James Prinsep, (born August 20, 1799, County of Essex, England—died April 22, 1840, London), antiquary and colonial administrator in India, the first European scholar to decipher the edicts of the ancient Indian emperor Ashoka.
Prinsep was appointed to the Calcutta (Kolkata) mint in 1819 but left to become assay master (1820–30) at the Benares (Varanasi) mint. He returned to the Calcutta mint as assay master in 1832, leaving in 1838 for England because of ill health. As secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (from 1832), he had access to and developed the study of the largest collection of Indian coins then existing.
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