A History of Indian Literature v1.c7.s2.30

v1.c7.s2.30

The actual philological investigation of the Vedas, however, began only in the year 1838, with the edition, published in London, of the first eighth of the Ṛgveda, by Friedrich Rosen, who was only prevented by his premature death from completing his edition. But above all it was the great French orientalist Eugène Burnouf, who taught at the Collège de France in the early forties of the nineteenth century, and who, by gathering around him a circle of pupils who afterwards became prominent Vedic scholars, laid the foundation of the study of the Vedas in Europe. One of these pupils was Rudolph Roth, who originated the study of the Vedas in Germany by his book "Zur Litteratur und Geschichte des Weda" (On the literature and history of the Veda) published in 1846. Roth himself and a goodly number of his pupils devoted themselves in the following years and decades with a burning zeal to the investigation of the various branches of this, India's oldest literature. Another celebrated pupil of Burnouf was F. Max Müller, who had been initiated into the study of the Vedas by Burnouf at the same time as Roth. Stimulated by Burnouf, Max Müller formed the project of publishing the hymns of the Ṛgveda with the great commentary of Sāyaṇa. This edition, essential for all further research, appeared in the years 1849-1875.¹ Before this was yet completed, Th. Aufrecht had rendered invaluable services to these investigations, by his handy edition of the complete text of the hymns of the Ṛgveda (1861-1863).²