Robert Caesar Childers (/ˈtʃɪldərz/; 1838 – 25 July 1876) was a British Orientalist and the compiler of the first Pali–English dictionary to be published. He was the father of the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers and the paternal grandfather of the fourth president of Ireland, Erskine Hamilton Childers.
During his time in Ceylon, he studied Sinhala and Pali with Ven. Yātrāmulle Śrī Dhammārāma Thera at Bentota Vanavāsa Vihāra, and established a firm friendship with Ven. Waskaḍuwe Śrī Subhūti.[4][2]
His time there was brought to an end when ill health forced him to return to England.[2][3]
The first volume of his Pali dictionary was published in 1872. In the autumn of that year, he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office under Reinhold Rost, and early in the following year became the first professor of Pali and Buddhist literature at University College, London.[2][4]
The second and concluding volume was published in 1875. A few months later, the dictionary was awarded the Prix Volney for 1876 by the Institut de France.[2][3]
Childers was married to Anna Mary Henrietta Barton, who came from an Anglo-Irish family with an estate in Glendalough, County Wicklow.[6] Childers and his wife had five children (two sons and three daughters).[4]
Childers, R. C. (1870). "Khuddaka Páṭha, a Páli Text, with a Translation and Notes". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 4 (2): 309–339. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00016002. JSTOR25207679.
Childers, R. C. (1871). "Notes on Dhammapada, with Special Reference to the Question of Nirvâṇa". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 5 (2): 219–230. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00161246. JSTOR44012782.
Childers, R. C. (1875). "Notes on the Sinhalese Language. No. I. On the Formation of the Plural of Neuter Nouns". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 7 (1): 35–48. doi:10.1017/S0035869X0001635X. JSTOR25207694.
Childers, R. C. (1875). "The Pali Text of the Mahâparinibbâna Sutta and Commentary, with a Translation". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 7 (1): 49–80. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00016361. JSTOR25207695.
Childers, R. C. (1876). "DAKKH in Pali". Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der arischen, celtischen und slawischen Sprachen. 8 (2): 150–155. JSTOR23458831.
Childers, R. C. (1876). "Notes on the Sinhalese Language. No. II. Proofs of the Sanskritic Origin of Sinhalese". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 8 (1): 131–155. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00016646. JSTOR25207724.
Childers, R. C. (1876). "The Pali Text of the Mahâparinibbâna Sutta and Commentary, with a Translation (Continued from Vol. VII. N.S. p. 80)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 8 (2): 219–261. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00016683. JSTOR25207729.
Vijasinha, L. Comrilla; Childers, R. C. (1871). "On the Origin of the Buddhist Arthakathás". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 5 (2): 289–302. doi:10.1017/S0035869X0016126X. JSTOR44012784.
