A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.12

v1.c7.s2.12

Among the Englishmen who, like Jones and Colebrooke, learned Sanskrit at about the close of the eighteenth century, was Alexander Hamilton. The latter returned to Europe in 1802, travelling through France, and stayed for a short time in Paris. An event then happened, which, though unpleasant for himself, was extraordinarily favourable for Sanskrit learning. Just at that time the hostilities between France and England, which had been interrupted only for a short time by the Peace of Amiens, broke out anew and Napoleon issued a command that all English people who were in France when war broke out should be prevented from returning to their homes, and be detained in Paris. Alexander Hamilton was among these Englishmen. But, in the year 1802 the German poet Friedrich Schlegel² had also just come to Paris to stay there, except for a few intervals, till the year 1807, just during the time of A. Hamilton’s involuntary sojourn. In Germany attention had for a long time already been drawn to the efforts of English scholars. Especially the above-mentioned translation of “Śakuntalā” by W. Jones had attracted much attention, and had been immediately (1791) translated into German. In the years 1795-97 W. Jones’s treatises had already appeared in a German translation. Also Jones’s translation of Manu’s Law Book had been rendered into German already in the year 1797. The books of Fra Paolino de St. Bartholomeo too did certainly not remain unnoticed in Germany. Above all, however, it was the Romantic School, headed by the brothers Schlegel, for which Indian literature had a special attraction. It was indeed the time when people began to become enthusiastic about foreign literatures. Herder had already frequently directed the attention of the Germans to the Orient by means of his “Stimmen der Völker in Liedern” (1778) and his “Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit” (1784-91). It was the Romanticists, however, who threw themselves with the greatest enthusiasm into everything strange and distant, and who felt themselves most especially attracted by India. From India one expected, as Friedrich Schlegel said, nothing less than “the unfolding of the history of the primeval world which up till now is shrouded in darkness; and lovers of poetry hoped, especially since the appearance of the Sokuntola to glean thence many similar beautiful creations of the Asiatic spirit, animated, as in this case, by grace and love.” No wonder, therefore, that, when he made the acquaintance of Alexander Hamilton in Paris, Friedrich Schlegel at once seized the opportunity of learning Sanskrit from him. In the years 1803 and 1804 he had the advantage of his instruction and the remaining years of his stay in Paris he employed in study in the Paris Library, which already at that time contained about two hundred Indian manuscripts.¹ As the result of these studies there appeared in the year 1808 that book through which Friedrich Schlegel became the founder of Indian philology in Germany, namely, “Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier. Ein Beitrag zur Begründung der Altertumskunde.” This book was written with enthusiasm and was suitable for awakening enthusiasm. It contained also translations of some passages from the Rāmāyaṇa, from Manu's Law Book, from the Bhagavadgītā, and from the Śakuntalā-episode of the Mahābhārata. These were the first direct translations from Sanskrit into German; for what had previously been known of Indian literature in Germany, had been translated from the English.