Mueller, Max : Friedrich Maximilian (1823-1900): son of Wilhelm Müller: born at Dessau: educated at Leipzig Ph.D. 1843: translated Hitōpadesha, 1843: studied under Bopp Francis (1791-1867) studied under Windishchmann, the celebrated Oriental scholar & Schelling at Berlin & under Burnouf Eugene (1801-52) at Paris: came to England 1846: commissioned by the Directors of E.I. Company to edit the Sanskrit classic, the Rig-Veda, with Sayānā’s commentary: lived at Oxford from 1848: Deputy &, in 1854, substantive Taylorian Professor of European Languages: Curator of the Bodleian 1856: Fellow of All Souls’ 1858: wrote History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature 1859: wrote The Science of Languages & other works on languages: first Professor of Comparative Philology 1868: made researches in mythology & the comparative study of religions: his Hibbert lectures on the Origin & Growth of Religion 1878: edited from 1875 the series of Sacred Books of the East, 51 volumes of translations of Oriental religious works: wrote India, what it can teach us? 1883: literary adviser to Oxford University on Indian subjects 1877-98: a leading member of Oriental congresses & President of the International Congress of Orientalists 1892.” Otto von Böhtlingk & Rudolf von Röth (q.v.) published the first Sanskrit-German 7-volume lexicon in 1855-57. [Buckland] ― “Müller Max was the greatest Orientalist of his days…. Besides his Rig Veda, his essays, collected under the title of Chips from a German Workshop, History of Sanskrit Literature (1859), Sacred Books of the East, Science of Language & Introduction to the Science of Religion (1878), started the studies in Comparative Philology, established affinities between the Celtic languages & Aryan languages like Sanskrit & Persian & helped Europe to learn of the greatness of the literary & cultural achievements of the Indian Hindus.” [Bhattacharya] ― Srinivasachari had provided Sri Aurobindo two volumes of Max Müller’s edition as well as a copy of Sayānā’s commentaries. Kolhātkar (q.v.) who was sometimes present used to say that the Vedas were the childish prattle of humanity in its infancy. Sri Aurobindo used to say that it all depended upon the mental attitude of the student...for a serious reader, the more he dives into them the greater will be the truths he will discover [P. Heehs’ A&R, Apr.1994] ― “Vedic Rishis ought surely to have known something about their own religion, more, let us hope, than Röth or Max Müller....” Sri Aurobindo [SABCL 17:339]
... of worthless material, which may be studied for historical reasons to show to people what barbaric people of ancient times thought and conceived and imagined, but for no other purpose. In fact, Max Mueller, after interpreting the whole of the Veda, wrote a letter to his wife: "I have now" — I do not quote exactly the words — "I have now accomplished the task of translating the whole of the Rig Veda ...
... early awareness and there were no early experiences, except the negative one of the dark cloud penetrating into him at Darjeeling. Still, in the last months of his stay in England, when reading Max Mueller’s translation of the Upanishads, he had come upon the idea of the Atman, the Self-in-all, with the feeling that ‘this was the true thing to be realized in life.’ We know about the calm that descended ...
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