 |
is pleased to announce a one-day graduate conference
on
The History of Indology and Comparative
Philology in Germany, 1750-1958
on Saturday, April 15, 2000, from 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.
Co-sponsored by the Center for 17th-and 18th-Century Studies; the Department of History; the Graduate Division; and the Program in Indo-European Studies Papers will be available online by April 1 |
A vast amount of historical scholarship has been spent on “Orientalism,” but this scholarship has not given enough credit to Germany’s remarkable and unusual relationship with India. Whereas British and French interest in Indology paralleled their colonial enterprise in India and the consequent need to understand the literary, legal-religious and philosophical traditions of the sub-continent, the German Indological interest was altogether different. Since the eighteenth century, the German contribution in the form of travel accounts, philological treatises, translations, commentaries, anthologies of Indian myths and fables, and numerous articles in academic journals “certainly surpassed all the rest of Europe and America combined” (Pollock, 1993). It is the purpose of this conference to consider the reasons for the course of such German research and scholarship and to understand its impact on German culture and history.
The conference will especially attract students and scholars of European
and South Asian history, Germanic Languages, Indology, Indo-European Studies,
comparative literature, comparative philosophy, comparative religion and
folklore.
9:00 A.M. - Coffee
9:15 A.M. - Welcome: D. R. SarDesai, Director of the Doshi Chair,
UCLA
9:20 A.M. - Opening of Conference
Hanco Jürgensstudied history at the University of Utrecht. He worked as a freelance journalist and a teacher in cultural history at the Utrecht School of the Arts before receiving a Joost van den Vondel Travel Fellowship from the Alfred Töpfer Foundation in Hamburg. He was also a recipient of a fellowship from the Institute for European History in Mainz. He has published "Ontdekkers en Onderzoekers in de Oost, Britse reisverhalen gespiegeld, 1660-1830" ("Discoverers and Inquirers in the East: The Mirror of British Travel Accounts, 1660-1830"), Utrechtse Historische Cahiers, 15, 2 (Utrecht 1994). He is presently teaching a course on the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation in progress, "The Accounts of German Travellers to India, 1750-1810," at the University of Nijmegen.
Indra Sen Gupta received a B.A. in history from the Presidency College, Calcutta (historically relevant as India's first western-style college, founded in 1817). She received a M.A. in modern European history from the University of Calcutta, where she also completed an M.Phil., writing on "'Alternative' Ideas of the West in Bengal in the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Centuries." Presently she is completing her Ph.D. at Heidelberg Univeristy, writing on "Die Indologie als wissenschaftliche Disziplin 1818-1914 am Beispiel der Universitäten Berlin, Bonn und Tübingen" ("Indology as a Scientific Discipline at the Universities of Berlin, Bonn, and Tübingen, 1818-1914").
Douglas T. McGetchin received a B.A. in history and political science from the University of Rochester. In October 1998 at the German Studies Association Conference he presented a paper on the reception of Shakuntala in Germany, 1790-1830. He is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, San Diego, studying modern German intellectual and cultural history with Professor David Luft. He is currently pursuing dissertation research in Berlin and Leipzig under the auspices of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service).
Frank Neubert is an M.A. student in religious studies and Indology at Leipzig University. His research interests are in the sociology of religion and the history and theory of Indology and religious studies. His present research concerns the sociological theory of sin and expiation in the works of Robert Hertz.
Peter K. J. Park received a B.A. in history and philosophy from Hampshire College, Massachusetts, and an M.A. in European History from UCLA. His fields of interest are Germany, European cultural and intellectual history, and South Asia. He will advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. in June 2000. He will spend the 2000-2001 academic year at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University.
Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi
received a B.A. in history and philosophy from Tel Aviv University. He
began his graduate training in religious studies, but later switched to
European history and joined the School of History at Tel Aviv, where he
completed an M.A. thesis on "Friedrich Schlegel's Myth of India" with Professor
Yossy Mally. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. with a dissertation on
"The Nationalist Aspect in Friedrich Schlegel's On the Language and
the Wisdom of the Indians."
PRESENTER: Hanco Jürgens, University of Nijmegen
TITLE: "India as Vocation: Experiences of German travellers in India in the Enlightenment, 1750-1810"
ABSTRACT: Since the eighteenth century, India has occupied a central place in Germancultural life. Authors such as Goethe and Novalis were inspired by reading thefirst European translations of old Sanskrit texts. My aim is to study theGerman image of India through the eyes of German travellers who actuallywent to India. When we focus on the reports of these travellers, who werenot part of what later came to be known as the cultural elite, it is clearthat we must distinguish several, sometimes even contrasting images ofIndia that existed alongside each other. Social as well as literaryconditions are important to consider when analysing travel accounts.Differences in background, education and destination of the travellers,their way of travelling through the country, the conditions in which theymet the Other, their way of reporting on their experiences and the formsand goals of the texts themselves influenced the way the image of India wasput into words. My paper will focus on the journal published by Germanpietistic missionaries who travelled from their headquarters in Halle ander Saale to the missionary stations mainly in southern India. Countlesspages of diaries, letters and essays were sent home and published in DerKöniglich Dänischen Missionarien aus Ost-Indien eingesandter ausführlichenBerichte ("Elaborate Accounts Sent In By the Royal Danish Missionaries from India," Halle, 1710-1772), which was continued as Neuere Geschichte derEvangelischen Missions-Anstalten zu Bekehrung der Heiden in OstIndien("Recent Histories of the Evangelical Missions to Convert the Heathens in India," Halle, 1776 -1848). An analysis of the journal will expose the changingdescriptions of India and of the Indian "Other" within the context of theEuropean Enlightenment.
PRESENTER: Peter K. J. Park, UCLA
TITLE: Indology, Comparative Philology, and Romanticism: New Approaches to the Life and Work of Friedrich Schlegel
ABSTRACT: This dissertation prospectus will begin by outlining the intellectual contexts of Schlegel's Sanskrit studies and of his pioneering work Ueber die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier (1808). Schlegel should be viewed from within his intellectual environment, which felt the accumulated effect--by the end of the eighteenth century--of more than one hundred fifty years of philosophical skepticism and historical and philological criticism of the Bible. I shall examine Schlegel's interpretation and criticism of Indian pantheism in the context of the on-going "pantheism controversy," which involved (and even posthumously involved) every leading German thinker from Leibniz to Hegel. It is of some significance to this study of Schlegel that the pantheism controversy was a battle between neologists such as Moses Mendelssohn who believed in reason's ability to reform Christianity into a rational religion and their opponents such as Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi who argued that only revealed religion could be true religion.
Secondly, my aim is to reconstruct the Schlegelian philosophy of history through a comparative analysis of it with other, competing philosophies of history, e.g., Herder's and Hegel's. Schlegel's account of the historical development of religion was written as a response to the onslaught of critical histories of religion written by Enlightenment thinkers such as Hume, Tindal, and Reimarus. Integral to this response was Schlegel's use of ancient Indian language and literature as evidence of the divine origin of language and of the one-time existence of an original and unadulterated revelation. Schlegel thus became the latest disputant in a debate which carried high theological and political stakes. The high stakes of the debate over the origins of language gave it a prominence which already attracted the attention of Leibniz, Rousseau, Diderot, Court de Gébelin, Condillac, Adam Smith, Turgot, Bonald, Süßmilch, Herder, and Hamann.
Lastly, the dissertation prospectus will situate Schlegel's science within developments in late eighteenth-century science; specifically, the vitalist trends in natural history, comparative anatomy and physiology, history, anthropology, and ethnography. We seek to understand the motivations behind Schlegel's vision of the comparative study of language and to understand the reasons why aspects of his approach were adopted, rejected, or modified by his successors. Schlegel's Indological and comparative philological work will be compared to that of his brother August Wilhelm, Franz Bopp, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. These comparisons will illuminate the similarities and differences in the methods and goals of these early pioneers and possibly disclose the deeper philosophical and political commitments of each philologist.
PRESENTER: Chen Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Tel Aviv University
TITLE: The Nationalist Aspect in Friedrich Schlegel's On the Language and the Wisdom of the Indians
ABTRACT: It is well known that Friedrich Schlegel's work On the Language and the Wisdom of the Indians played a seminal role in the development of comparative linguistics. The First Book of the work, which deals with Indo-European languages, has received the widest attention from scholars of the history of linguistics. The Second Book, the "Wisdom" portion, has been studied by philosophers concerned with Indology and by literary historians of Romantic thought. The present paper is mainly concerned with the Third Book, in which Schlegel put forth his claim that possible contributions could come from Indian studies to the fields of literature and history. The ideas contained in the Third Book could also connect Schlegel's work to contemporary currents in political thought.
The historical ideas that Schlegel raised in this third section of On the Language include the hypothesis that the European peoples, including the Germans, had emigrated from India. This hypothesis was nothing new; twenty years earlier, William Jones could believe that his discovery of the Indo-European relationship supported such a hypothesis. However, unlike Jones, it seems that Schlegel laid a special emphasis on the Indian origin of the Germans. After the publication of On the Language in 1808 Schlegel abandoned his Indian studies. This abandonment has been the subject of scholarly debate. It has usually been attributed to Schlegel's conversion to Catholicism in 1808, which made him reject Indian pantheism. As religious interests in the first place led to Schlegel's decision to begin the extremely difficult task of learning Sanskrit, a change in his religious views may have been the cause of his withdrawal from this study. But is this the whole picture? Schlegel converted formally to Catholicism in 1808, but he was leaning towards it for several years. Why did he continue the laborious work on his India book after he was no longer attracted to Indian pantheism? This has been explained by Schlegel's wish to attack pantheism through a critical presentation of Indian philosophy, but this explanation is not wholly satisfactory.
While Schlegel was studying Sanskrit in 1803-1808 he was also going
through another change of mind, by which he was moving from championing
the idea of European unity to laying a greater emphasis on German nationalism.
Could it be that Schlegel's political views also played a part in his abandonment
of Indian studies? It would be interesting to examine whether his political
views were reflected in On the Language.
PRESENTER: Indra Sen Gupta, Heidelberg University
TITLE: Shishyas of Another Order: Students of Indology at Berlin, Bonn and Tübingen in the Nineteenth Century
ABSTRACT: The nineteenth century witnessed the gradual transformation of the German interest in India from the Romantic, largely literary tradition to an academisation of Indology into a discipline, institutionalised in the form of university chairs and the various societies of science. This generated over the course of the century a virtual chain of transformations within the character of 'German' Indology. The process of this transformation and its chronology were largely dependant on the cultural politics of the various German states in pre-unification Germany, each with its own Landesuniversität-sometimes more than one-and its own cultural programme propagated by means of the university. In Prussia, the establishment of the earliest chairs of Sanskrit studies coincided with the large-scale restructuring of the university in the post-Napoleonic era. The University of Berlin acquired the first official Chair in 1821, and its earliest occupant Franz Bopp (Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Linguistics 1821-1867) set what was to become the hallmark of German Indology: the comparative linguistic approach to the study of ancient Indian texts. Similar efforts were exerted by August Schlegel in Bonn, who as Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy and History tried to popularise Sanskrit among the students and was responsible for the setting up of the first Sanskrit printing press in Europe. In Württemberg, the heartland of Pietism in southern Germany and close to the mission belt of the region, the Landesuniversität had a somewhat different objective. The University of Tübingen was traditionally renowned for its theological studies, and it was precisely in an area related to this-comparative religion and Indian philosophy-that the Tübinger Indologists, right from the time of the first Professor of Sanskrit Rudolph Roth (1848-1895), sought to posit their science.
In this broad map of Indological studies at the level of the university in Germany and the divergent trends within the development of the discipline, it is essential to take a closer look at the active recipients of this highly specialised knowledge, i.e. the students. Indian studies at the academic level was no easy business. The language, the discovery of which had created so much tumult among late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century intellectuals, was not easy. The original texts, if at all available in Europe, were not accessible in Germany at least until the second half of the nineteenth century. Career prospects were also limited except in academics, and here, too, opportunities of permanent employment in the university were limited. Indeed, in relation to the growth in the size of the student population of German universities in the course of the century, particularly in the faculty of philosophy and history, the number of students of Sanskrit remained small and more or less constant. However, a closer examination of the composition of the student-body in the three universities of Berlin, Bonn and Tübingen (i.e. the background of the students, their parent-discipline, the combination of subjects which they opted to study) would be indispensable in understanding the meaning of Indology to the intellectual community of nineteenth-century Germany.
PRESENTER: Frank Neubert, Leipzig University
TITLE: Innovation Amid Controversy: Remarks on the History of Indology at the University of Leipzig, 1841-1958.
ABSTRACT: The history of Sanskrit studies (Indology) at the University
of Leipzig is closely connected with the names of the four scholars who
successively held the chair between 1841 and 1958: Hermann Brockhaus (1806-1877;
Professor in Leipzig 1841-1877), Ernst Windisch (1844-1918; 1877-1918),
Johannes Hertel (1872-1950; 1919-1937) and Friedrich Weller (1889-1980;
1937-1958). Although Indologists and Sanskritists had to face considerable
problems with their colleagues among the classical philologists, a rich
Indological tradition could nevertheless develop in Leipzig. Above all,
it is characterized by a multitude of subjects for research. Important
scholars such as F. Max Mueller, Friedrich Spiegel and Sir Aurel Stein
were trained at Leipzig University. The paper will present a number of
biographical sketches and offer a short overview of the works of these
scholars as well as of some of their foremost students, who made important
and innovative contributions to the development of Indology at Leipzig
and elsewhere. As examples of progressive fields and methods of research,
one could mention Windisch's works on Buddhism, Hertel's works on modern
folk literature (Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu) or Weller's Buddhological studies
where he combined sources written in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Sanskrit.
Their innovative theories were not uncontroversial. Windisch's paper “Der
griechische Einfluß im indischen Drama” (“The Greek Influence on
Indian Drama”) “was not accepted by most of his contemporaries,” while
Hertel's “Indo-iranische Quellen und Forschungen” (“Indo-Iranian Sources
and Research”) “were generally not accepted by scholars” (Stache-Rosen).
Another point of interest which cannot be treated at length here but which
is worth noting is the political position of the scholars, especially Hertel
and Weller. The latter was able to negotiate through both fascist and communist
regimes.
PRESENTER: Douglas McGetchin, UC San Diego
TITLE: "Zum Mittelpunkte des Sanskrit-Studiums" ("To the center of Sanskrit studies"): The Cultural Impact of Indian Studies in Berlin and Leipzig During the Nineteenth-Century
ABSTRACT: Indology in Berlin grew immensely from Franz Bopp's arrival to the appointment of the Oriental Commission of 1912. During the first half of the century, scholars such as Franz Bopp (1791-1867) and Albrecht Weber (1825-1901) had to go abroad to France and England to complete their studies, as Germany did not possess the scholarly apparatus-the manuscripts, grammars, dictionaries, and scholars who already knew the languages-to accommodate their learning. By the end of the 1850s, this picture had significantly changed, and well before the turn of the twentieth century, Germany, and particularly Berlin, was a leading center of Indology in Europe. How did interaction with the constraints and opportunities of its historical environment effect this prodigious expansion? What did Indology have to offer Germans? Despite the many growing pains that Indology in nineteenth-century Berlin faced, it was able to prosper not only because of the work of its students and professors, but also because it imparted important information for German culture.
Bopp's work at the university beginning in 1821 was crucial in accomplishing one of the early tasks of this new academic discipline: distinguishing itself as a science distinctly separate from the romantic literary Schwärmerei that had been so impressed with Indian literature such as Sakuntala during the preceding turn of the century. One example of this transition towards more rigorous scholarship was the work of another professor at Berlin, Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866), whose writing reflected both accomplished poetic talent as well as sharp philological skills. Another critical step in Indology's growth in Berlin was the acquisition of the extensive Chambers manuscript collection in 1842 and their cataloguing by Albrecht Weber in the late 1840s. As a result, by mid-century Berlin began to attract students from abroad such as the American William Dwight Whitney.
Another reason for the success of Indology in Berlin was what it could
offer to German culture. The work of Indologists helped to shape
Germans' ideas about themselves. Under the banner of an "Indo-Germanic"
relationship, Indological scholars such as Bopp, Weber and their students
lauded Vedic and Classical Sanskrit as the ancient linguistic forefathers
of modern German. They argued that the Vedas, particularly the Rig-Veda,
were evidence of the most ancient human thought. Accordingly, ancient
India became the Urheimat, the source of not only German, but indeed all
European civilization. These arguments impressed influential Germans who
were in contact with Berlin Indological professors. For example,
during the 1820s Franz Bopp tutored Wilhelm von Humboldt in his Sanskrit
studies. Humboldt learned it well enough to write a scholarly paper
on Sanskrit grammar and incorporate it into his other linguistic studies.
Friedrich Rückert was a friend of Baron Carl Bunsen, Ambassador to
England, 1841-1854. Indological themes were available to more than
just the elite, however; they received periodic newspaper coverage, such
as during the Fifth International Orientalist Congress in Berlin during
1881. By examining these contacts between academic Indology and culture
outside the university, we can better understand both the growth of the
discipline and the diffusion of its fruits throughout German society.