German-born British philologist, orientalist and indologist (1823–1900)
Friedrich Max Müller (6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900), more commonly known as Max Müller (or Mueller), was a German philologist and Orientalist, who was a major pioneer of the discipline of comparative religion.
From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Native Name:
Max Müller
Alternative Names:
Rt. Hon. Friedrich Max Muller
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F. Max Müller
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Professor Friedrich Max-Muller
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F. M. M.
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Friedrich Maximilian Müller
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Max Muller
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Knowledge which has no object beyond itself is, in most cases, but a pretext for vanity. It is so easy, even for the most superficial scholar, to bring together a vast mass of information, bearing more or less remotely on questions of no importance whatsoever. The test of a true scholar is to be able to find out what is really important, to state with precision and clearness the results of long and tedious researches, and to suppress altogether lucubrations, which, though they might display the laboriousness of the writer, would but encumber his subject with needless difficulty.
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I need hardly say that I agree with almost every word of my critics. I have repeatedly dwelt on the merely hypothetical character of the dates, which I have ventured to assign to first periods of Vedic literature. All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates, and that the literary productions of each period which either still exist or which formerly existed could hardly be accounted for within shorter limits of time than those suggested. ... If now we ask as to how we can fix the dates of these periods, it is quite clear that we cannot hope to fix a terminum a qua [sic]. Whether the Vedic hymns were composed [in] 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine.
Finally, in his Autobiography published just after his death in 1900, he made this astonishing statement: “As to the actual date of the Veda … if we were to place it at 5000 BC, I doubt whether anybody could refute such a date, while if we go back beyond the Veda, and come to measure the time required for the formation of Sanskrit … I doubt whether even 5,000 years would suffice for that.”
The translation of the Veda will hereafter tell to a great extent on the fate of India and on the growth of millions of souls in that country. It is the root of their religion, and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last 3000 years.
ऋचाओं में हम अभी भी प्रारम्भिक चरण को देख सकते हैं। हम देखते हैं कि आर्य कबीले भूमि पर अधिकार कर रहे हैं और इन्द्र तथा मरुतों जैसे युद्धप्रिय देवताओं के मार्गदर्शन में कृष्णवर्णीय आदिम जातियों से और परवर्ती आर्य उपनिवेशवादियों के आक्रमणों से अपने नए आवास स्थलों की रक्षा कर रहे हैं। किन्तु युद्ध का वह काल जल्दी ही खत्म हो गया और जब लोगों की एक बड़ी आबादी अपने घरों में बस गई तो जिसे हम जाति अर्थात छोटा आभिजात्य वर्ग कहते हैं उसका सैनिक और राजनीतिक पदों पर एकाधिकार हो गया और लोगों की अधिसंख्य आबादी अपने गाँवों के सँकरी परिधि के भीतर अपने दिन बिताकर सन्तुष्ट थी। यह अधिसंख्य आबादी बाहरी दुनिया से बहुत कम सरोकार रखती थी और बिना किसी विशेष परिश्रम से प्रकृति से जो उन्हें प्राप्त होता था उनसे यह सन्तुष्ट रहती थी।
The worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and other popular deities was of the same and in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo or Minerva. ... A religion may linger on for a long time, it may be accepted by large masses of the people, because it is there, and there is nothing better. But when a religion has ceased to produce defenders of the faith, prophets, champions, martyrs, it has ceased to live, in the true sense of the word; and in that sense the old orthodox Brahmanism has ceased to live for more than a thousand years.