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Sanskrit and Orientalism: Indology and Comparative
Linguistics in Germany, 1750-1958
Subsequently he also wrote learned articles in academic journals on the nature of Sanskrit and its grammar. Humboldt merely represented a widespread belief in Germany that that Indian civilisation was the cradle of world civilisation, Sanskrit was the earliest language with a formal grammar and that the Vedas were the earliest repository of systematic human knowledge. Subsequently much work was done on the Sanskrit language, its grammar and the philosophy of the Vedas in German universities. The universities in Prussia were able to obtain considerable grants for such research while those in other states had to scrounge around for funds. But the greatest boost to learning about India came with the constant appreciation that Goethe showed for Kalidasa’s play Sakuntala. He even framed the prologue for his Faust on that in Sakuntala. By the mid-19th century German scholars had begun to insist that the German and Indian people shared a common ancestry. For this they picked up the term "Arya" from Sanskrit and insisted that the Indo-Germans were the Aryan people. All other races of the world were presumed to be inferior to the Aryans. This was the time when nationalism in Germany was expanding at a very vigorous pace. There was felt need to "prove" that all other people of Europe were inferior to the Germans. Germany’s India connection proved quite helpful in this ideological battle. The state actively supported such research. Museums and libraries were set up to study India. Grants were given to purchase ancient Indian manuscripts. However, medieval and modern India did not find favour with German scholars. They visited modern India only to obtain some direct acquaintance with the area that they were studying. Here too, a visit to India was not mandatory. Many renowned German scholars of India had never visited India. Max Mueller, the great German scholar, who is wrongly credited to be the father of the Aryan race theory, never visited India and did all his work in English while living in England. Actually many persons, Nirad Chaudhary being one of the leaders of this group, even insisted that for all practical purposes, Mueller was an Englishman and not German. The one German who did visit India was not very scholarly, but he played a considerable part in popularising India in Germany. This was Hanns Heinz Ewers. He visited India once in 1910 and published his India memoirs in 1911. In Indien und Ich he gave a very colourful picture of India, its culture, sexual mores and occultists. The Germans had only recently discovered how to talk about one’s psyche and sex. They took Ewers descriptions to heart and his book sold well. Subsequently Ewers went to work as a German spy trying to finger the American government into war, a film critic and screen-writer. With the rise of Nazism, he became an active Nazi, but the Nazis found him far too degenerate and banned his books. All these nuggets of arcania and much more are available in the 15 essays included in this book. Written by a diverse set of scholars, the essays are equally instructive, sometimes argumentative and always informative. For Indians whose access to German culture is confined to programmes at the Max Mueller Bhavans, this book would be a source of knowledge about the different ways that Germans perceived India and tried to search out the truth about our ancient civilisation. Please be warned: the book is about how the Germans went about their search, it is not about what they discovered. |
WHEN the German statesman Wilhelm von Humboldt set
about reforming the system of education in Germany he included the
knowledge of Sanskrit texts as an important part of the new curricula in
the newly-established University of Berlin. This was to be done in the
department of Philology. Humboldt believed that it was not possible to
study human society scientifically without an adequate knowledge about
the sciences of India.