacation tour made in the following year, March 1847, with the Rev. John Wilson and a party, including Arthur West, his brother, to the Island of Salsette, north of Bombay, enabled him to visit the Kanheri caves, and inspired him with a wish to copy the inscriptions carved there in Pālī, the sacred Buddhist language. ”

“ Otherwise his knowledge of Oriental languages was self-taught. His method was to study direct from grammars, dictionaries, texts, and manuscripts, supplemented by occasional conversations with native Indians. ”

“ Both he and Haug returned to Europe in 1866, when Haug was appointed in 1867 to the professorship of Sanskrit and comparative philology at the University of Munich. West went to Munich for six years (1867–73) spending his time on the publication with translation of the Pahlavi texts of Zoroastrianism. On 17 June 1871 the University of Munich bestowed upon him the honorary degree of doctor of philosophy. After a year in England (1873–4) West revisited India (1874–6) in order to procure manuscripts of the important Pahlavi books ‘Dēnkart’ and ‘Dātistan-i Dēnīk’ ”