Monier was born in Muambai (Bombay), West India November 12, 1819. He began his studies at Balliol College in 1837 then moving on to the prestigious University of Oxford. He was unable to complete his education at Oxford due to a nomination for civil service in the East India Company, but Monier’s mother had different plans for him. While completing his training for the East India Company, Monier was at Haileybury when his mother persuaded him to decline his nomination and return to Oxford to continue his education. Monier then returned to University College where he devoting himself to the studies of Sanskrit.
After receiving his degree, he became a professor of the Sanskrit, Persian, and Hindustani languages. Monier taught at the University until the Crown overturned the government and the college was abolished along with the old government. He then moved on to teach oriental languages in Cheltenham for ten years until he was elected professor of Sanskrit at Oxford. He was elected after a confrontation with professor Max Miller about the suffrage of outside voters, these people chose to put Monier in and keep Max Miller out.
To others in his field, Monier’s talents in reading and writing were not that of his colleagues, but Monier exceeded them in the study of Sanskrit. In 1875, Monier published Dictionaries translating English to Sanskrit and Sanskrit to English, which brought much honor, and attention to Monier’s work. Throughout the later portion of his life he went to India to focus on the native religions. The entire Indian institute at oxford owes it existence to the works of Monier. During the remaining years of his life while he continued his study of Sanskrit philology, he was knighted in 1886, making him Sir Monier, and he was also made KCIE in 1889 when he adopted his Christian name of Monier as an additional surname. Sir Monier passed away in April of 1899.
References:
http://www.biography.com/search/article.jsp?aid=9411832
http://83.1911encyclopedia.org/M/MO/MONIER_WILLIAMS_SIR_MONIER.htm. The 1911 edition Encyclopedia; Love to Know
Written by Andrew Petersen
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007