His book Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology remains one of the most comprehensive and authoritative works on the topic.
He was born at Uxbridge, and studied Eastern languages under his uncle Edwin Norris, whom he assisted for some years at the Royal Asiatic Society.
[1] Dowson's duties as professor suggested his Grammar of the Urdu or Hindustani Language (1862), and he also translated one of the tracts of the Ikhwānu-s-Safa, or Brotherhood of Purity.
He compiled the Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, History and Literature (1879), and contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
His theory of the Invention of the Indian Alphabet, claiming a Hindu origin, met with little support.