A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.16

v1.c7.s2.16

A contemporary of August Wilhelm von Schlegel was Franz Bopp, who was born in 1791, went to Paris in 1812, in order to devote himself to the study of Oriental languages, and there learned Sanskrit from Chézy, together with Schlegel. But while the brothers Schlegel, as romantic poets, were enthusiastic over India, and took up their work in Indian literature as a kind of adventure,¹ Bopp joined these studies as a thoroughly sober investigator, and it was he who became the founder of a new science, Comparative Philology, which was destined to so great a future,—and this by means of his book, published in 1816, "Ueber das Conjugations-system der Sanskritsprache in Vergleichung mit jenem der griechischen, lateinischen, persischen und germanischen Sprache." In the investigation of Indian literature, too, Bopp has rendered invaluable services. Already in his "Conjugations-system" he gave as an appendix some episodes from the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata in metrical translations from the original text, besides some extracts from the Vedas after Colebrooke's English translation. With rare skill he then singled out of the great epic Mahābhārata the wonderful story of King Nala and his faithful wife Damayantī, and made it universally accessible by means of a good critical edition with a Latin translation.² It is just this one, out of the countless episodes of the Mahābhārata, which most completely forms a separate whole, and not only is one of the most beautiful portions of the great epic, but also, as one of the most charming creations of Indian poetic art, is most peculiarly suitable for awakening enthusiasm for Indian literature, and love for the study of Sanskrit. It has, in fact, become almost traditional at all Western Universities where Sanskrit is taught, to select the Nala-episode as the first reading for the students, for which purpose it is especially suitable also on account of the simplicity of the language. A number of other episodes from the Mahābhārata, too, were published for the first time and translated into German by Bopp. His Sanskrit Grammars (1827, 1832 and 1834) and his "Glossarium Sanscritum" (Berlin 1830) have done very much to further the study of Sanskrit in Germany.