Henry Thomas Colebrooke

Henry Thomas Colebrooke FRS FRSE (June 15, 1765 – March 10, 1837) was an English orientalist and mathematician. He has been described as "the first great Sanskrit scholar in Europe".

In 1782 Colebrooke was appointed to a writership in India. After eleven years' residence in India, he began the study of the Sanskrit language. To him it was entrusted the translation of the major Digest of Hindu Laws and two other treatises. In 1805 he wrote his Sanskrit Grammar, some papers on the religious ceremonies of the Hindus, and his Essay on the Vedas, for a long time the standard work in English on the subject. That year, Lord Wellesley appointed him honorary professor of Hindu law and Sanskrit at the college of Fort William. He became a member of council in 1807 and returned to England seven years later. He was a director of the Royal Asiatic Society, and many of the papers in the society's Transactions were communicated by him.