George Abraham Grierson

Sir George Abraham Grierson (1851–1941) was an Irish administrator in the Indian Civil Service whose postings in Bengal and Bihar turned him toward the systematic study of Indian languages. He compiled the Maithili Chrestomathy and Vocabulary during his years in Bihar and went on to direct the Linguistic Survey of India from 1898, documenting 179 languages and 544 dialects across the subcontinent.