1901.] Annual T^ppnrf. 37 



of Konigsbevf;!;, Although he never visited India, he had many friends 

 and admii'ers among the natives of this coantiy. By the simple pandit 

 as well as by the nobleman he was looked upon with equal veneration 

 as a friend and lover of India, who was alwaj's eager to impress upon 

 Western minds what its ancient philosophy and Hteratui^e can still 

 teach us. The second edition of the Rg-Veda received a gi';int-in-aid 

 from Indian princes, and the King of Siani enabled Miiller to add to 

 his Sacred Books of the East a second series devoted entirely to iMiglish 

 translations of Buddhist scriptures. In India and all over the civilized 

 world his name stands foremost in all matters connected with the stndv 

 of languages and religions. 



]\riiller's literary and scientific work has been principnlly devoted 

 to three branches : Sansloit, especially Vedic literature, Comparative 

 Philology, and the histoiy of Religion. In the first of tliese thi-ee 

 lu'anches, the great edition of the R^-Veda with the commentary of 

 Sayana, which has been already alluded to, is by far his most eminent 

 work, and although less known to the general public than his litei'arv 

 essays, it has gained for him an everlasting place in the history of 

 philological research. 



At the time when Max Miiller began liis Oriental studies, the 

 importance of the Veda had just dawned upon the mind of the then 

 living generation of Sanskrit scholars. Tiie eaxdy pioneers of Sanskrit 

 studies had entirely contented themselves with the classical litei-atui-c 

 and almost totally neglected this earliest literary document of the Indo- 

 European race. Even Colebrooke foiTnd its meanings too obscure, and 

 its language too difficult, to expect that it would repay a careful studv. 

 and in his Essay on the Veda, published in 1805, he warned others 

 against wasting any time on it. But in the forties of the last centurv 

 matters had ali^eady changed. Friedrich Rosen had Jjegnn to publish a 

 .small portion of the Rg-Veda, which, however, had come to an early 

 end by his sudden death in the prime of life. In Paris the o-reat 

 Eugene Burnouf, although his own publications dealt with the Avesiu 

 and Buddhistic literature, pointed out the great importance of the Veda. 

 It was in Paris, too, that Rudolf Roth collected the materials for Vedic 

 lexicography, which he incorporated later on into the great Petersburo- 

 dictionary, jointly edited by him and Bohtlingk, and upon which he 

 based his important book on the literature and history of the Veda. At 

 that time the treasures of Vedic literature were still lyino- buried in 

 manuscripts, and the first task accordingly was to publish the Vedic 

 texts. Thus Benfey in Gottingen brought out an edition of tiie Sama- 

 Veda, while Albrecht Weber in Berlin undertook to edit the voluminous 

 Cakha of the Wliite Yajur-Veda according to the recension of the V^ja^ 



