José Gerson da Cunha
Indo-Portuguese physician, orientalist, historian, linguist, and numismatist
José Gerson da Cunha OCI (2 February 1844 – 3 August 1900) was a Portuguese physician who achieved international renown as an indologist, historian, linguist and numismatist.
Early life and medical career
José Gerson da Cunha was born in Arpora, Bardes on 2 February 1844, the eldest of twelve children to a Portuguese couple, Francisco Caetano da Cunha and Leopoldina Maria Gonçalves. Francisco was an infantry lieutenant in the Portuguese army stationed in Goa who had taken part in the military campaign against the Marathas at Uspa and Rarim in Savantvadi.
Da Cunha did his primary studies and study of humanities in Panjim. He then moved to Bombay and enrolled in the Grant Medical College to pursue his medical studies. While there, da Cunha distinguished himself by winning many prizes. However, he failed to obtain his licentiate in medicine, and instead obtained the first licentiate degree from the University of Bombay in 1864. He moved to London in 1867 to obtain his degree and in the same year, obtained the diplomas of L.R.C.P. Lond. and M.R.C.S Eng. Cunha specialised in obstetrics at Edinburgh and London.
The public source identifies “José Gerson da Cunha” as indo-Portuguese physician, orientalist, historian, linguist, and numismatist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around José, Gerson and Cunha.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4247353. VIAF identifies the subject as 74768299. The Library of Congress control number is no96025344. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1844, 1900, 1864 and 1867.
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This entry incorporates text from “José Gerson da Cunha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.