Editing Arthur Llewellyn Basham (section)

==Early life==
Arthur Llewellyn Basham was born on 24 May 1914, in [[Loughton]], [[Essex]], the son of Abraham Arthur Edward Basham and Maria Jane Basham née Thompson.<ref>Diane Langmore, Darryl Benne, ''Australian Dictionary of Biography: Volume 17 1981–1990 A-K, Volume 17'', p71, The Miegunyah Press, 1 April 2009</ref> Although an only child, he grew up in Essex with his adopted sister, who was in fact his cousin on his father's side. His father had been a journalist who served in the Indian Army at [[Kasauli]], near [[Shimla|Simla]] during [[World War I]], and it was the stories that his father told him about [[India]] that first introduced him to the culture of the country to which he would devote his professional career.<ref>Sachindra Kumar Maity, ''Professor A.L. Basham, My Guruji and Problems and Perspectives of Ancient Indian History and Culture'', page 3, 1997, (Abhinav Publications: India)</ref> His mother was also a journalist and short story writer further instilling a love of language and literature. As a child, he was also introduced to music and learnt to play the piano to a high standard, writing a number of his own compositions by the age of sixteen.

Basham developed a keen interest in religion which began with the [[Christianity]] he was brought up with and then extended into [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]] and [[Islam]]. He went on to take a BA in [[Sanskrit]] from the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] ("SOAS") and then worked in the Civil Defence Department during [[World War II]].<ref name="Sachindra Kumar Maity page 4">Sachindra Kumar Maity, ''Professor A.L. Basham, My Guruji and Problems and Perspectives of Ancient Indian History and Culture'', page 4, 1997, (Abhinav Publications: India)</ref>