Scholars or antiquarians

• “As Charles Allen shows in his book, under Sir William Jones, the Asiatic Society of Bengal became the scholarly nerve centre that brought together all the different amateur enthusiasts busily working at uncovering the deepest roots of India's lost pre-Islamic history. In the society's Calcutta premises were collated reports sent in from a huge range of eccentric figures working away at translating Buddhist scrolls or ancient rock inscriptions, Gandharan coins or Tibetan mythologies, far separated from each other in remote outposts between the highest peaks of the Himalayas in Tibet and Nepal, through the arid plains of the Deccan to the thickest jungles of 18th-century Burma and Ceylon.” The Buddha and the Sahibs by Charles Allen 2002 reviewed by William Dalrymple, author of White Mughals, in the Guardian, and in the Spectator available from Amazon.co.uk. This link from the Royal Historical Society lists out some of the people covered in the book

• Edward Moor (1771-1848)
  

Read this article written by William Dalrymple, author of White Mughals, which appeared in OutlookIndia.com. It says Edward Moor had first come out to India at the age of 11, spoke several Indian languages, and was passionately interested in the cosmology and beliefs of the Hindus.

The Hindu Pantheon by Edward Moor 1810 Google Books "remains even now a remarkably encyclopaedic and accurate guide to Indian mythology. It brought together almost everything that was then known by European intellectuals about the religion of the Hindus, and contained reliable descriptions, images and genealogies of some 2,000 of the major deities.”

Edward Moor also wrote Hindu infanticide: An account of the measures adopted for suppressing the practice of the systematic murder by their parents of female infants; with incidental remarks on other customs peculiar to the natives of India. Ed., with notes and illustrations published 1811 Google Books

Also refer Wikipedia and this India List post