A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.15

v1.c7.s2.15

While Friedrich Schlegel's work was chiefly stimulating, it was his brother August Wilhelm von Schlegel who was the first in Germany to develop an extensive activity as a Sanskrit scholar by means of editions of texts, translations, and other philological works. He was also the first Professor of Sanskrit in Germany, in which capacity he was called to the newly-founded University of Bonn in the year 1818. Like his brother, he too had begun his Sanskrit studies in Paris, namely, in the year 1814. His teacher was a Frenchman, A. L. Chézy, the first French scholar to learn and teach Sanskrit; he was also the first Sanskrit Professor at the Collège de France, and has rendered valuable services as an editor and translator of Indian works. In the year 1823 appeared the first volume of the periodical “Indische Bibliothek,” founded and almost entirely written by August Wilhelm von Schlegel, containing numerous essays on Indian philology. In the same year he published also a good edition of the Bhagavadgītā with a Latin translation, while in the year 1829 appeared the first part of Schlegel's most important work, his unfinished edition of the Rāmāyaṇa.