Sir Edwin Arnold

Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was an English poet and journalist. Educated at King’s College London and University College, Oxford, he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry (1852). Arnold worked in India as principal of the Government Sanskrit College in Poona (Pune) and later returned to Britain, becoming a leading writer and editor for the *Daily Telegraph*. He is best known for *The Light of Asia* (1879), a narrative poem recounting the life and teachings of the Buddha, which brought Asian religious and philosophical themes to a wide Victorian readership. Arnold also wrote other verse and translations on Asian subjects and was knighted in 1888.