<b>4. Kaushal wrote:</b>
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>21. Franz Bopp (1791-1867)</b>
Did detailed research leading to postulation of Proto Indo European (PIE)â¦Was Max Mullers teacher Pl. .read Max Mullers remarks on the extreme prejudice towards treating Sanskrit as another Indo-European Language
<b>22. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)</b> decreed English to be the medium of instruction, drafted the Indian Penal Code. Architect of plan to create a new breed of Indian. It is a testament to the farsightedness of the British, that Macaulay has in large measure succeeded in his stated mission
<b>23. 24. Colonel Boden</b> in 1811 endowed the Boden Chair of Sanskrit Studies in 1811 with the purpose of debunking the Vedas
<b>25. Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901)</b> Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901)
<b>26. Otto von Bohtlingk, (May 30, 1815 - April 1, 1904)</b>
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Otto von Böhtlingk was a German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Having studied Oriental languages, particularly Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, at the university of St. Petersburg, he continued his studies in Germany, first in Berlin and then (1839-1842) in Bonn. Returning to St Petersburg in 1842, he was attached to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and was elected an ordinary member of that society in 1855. In 1860 he was made Russian state councillor, and later privy councillor with a title of nobility. In 1868 he settled at Jena, and in 1885 removed to Leipzig, where he resided until his death there.
Bohtlingk was one of the most distinguished scholars of the nineteenth century, and his works are of pre-eminent value in the field of Indian and comparative philology. His first great work was an edition of Panini's Grammatik Aá¹£á¹ÄdhyÄyÄ«, with a German commentary. (Bonn, 1839-1840). This book Bohtlingk again took up forty-seven years later, when he republished it with a complete translation under the title Panini's Grammatik mit Ãbersetzung (Leipzig, 1887).
The earlier edition was followed by: ⢠Vopadevas Grammatik (St Petersburg, 1847) ⢠Ãber die Sprache der Jakuten (St Petersburg, 1851) ⢠Indische Sprache (2nd ed. in 3 parts, St Petersburg, 1870-1873, to which an index was published by Blau, Leipzig, 1893) ⢠a critical examination and translation of Chandogya-upanishad (St Petersburg, 1889) ⢠a translation of Brihad-Aranyaka-upanishad (St. Petersburg, 1889) In addition to these he published several smaller treatises, notably one on Vedic accent, Ãber den Accent im Sanskrit (1843). But his magnum opus is his great Sanskrit dictionary, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch (7 vols., St Petersburg, 1853-1875; new ed. 7 vols, St Petersburg, 1879-1889), which with the assistance of his two friends, Rudolf Roth (d. 1895) and Albrecht Weber (b. 1825), was completed in twenty-three years. [edit] Bibliography ⢠with Rudolph Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch St. Petersburg 1855-1875. ⢠Sanskrit-Wörterbuch In kürzerer Fassung 1879-1889, repring Buske Verlag, 1998, 2003, ISBN 3-87548-199-2 ⢠Panini's Grammatik 1887, reprint 1998 ISBN 3-87548-198-4 ⢠Indische Sprüche 3 volumes, St. Petersburg, Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1863-65. ⢠Sanskrit-Chrestomathie reprint 1967, ISBN B0000BUGAE
<b>27. Robert Caldwell (1815-1891)</b> Collected Sanskrit manuscripts, a British missionary
<b>28. Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899)</b> First ? Boden Professor of Sanskrit
<b>29. Rudolf Roth(1821-1893)</b> studied rare manuscripts in Sanskrit.
Rudolph Roth, the German indologist, was a fellow student of Muellerâs. Both Roth and Mueller studied together under the tutelage of Eugene Burnouf, the eminent French Sanskrit Professor. Roth wrote a thesis on the Vedic literatures called, Zur Literatur und Geschichte des Veda, and in 1909 he published his edition of Yaksaâs Nirukta dictionary.
However, Rothâs works were peppered with German ultra-nationalism and he asserted that by means of the German science of philology, Vedic mantras could be interpreted much better than with the help of Nirukta.Roth wrote many other things in this haughty vein. One such disdainful statement he made was:âA qualified European is better off to arrive at the true meaning of the Rg Veda than a brahmanaâs interpretation.â Of course, for European, one should read âGermanâ. By todays standards , Rudolf Roth would be classed as a rank racist
<b>30. Bhau Daji (1822 -1874)</b>
Manuscripts of Aryabhatiya might not be available in North India for the last about thousand years, but they continued to exist in South India, particularly in Kerala, and in modern times some of them had been taken to Europe also. Attempts by some European scholars to decide the date and contents of the Aryabhatiya failed.
It was then that the Aryabhatiya was 'rediscovered' in 1864 by the famous physician and indologist of Maharashtra Dr. Bhau Daji (1822-74). He writes : "In a diligent and expensive search for old and rare Sanskrit, Prakrit, Arabic, and Persian manuscripts, noiselessly conducted for many years past, I have succeeded in procuring the works whose authorship is attributed to A"
He further states : "To the friendly offices of Mr. Gundert, a German missionary in India, I am indebted for a copy of this work, from a MS. in the possession of the Raja of Kerkal, in Malabar. It is here called Dasagitika Sutra. I have also received from him a copy of the Aryabhatiya." After a thorough study of the Aryabhatiya, Dr. Bhau Daji wrote a paper on Aryabhata which was published in 1865 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. It was in this paper, for the first time, the name of sryabhaÿa, his date of birth and the contents of his work were correctly interpreted.
The name of Aryabhata, says Dr. Bhau Daji in his paper, is to be written with one t only; and a double cannot be introduced without violating the srya metre. Varahamihira, his commentator Bhattotpala, Brahmagupta, and all those who wrote commentaries on the Aryabhatiya spell his name asAryabhata, and not Aryabhatta..
It was also Dr. Bhau Daji who, for the first time, correctly recognized that Aryabhatiya Sutra consists of two parts - the Dasagitika and the Aryastasata. He correctly guessed that the word Aryastasata stands for one hundred and eight (108) couplets and not for 800 as was supposed by earlier scholars. He also gave the correct translation of the stanza relating to Aryabhata's age, and stated with confidence that 'Aryabhata was born in A.D. 476."
Dr. Bhau Daji had planned to critically edit and publish the Aryabhatiya but could not do so because of poor health and other engagements; he expired in 1874 AD.
The same year, for the first time, Dr. H. Kern's edition of the Aryabhatiya was published in Leiden, Holland. Then, in 1976, on the occasion of the 1500th birth anniversary of Aryabhatiya, the Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi) published four editions of the, Aryabhatiya including its English and Hindi translations. It is from that time Aryabhatiya name spread far and wide and he came to be regarded, and rightly so, as the greatest mathematician-astronomer of ancient India.
Aryabhatiya wrote at least two works - (1) Aryabhata, and (2) Aryabhatiya-Siddhanta. Only the former is available; the later is known only through references to it in later works.
<b>31. Friedrich Maximilian Mueller (1823-1900)..</b>
Ph.D in philosophy in 1843. Studied under franz Bopp at the Universityof Berlin (1844 to 1846). Went to England in 1846 and migrated to Oxford in 1848. translated the books of the east. His private views of these books were vastly at variance with his public pronouncements. See a complete list of his statements and views in the south asia file. This is the popular view in India, ,s shown in the official commemoration of the stamp in his honor
<b>32.</b> Fredrich Max Mueller (1823-1900) was born in Dessau and educated in Leipzig, where he learned Sanskrit and translated the Hitopadesa of Pandita Visnu Sarma before coming to England in 1846. Since he was penniless, he was cared for by Baron von Bunsen, the Prussian ambassador to England who basked in the childishly pleasant thought of converting the whole world to Christianity.
It was in London that Max Mueller met Macaulay who was still on the look out for his âright manâ. Mueller was first commissioned by the East India Company to translate the Rg Veda into English. The company agreed to pay the young Mueller 4 Shillings for each page that was ready to print. He later moved to Oxford where he translated a number of books on Eastern religion. His magnum opus was his series The Sacred Books of the East, a fifty volume work which he began editing in 1875. It goes without saying that by the end of his career, Mueller had amassed a comfortable sum of money.
It is ironic that the man who has Bhavans named after him all over India and is treated with so much veneration there, probably did the most damage to uproot Vedic culture. At the time of his death he was venerated by none other than Lokamanya Tilak as âVeda-maharishi Moksha-mula Bhatta of Go-tirthaâ (Oxford).
Although Mueller is on record as extolling Indiaâs ancient wisdom, his letters (printed in two volumes) tell an entirely different story. Generally personal letters give a true picture of the writerâs inner mind. We present herein some of Muellerâs many statements in which his true view on Indian culture is glaringly obvious - âHistory seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual education before, in the fullness of time, it could be admitted to the truths of Christianity. All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted, before the light of a high truth could meet with ready acceptance. The ancient religions of the world were but the milk of nature, which was in due time to be succeeded by the bread of life.... âThe religion of Buddha has spread far beyond the limits of the Aryan world, and to our limited vision, it may seem to have retarded the advent of Christianity among a large portion of the human race. But in the sight of Him with whom a thousand years are but as one day, that religion, like the ancient religions of the world, may have but served to prepare the way of Christ, by helping through its very errors to strengthen and to deepen the ineradicable yearning of the human heart after the truth of God.â
âLarge number of Vedic hymns are childish in the extreme; tedious, low, commonplace.â âNay, they (the Vedas) contain, by the side of simple, natural, childish thoughts, many ideas which to us sound modern, or secondary and tertiary.â â...this edition of mine and the translation of the Vedas, will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It (the Rg Veda) is the root of their religion and to show them what the root is, I am sure, the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand yearsâ 9
âHinduism was dying or dead because it belonged to a stratum of thought which was long buried beneath the foot of modern man. He continued: â The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva. âA religionâ, he said â may linger on for a long time, it may be accepted my large masses of the people, because it is there, and there is nothing better. But when a religion has ceased to produce defenders of the faith, prophets, champions, martyrs, it has ceased to live, in the true sense of the word; and in that sense the old orthodox Brahmanism has ceased to live for more than a thousand years.â (Speech at the Christians Missions in Westminster Abbey in 1873) 10
In 1876, while writing to a friend, Mueller said that he would not like to go to India as a missionary since that would make him dependent upon the government. His preference was this - âI would like to live for ten years quite quietly and learn the language, try to make friends, and then see if I was fit to take part in this work, by means of which the old mischief of Indian priestcraft could be overthrown and the way opened for the entrance of simple Christian teachingâ¦India is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece were at the time of Saint Paul.â âThe rotten tree for some time had artificial supports ...but if the English man comes to see that the tree must fall...he will mind no sacrifice either of blood or of land...I would like to lay down my life, or at least lend my hand to bring about this struggleâ 11
âI do not claim for the ancient Indian literature any more that I should willingly concede to the fables and traditions and songs of savage nations. I simply say that in the Veda we have a nearer approach to a beginning, and an intelligent beginning, than in the wild invocations of the Hottentotes and Bushmen, â 12
âThis edition of mine and the translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent... the fate of India, and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years.â 13
When Duke of Argyll was appointed Secretary of State for India in December 1868, Max Mueller wrote to him-âIndia has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again and that second conquest should be a conquest by educationâ¦the ancient religion of India is doomed, and if Christianity does not step in, whose fault will it be?â 14
In another letter, Mueller wrote to his son: âWould you say that any one sacred book is superior to all others in the world? ....I say the New Testament, after that, I should place the Koran, which in its moral teachings, is hardly more than a later edition of the New Testament. Then would follow according to my opinion the Old Testament, the Southern Buddhist Tripitaka, the Tao-te-king of Lao-tze, the Kings of Confucius, the Veda and the Avesta.â 15
In an audacious letter to N.K. Majumdar, Mueller wrote ââTell me some of your chief difficulties that prevent you and your countrymen from openly following Christ, and when I write to you I shall do my best to explain how I and many who agree with me have met them and solved them...From my point of view, India, at least the best part of it, is already converted to Christianity. You want no persuasion to become a follower of Christ. Then make up your mind to work for yourself. Unite your flock - to hold them together and prevent them from straying. The bridge has been built for you by those who came before you. STEP BOLDLY FORWARD, it will break under you, and you will find many friends to welcome you on the other shore and among them none more delighted that you old friend and fellow laborer F. Max-Muller.â 16
Mueller harshly criticized the view of the German scholar, Dr. Spiegel, who claimed that the Biblical theory of the creation of the world is borrowed from the ancient religion of the Persians or Iranians. Stung by this statement Max Mueller writes: âA writer like Dr. Spiegel should know that he can expect no money; nay, he should himself wish for no mercy, but invite the heaviest artillery against the floating battery which he has launched in the troubled waters of Biblical criticism.â
Dr. Spiegel was not the only target of Muellerâs bigotry. In 1926 the French scholar Louis Jacolliot, Chief Judge in Chandranagar, wrote a book called âLa Bible dans lâIndeâ. Within that book, Jacolliot theorised that all the main philosophies of the western world originated from India, which he glorified thus â âLand of ancient India! Cradle of Humanity. hail! Hail revered motherland whom centuries of brutal invasions have not yet buried under the dust of oblivion. Hail, Fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry and of science, may we hail a revival of thy past in our Western future.â Mueller said while reviewing Jacolliotâs book that, âThe author seems to have been taken in by the Brahmins of India.â
Mueller may also be credited with the popularization of the Aryan racial theory, Writing for the Anthropological Review in 1870, Mueller classified the human race into seven categories on an ascending scale - with the Aborigines on the lowest rung and the âAryanâ type supreme. However, he recanted later on when his professional reputation as a Sanskrit scholar was in peril. âI have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language...to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.â 17
Although Mueller cannot be placed in the same category as inexperienced Indologists such as Christian Lassen and Albrecht Weber whose Aryan race conceptions were chiefly fueled by their ardent German nationalism, Muellerâs motivations were just as diabolical. Mueller had been paid to misinterpret the Vedic literatures in order to make the Indians look, at best silly, and at worst, bestial. However, not everyone was taken in by the academic prowess of the man who was known as âMoksamula Bhattaâ.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaja, was so disgusted with the level of Muellerâs knowledge of Sanskrit that he likened him to a âtoddler learning to walkâ. He wrote: âProf. Max Mueller has been able to scribble out something by the help of the so called âtikasâ or paraphrases of the Vedas current in India.â 19
Another revealing incident of Muellerâs glaring ignorance was when a Brahmana came from India to meet the famous Sanskrit scholar. When he came face to face with Mueller and spoke to him in chaste Sanskrit, Mueller admitted that he couldnât understand what the gentleman was saying! No wonder Schopenhauer acerbically said, âI cannot resist a certain suspicion that our Sanskrit scholars do not understand their texts any better than the higher class of school boys their Greek and Latin.â
Sir Monier Monier-Williams and the Boden Chair .Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899) was born in Bombay, attending the East India Companyâs college and later teaching there. After the death of H.H. Wilson, Moni <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->I've read it all now. Thanks, Kaushal, as I said, it's excellent.
Green stuff just to indicate that:
- 23 is missing.
- 31 and 32 are both Max Mueller
- the last para in green (Monier-Williams) is already mentioned in 28
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>21. Franz Bopp (1791-1867)</b>
Did detailed research leading to postulation of Proto Indo European (PIE)â¦Was Max Mullers teacher Pl. .read Max Mullers remarks on the extreme prejudice towards treating Sanskrit as another Indo-European Language
<b>22. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)</b> decreed English to be the medium of instruction, drafted the Indian Penal Code. Architect of plan to create a new breed of Indian. It is a testament to the farsightedness of the British, that Macaulay has in large measure succeeded in his stated mission
<b>23. 24. Colonel Boden</b> in 1811 endowed the Boden Chair of Sanskrit Studies in 1811 with the purpose of debunking the Vedas
<b>25. Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901)</b> Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901)
<b>26. Otto von Bohtlingk, (May 30, 1815 - April 1, 1904)</b>
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Otto Böhtlingk)
Jump to: navigation, search
Otto von Böhtlingk was a German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Having studied Oriental languages, particularly Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, at the university of St. Petersburg, he continued his studies in Germany, first in Berlin and then (1839-1842) in Bonn. Returning to St Petersburg in 1842, he was attached to the Royal Academy of Sciences, and was elected an ordinary member of that society in 1855. In 1860 he was made Russian state councillor, and later privy councillor with a title of nobility. In 1868 he settled at Jena, and in 1885 removed to Leipzig, where he resided until his death there.
Bohtlingk was one of the most distinguished scholars of the nineteenth century, and his works are of pre-eminent value in the field of Indian and comparative philology. His first great work was an edition of Panini's Grammatik Aá¹£á¹ÄdhyÄyÄ«, with a German commentary. (Bonn, 1839-1840). This book Bohtlingk again took up forty-seven years later, when he republished it with a complete translation under the title Panini's Grammatik mit Ãbersetzung (Leipzig, 1887).
The earlier edition was followed by: ⢠Vopadevas Grammatik (St Petersburg, 1847) ⢠Ãber die Sprache der Jakuten (St Petersburg, 1851) ⢠Indische Sprache (2nd ed. in 3 parts, St Petersburg, 1870-1873, to which an index was published by Blau, Leipzig, 1893) ⢠a critical examination and translation of Chandogya-upanishad (St Petersburg, 1889) ⢠a translation of Brihad-Aranyaka-upanishad (St. Petersburg, 1889) In addition to these he published several smaller treatises, notably one on Vedic accent, Ãber den Accent im Sanskrit (1843). But his magnum opus is his great Sanskrit dictionary, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch (7 vols., St Petersburg, 1853-1875; new ed. 7 vols, St Petersburg, 1879-1889), which with the assistance of his two friends, Rudolf Roth (d. 1895) and Albrecht Weber (b. 1825), was completed in twenty-three years. [edit] Bibliography ⢠with Rudolph Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch St. Petersburg 1855-1875. ⢠Sanskrit-Wörterbuch In kürzerer Fassung 1879-1889, repring Buske Verlag, 1998, 2003, ISBN 3-87548-199-2 ⢠Panini's Grammatik 1887, reprint 1998 ISBN 3-87548-198-4 ⢠Indische Sprüche 3 volumes, St. Petersburg, Akad. d. Wissenschaften, 1863-65. ⢠Sanskrit-Chrestomathie reprint 1967, ISBN B0000BUGAE
<b>27. Robert Caldwell (1815-1891)</b> Collected Sanskrit manuscripts, a British missionary
<b>28. Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899)</b> First ? Boden Professor of Sanskrit
<b>29. Rudolf Roth(1821-1893)</b> studied rare manuscripts in Sanskrit.
Rudolph Roth, the German indologist, was a fellow student of Muellerâs. Both Roth and Mueller studied together under the tutelage of Eugene Burnouf, the eminent French Sanskrit Professor. Roth wrote a thesis on the Vedic literatures called, Zur Literatur und Geschichte des Veda, and in 1909 he published his edition of Yaksaâs Nirukta dictionary.
However, Rothâs works were peppered with German ultra-nationalism and he asserted that by means of the German science of philology, Vedic mantras could be interpreted much better than with the help of Nirukta.Roth wrote many other things in this haughty vein. One such disdainful statement he made was:âA qualified European is better off to arrive at the true meaning of the Rg Veda than a brahmanaâs interpretation.â Of course, for European, one should read âGermanâ. By todays standards , Rudolf Roth would be classed as a rank racist
<b>30. Bhau Daji (1822 -1874)</b>
Manuscripts of Aryabhatiya might not be available in North India for the last about thousand years, but they continued to exist in South India, particularly in Kerala, and in modern times some of them had been taken to Europe also. Attempts by some European scholars to decide the date and contents of the Aryabhatiya failed.
It was then that the Aryabhatiya was 'rediscovered' in 1864 by the famous physician and indologist of Maharashtra Dr. Bhau Daji (1822-74). He writes : "In a diligent and expensive search for old and rare Sanskrit, Prakrit, Arabic, and Persian manuscripts, noiselessly conducted for many years past, I have succeeded in procuring the works whose authorship is attributed to A"
He further states : "To the friendly offices of Mr. Gundert, a German missionary in India, I am indebted for a copy of this work, from a MS. in the possession of the Raja of Kerkal, in Malabar. It is here called Dasagitika Sutra. I have also received from him a copy of the Aryabhatiya." After a thorough study of the Aryabhatiya, Dr. Bhau Daji wrote a paper on Aryabhata which was published in 1865 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London. It was in this paper, for the first time, the name of sryabhaÿa, his date of birth and the contents of his work were correctly interpreted.
The name of Aryabhata, says Dr. Bhau Daji in his paper, is to be written with one t only; and a double cannot be introduced without violating the srya metre. Varahamihira, his commentator Bhattotpala, Brahmagupta, and all those who wrote commentaries on the Aryabhatiya spell his name asAryabhata, and not Aryabhatta..
It was also Dr. Bhau Daji who, for the first time, correctly recognized that Aryabhatiya Sutra consists of two parts - the Dasagitika and the Aryastasata. He correctly guessed that the word Aryastasata stands for one hundred and eight (108) couplets and not for 800 as was supposed by earlier scholars. He also gave the correct translation of the stanza relating to Aryabhata's age, and stated with confidence that 'Aryabhata was born in A.D. 476."
Dr. Bhau Daji had planned to critically edit and publish the Aryabhatiya but could not do so because of poor health and other engagements; he expired in 1874 AD.
The same year, for the first time, Dr. H. Kern's edition of the Aryabhatiya was published in Leiden, Holland. Then, in 1976, on the occasion of the 1500th birth anniversary of Aryabhatiya, the Indian National Science Academy (New Delhi) published four editions of the, Aryabhatiya including its English and Hindi translations. It is from that time Aryabhatiya name spread far and wide and he came to be regarded, and rightly so, as the greatest mathematician-astronomer of ancient India.
Aryabhatiya wrote at least two works - (1) Aryabhata, and (2) Aryabhatiya-Siddhanta. Only the former is available; the later is known only through references to it in later works.
<b>31. Friedrich Maximilian Mueller (1823-1900)..</b>
Ph.D in philosophy in 1843. Studied under franz Bopp at the Universityof Berlin (1844 to 1846). Went to England in 1846 and migrated to Oxford in 1848. translated the books of the east. His private views of these books were vastly at variance with his public pronouncements. See a complete list of his statements and views in the south asia file. This is the popular view in India, ,s shown in the official commemoration of the stamp in his honor
<b>32.</b> Fredrich Max Mueller (1823-1900) was born in Dessau and educated in Leipzig, where he learned Sanskrit and translated the Hitopadesa of Pandita Visnu Sarma before coming to England in 1846. Since he was penniless, he was cared for by Baron von Bunsen, the Prussian ambassador to England who basked in the childishly pleasant thought of converting the whole world to Christianity.
It was in London that Max Mueller met Macaulay who was still on the look out for his âright manâ. Mueller was first commissioned by the East India Company to translate the Rg Veda into English. The company agreed to pay the young Mueller 4 Shillings for each page that was ready to print. He later moved to Oxford where he translated a number of books on Eastern religion. His magnum opus was his series The Sacred Books of the East, a fifty volume work which he began editing in 1875. It goes without saying that by the end of his career, Mueller had amassed a comfortable sum of money.
It is ironic that the man who has Bhavans named after him all over India and is treated with so much veneration there, probably did the most damage to uproot Vedic culture. At the time of his death he was venerated by none other than Lokamanya Tilak as âVeda-maharishi Moksha-mula Bhatta of Go-tirthaâ (Oxford).
Although Mueller is on record as extolling Indiaâs ancient wisdom, his letters (printed in two volumes) tell an entirely different story. Generally personal letters give a true picture of the writerâs inner mind. We present herein some of Muellerâs many statements in which his true view on Indian culture is glaringly obvious - âHistory seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual education before, in the fullness of time, it could be admitted to the truths of Christianity. All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted, before the light of a high truth could meet with ready acceptance. The ancient religions of the world were but the milk of nature, which was in due time to be succeeded by the bread of life.... âThe religion of Buddha has spread far beyond the limits of the Aryan world, and to our limited vision, it may seem to have retarded the advent of Christianity among a large portion of the human race. But in the sight of Him with whom a thousand years are but as one day, that religion, like the ancient religions of the world, may have but served to prepare the way of Christ, by helping through its very errors to strengthen and to deepen the ineradicable yearning of the human heart after the truth of God.â
âLarge number of Vedic hymns are childish in the extreme; tedious, low, commonplace.â âNay, they (the Vedas) contain, by the side of simple, natural, childish thoughts, many ideas which to us sound modern, or secondary and tertiary.â â...this edition of mine and the translation of the Vedas, will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It (the Rg Veda) is the root of their religion and to show them what the root is, I am sure, the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand yearsâ 9
âHinduism was dying or dead because it belonged to a stratum of thought which was long buried beneath the foot of modern man. He continued: â The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva. âA religionâ, he said â may linger on for a long time, it may be accepted my large masses of the people, because it is there, and there is nothing better. But when a religion has ceased to produce defenders of the faith, prophets, champions, martyrs, it has ceased to live, in the true sense of the word; and in that sense the old orthodox Brahmanism has ceased to live for more than a thousand years.â (Speech at the Christians Missions in Westminster Abbey in 1873) 10
In 1876, while writing to a friend, Mueller said that he would not like to go to India as a missionary since that would make him dependent upon the government. His preference was this - âI would like to live for ten years quite quietly and learn the language, try to make friends, and then see if I was fit to take part in this work, by means of which the old mischief of Indian priestcraft could be overthrown and the way opened for the entrance of simple Christian teachingâ¦India is much riper for Christianity than Rome or Greece were at the time of Saint Paul.â âThe rotten tree for some time had artificial supports ...but if the English man comes to see that the tree must fall...he will mind no sacrifice either of blood or of land...I would like to lay down my life, or at least lend my hand to bring about this struggleâ 11
âI do not claim for the ancient Indian literature any more that I should willingly concede to the fables and traditions and songs of savage nations. I simply say that in the Veda we have a nearer approach to a beginning, and an intelligent beginning, than in the wild invocations of the Hottentotes and Bushmen, â 12
âThis edition of mine and the translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent... the fate of India, and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years.â 13
When Duke of Argyll was appointed Secretary of State for India in December 1868, Max Mueller wrote to him-âIndia has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again and that second conquest should be a conquest by educationâ¦the ancient religion of India is doomed, and if Christianity does not step in, whose fault will it be?â 14
In another letter, Mueller wrote to his son: âWould you say that any one sacred book is superior to all others in the world? ....I say the New Testament, after that, I should place the Koran, which in its moral teachings, is hardly more than a later edition of the New Testament. Then would follow according to my opinion the Old Testament, the Southern Buddhist Tripitaka, the Tao-te-king of Lao-tze, the Kings of Confucius, the Veda and the Avesta.â 15
In an audacious letter to N.K. Majumdar, Mueller wrote ââTell me some of your chief difficulties that prevent you and your countrymen from openly following Christ, and when I write to you I shall do my best to explain how I and many who agree with me have met them and solved them...From my point of view, India, at least the best part of it, is already converted to Christianity. You want no persuasion to become a follower of Christ. Then make up your mind to work for yourself. Unite your flock - to hold them together and prevent them from straying. The bridge has been built for you by those who came before you. STEP BOLDLY FORWARD, it will break under you, and you will find many friends to welcome you on the other shore and among them none more delighted that you old friend and fellow laborer F. Max-Muller.â 16
Mueller harshly criticized the view of the German scholar, Dr. Spiegel, who claimed that the Biblical theory of the creation of the world is borrowed from the ancient religion of the Persians or Iranians. Stung by this statement Max Mueller writes: âA writer like Dr. Spiegel should know that he can expect no money; nay, he should himself wish for no mercy, but invite the heaviest artillery against the floating battery which he has launched in the troubled waters of Biblical criticism.â
Dr. Spiegel was not the only target of Muellerâs bigotry. In 1926 the French scholar Louis Jacolliot, Chief Judge in Chandranagar, wrote a book called âLa Bible dans lâIndeâ. Within that book, Jacolliot theorised that all the main philosophies of the western world originated from India, which he glorified thus â âLand of ancient India! Cradle of Humanity. hail! Hail revered motherland whom centuries of brutal invasions have not yet buried under the dust of oblivion. Hail, Fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry and of science, may we hail a revival of thy past in our Western future.â Mueller said while reviewing Jacolliotâs book that, âThe author seems to have been taken in by the Brahmins of India.â
Mueller may also be credited with the popularization of the Aryan racial theory, Writing for the Anthropological Review in 1870, Mueller classified the human race into seven categories on an ascending scale - with the Aborigines on the lowest rung and the âAryanâ type supreme. However, he recanted later on when his professional reputation as a Sanskrit scholar was in peril. âI have declared again and again that if I say Aryas, I mean neither blood nor bones, nor hair, nor skull; I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language...to me an ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar.â 17
Although Mueller cannot be placed in the same category as inexperienced Indologists such as Christian Lassen and Albrecht Weber whose Aryan race conceptions were chiefly fueled by their ardent German nationalism, Muellerâs motivations were just as diabolical. Mueller had been paid to misinterpret the Vedic literatures in order to make the Indians look, at best silly, and at worst, bestial. However, not everyone was taken in by the academic prowess of the man who was known as âMoksamula Bhattaâ.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of the Arya Samaja, was so disgusted with the level of Muellerâs knowledge of Sanskrit that he likened him to a âtoddler learning to walkâ. He wrote: âProf. Max Mueller has been able to scribble out something by the help of the so called âtikasâ or paraphrases of the Vedas current in India.â 19
Another revealing incident of Muellerâs glaring ignorance was when a Brahmana came from India to meet the famous Sanskrit scholar. When he came face to face with Mueller and spoke to him in chaste Sanskrit, Mueller admitted that he couldnât understand what the gentleman was saying! No wonder Schopenhauer acerbically said, âI cannot resist a certain suspicion that our Sanskrit scholars do not understand their texts any better than the higher class of school boys their Greek and Latin.â
Sir Monier Monier-Williams and the Boden Chair .Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899) was born in Bombay, attending the East India Companyâs college and later teaching there. After the death of H.H. Wilson, Moni <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->I've read it all now. Thanks, Kaushal, as I said, it's excellent.
Green stuff just to indicate that:
- 23 is missing.
- 31 and 32 are both Max Mueller
- the last para in green (Monier-Williams) is already mentioned in 28