Talk:Max Müller

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• The Upanishads are the ... sources of ... the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems to me to have reached its very acme.

• I spend my happiest hours in reading Vedantic books. They are to me like the light of the morning, like the pure air of the mountains — so simple, so true, if once understood.

• I maintain that for everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his history, for his intellectual development, a study of Vedic literature is indispensable.

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• One might think this position (that the English colonialist should convert their Indian "brethren" to the Gospel) would have endeared Max Muller to missionaries, but in fact it did not. Rather, they found him entirely too sympathetic to the "heathen" and suspected him of being insufficiently committed to the faith. Accordingly, in 1860 he was passed over for Oxford's Boden chair in Sanskrit, which carried responsibility for preparing the Sanskrit-English dictionary, both of which were intended, under the terms of Lt-Col Boden's will, to advance the conversion of Indians to Christianity, not to foster English understanding or respect for India.
  • Theorizing Myth: Narrative, Ideology, and Scholarship by Bruce Lincoln, 1999. p. 68.

Quotes that need sources

• Max Muller, in his book In History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature' (p. 557) observed: " In the Rig-Veda we shall have before us more real antiquity than in all the inscriptions of Egypt or Ninevah....the Veda is the oldest book in existence...."

There are two Brahmanas to the Rig-Veda—the Aitareya and the Sankhayana. "The Rig-Veda," says Max Muller, "is the most ancient book of the world. The sacred hymns of the Brahmanas stand unparalleled in the literature of the whole world; and their preservation might well be called miraculous." (HISTORY OF ANCIENT SANSKRIT LITERATURE)

Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) wrote: "Their (Hindus) achievements in grammatical analysis are still unsurpassed in the grammatical literature of any nation."

Professor Max Muller in his book, India: What It can Teach Us <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585090646/qid=1027727280/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-2965055-0907324> says: "In the history of the world, the Vedas fill a gap which no literary work in any other language could fill. I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his intellectual development, a study of the Vedic literature is indeed indispensable."

Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) in Science of Languages p. 203, calls Sanskrit the "language of languages", and remarks that "it has been truly said that Sanskrit is to the Science of language what Mathematics is to Astronomy."

Professor F. Max Muller says: "The Vedic literature opens to us a chapter in what has been called the education of the human race, to which we can find no parallel anywhere else." (source: India: What can it teach us <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1885395736/qid=1034557172/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-7096473-2179208?v=glance&n=507846> - By F. Max Muller p. 89). "If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered over the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India." And if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of the Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw the corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human a life...again I should point to India." "The Upanishads are the.....sources of .....the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems to me to have reached its very acme." "I spend my happiest hours in reading Vedantic books. They are to me like the light of the morning, like the pure air of the mountains - so simple, so true, if once understood." "The Vedic literature opens to us a chamber in the education of human race to which we can find no parallel anywhere else. Whoever cares for the historical growth of our language and thought, whoever cares for the first intelligent development of religion and mythology, whoever cares for the first foundation of Science, Astronomy, Metronomy, Grammar and Etymology, whoever cares for the first intimation of the first philosophical thoughts, for the first attempt at regulating family life, village life and state life as founded on religion, ceremonials, traditions and contact must in future pay full attention to the study of Vedic literature." He declared: "None of our philosophers, not excepting Heraclitus, Plato, Kant, or Hegel, has ventured to erect such a spire, never frightened by storms or lightnings. Stone follows on stone, in regular succession after once the first step has been made, after once it has been clearly seen that in the beginning there can have been but One, as there will be but One in the end, whether we call it Atman or Brahman." Muller says that from Indian literature the Christian world "may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly humane, a life not for this only, but a transfigured and eternal life." "Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study, whether it be language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it be law or customs, primitive art or primitive science, everywhere you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because some of the most valuable and instructive materials of the history of man are treasured up in India and India only." "The earliest of these Upanishads will always maintain a place in the philosophic literature of the world among the most astounding products of the human mind."

"Schopenhauer was the last man to write at random, or to allow himself to go into ecstasies over so-called mystic and inarticulate thought. And I am neither afraid nor ashamed to say that I share his enthusiasm for the Vedanta, and feel indebted to it for much that has been helpful to me, in my passage through life."

An inheritor of German romanticism in the study of India, Max Muller wrote in India: What can It teach us?:'We all come from the East-all that we value most has come to us from the East....everybody ought to feel that he is going to his"old home", full of memories, if only he can read them.'He was aware of hard realities of the then India.In his old age he frankly confessed: 'I do not desire to see the geographical Benares with my physical eye.My idea of that city is so high that i cannot risk disillusionment.' Friedrich Maximilian Müller (1823-1900)

"This 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." (source: The Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Fredrich Max Muller, edited by his wife. Longmans, London, 1902, Volume I, p. 328) Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization - By N. S. Rajaram & David Frawley p. 10).

If we grant that they belonged to the second millennium before our era, we are probably on safe ground, though we should not forget that this is a constructive date only, and that such a date does not become positive by mere repetition. (.....) Whatever may be the date of the Vedic hymns, whether 1500 or 15000 B.C., they have their own unique place and stand by themselves in the literature of the world. Max Müller The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, p.34-35

Quotes about Max Müller

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (1887-1975),: "In 1848 the young German scholar Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) settled in Oxford. ...About 1853, he introduced into English usage the unlucky term Aryan as applied to a large group of languages. ...Moreover, Max Muller threw another apple of discord. He introduced a proposition that is demonstrably false. He spoke not only of a definite Aryan language and its descendants, but also of a corresponding 'Aryan race'. The idea was rapidly taken up both in Germany and in England."

In picking a date for the supposed Aryan invasion of India by a supposed race of people, Rajaram writes: "Muller was strongly influenced by a current Christian belief that the creation of the world had taken place at 9:00 a.m. on 23 October 4004 BC. Assuming the date of 4004 BC for the creation of the world, as Muller did, leads to 2448 BC for the biblical Flood. If another thousand years is allowed for the waters to subside and for the soil to get dry enough for the Aryans to begin their invasion of India, we are left at around 1400 BC. Adding another two hundred years before they could begin composing the Rig Veda brings us right to Muller's date of 1200.BC....He used a ghost story from Somadeva's Kathasaritasagara to support this date."

Max Mulller, as a Christian himself, believed that the world was created around 4,000 BCE, as endorsed by Biblical chronology. He thus arbitrarily assumed the time interval for development of each Veda to be at 200 years. Any time period assumed to be greater than 200 years would have pushed the date of the composition of the Vedas earlier than 4,000 BCE. thus conflicting with Max Muller's religious belief about the creation of the world. Knowing that Buddha lived around 500 BCE and that the Vedas were composed prior to Buddha, Max Muller calculated the date of the arrival of Aryans in India as 500 BCE + 200 years (per time interval) x 5 (time intervals) = 1500 BCE.

To account for this, European scholars, the most famous of whom was F. Max Müller, proposed an invasion of 'Aryans' from the Eurasian steppes. There were other currents - like colonial politics and Christian missionary interests - that need not detain us here. He assigned a date of 1500 BC for the invasion and 1200 BC for the composition of the Rigveda. The reason for the date was his firm belief in the Biblical chronology that assigned 23 October 4004 BC for the Creation and c. 2448 BC for Noah's Flood, though he sought to give other - equally fanciful - explanations.

The story of Max Müller’s chronology and its impact is told by N. S Rajaram: The Politics of History, Voice of India, Delhi 1995, ch. 3.