Tribute to Sarantos Kargakos

The historian, philologist and writer Sarantos I. Kargakos died today, January 14, 2019, at the age of 82.

In the news of his death, the President and the Board of Directors of the Hellenic-Indian Society for Culture and Development (ELINEPA) and the Athens Center for Indian and Indo-Hellenic Studies express their condolences to the family of the deceased.

Sarantos Kargakos was born in 1937 in Gytheio of Laconia. He studied classical literature at the University of Athens and taught at various military and other schools in Athens.

He wrote in a number of scientific journals and newspapers. He published 75 books with mainly historical background and language studies. He wrote a unique essay titled “Dimitrios Galanos, the Athenian (1760-1833) – The First European Indologist” published in 1994 by the Gutenberg publications.

The book concerns the life and work of Dimitrios Galanos, the first Greek Indologist, who lived for 40 years in Benares and died and buried there. Galanos translated many Sanskrit works (20 volumes of manuscripts) into Greek, including the Sanskrit – English – Greek dictionary. He donated all his manuscripts and half of his property to the newly established Greek state. His donation was made available for the establishment of the University of Athens. Kargakos’s book aims to make Galanos more widely known to the Greek readers and to be a source for new research in Indology and into the life and work of the great but forgotten Athenian scholar.

Table of contents
Πρόλογος 
Ινδίες και αρχαίοι Έλληνες 
Ινδίες και νεώτεροι Έλληνες 
Ινδίες και Ευρωπαίοι 
Δημήτριος Γαλανός ο Αθηναίος (τα πρώτα χρόνια) 
Δεύτερος κύκλος σπουδών 
Ο Δημ. Γαλανός στις Ινδίες 
Στο Μπενάρες (Βαρανάσι) 
Ο Δημήτριος Γαλανός και ο καπετάν Νικόλας Κεφαλάς 
Η δράση και οι στόχοι του Δ. Γαλανού στην Ινδία 
Τα τελευταία έτη – Λαχτάρα επιστροφής 
Ο τάφος του Δ. Γαλανού 
Τα έργα του Γαλανού 
Επίλογος 
Έργα του ιδίου