470 Professor Max Miiller [Feb. 1, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 1, 1884. 



George Busk, Esq. F.E.S. Treasurer and Vice President, in the Chair. 



Professor F. Max Mijller. 

 Bdjah Edmmohun Boy, the Beligioua Beformer of India. 



Professor Max Muller began by reminding bis audience that ho 

 had in former years often spoken to them about the Veda, the sacred 

 book of the Brahmans. Many might have wondered why he should 

 have devoted the whole or at least the best part of his life to the 

 publication of the text and commentary of this one book ; but he still 

 felt convinced that there was no book more ancient and more impor- 

 tant in the whole literature of the Aryan race, and that it would con- 

 tinue to occupy the attention of scholars and philosophers as long as 

 men cared for their own history and for the early development of 

 language, thought, and religion. He wished, however, to show that 

 the Veda was not only the most ancient, but, in one sense also, the 

 most modern of books ; that, directly or indirectly, it stiU was the 

 foundation of the religion of 163,000,000 of human beings, for whom 

 we ought to feel the deepest sympathy. He adverted to the state- 

 ments of certain scholars and Indian tourists that the Veda was dead 

 and forgotten, and that the real religion of the Hindus was nothing 

 but the most hideous idolatry. 



After showing how difficult it is for travellers ignorant of the 

 ancient language and literature of India to understand what they see 

 in that country, the lecturer proceeded to define what was really 

 meant by the religion of a country, and how it ought to be studied. 

 He quoted several misrepresentations of the true character of the 

 Hindus, among others, the statement lately made by a gentleman long 

 resident in India, that a Hindu would rather kill a woman than a cow, 

 a statement which was about as true as that an Englishman would 

 rather sboot his wife than a fox. Instead, however, of dealing in 

 assertions and counter-assertions, he should prefer to put the question 

 as to the importance of the Veda even in modern times to a practical 

 test, and he proceeded to do so by examining the life and works of 

 tbe greatest religious reformer of modern India, Eammohun Roy. 



In India, he said, there is no taste for history, still less for 

 biography. Home life and family life are shrouded by a veil which 

 no one ventures to lift, while public life has as yet hardly any exis- 

 tence in the East. What we know, therefore, of the external life of 

 Eammohun Eoy is very little, and even that little often very doubtful. 

 Eammohun Eoy was born in 1774. His ancestors on the paternal 

 and maternal sides belonged to the Brahmanic aristocracy. He him- 

 self was educated for secular life, as his father had been before him. 



