“I am perfectly fine. Because I learnt much, very much. I have not only made progress in Persian, but I am also nearing my great objective, that I master Sanskrit. I will be able to read the Sakontala within four months in its original text, though I will presumably still need the translation. Enormous effort was required because of a great complication and I had to develop my own method of guessing (Divinierens); since I had to learn the elements without elementary books. I was finally fortunate that an Englishman called Hamilton, the only one in Europe except for Wilkins who knows, and very thoroughly knows, could at least help me with advice.”
We couldn’t have described this adventurous method of learning the Sanskrit language more vividly. Friedrich invents this wonder-some method to learn this classical ancient language. And in just three months, on August 14, 1803, Friedrich lets his brother August Wilhelm know:
“I worked through Sanskrit uninterruptedly and now I have achieved a sound fundament. I have by now at least a hand high Manuscripts there which I copied. Now I am occupied in copying the 2nd encyclopaedia. Writing Sanskrit daily for 3–4 hours and another one or two hours to work through with Hamilton; and whenever in the evening I felt like it, I had still work for 2–3 hours.”
We try to understand the procedure. Friedrich von Schlegel made handwritten copies of Sanskrit texts and worked them through with Alexander Hamilton who seemingly knew the characters a little better. How did it function? How could it function? “Scholars” of our time do not explain it to us. They just assert.
*****
As already said, the Schlegels had to sublet furnished rooms. Thus, something like a “flat sharing community” emerged. And Alexander Hamilton was there. This is just imponderability of life! We know, again from a letter of Friedrich to his brother August Wilhelm dated November 26, 1803:
“I live now quite pleasantly here – as pleasant as it can be abroad. Since several months Hamilton lives with me, who was my teacher for Sanskrit; also Hagemann, a young Hanoverian, who is not only proficient in Greek and Arabic, but also knows a lot of and very thoroughly Persian, is our house mate. In addition there are three young men from Cologne taking private lessons from me. Thus I have a pleasant society in the house.”
The three inhabitants from Cologne were: Sulpiz and Melchior Boisserée as well as Johann Baptist Bertram. “From the Schlegel–circle” there is also a mention in the autobiography of Sulpiz Boisserée:
“The house community at Schlegel’s included, beside the great expert of Sanskrit, A. Hamilton, a small German colony; to which belonged the ten years old son of Mrs. Schlegel, Phillip Veit, a young philologist Hagemann from Hanover who studied Sanskrit too, we three friends from Cologne and Mrs. von Hastfer from Berlin who had come to Paris with Mrs. von Genlis and was editing the French Miscellanea for Cotta in Tuebingen. Usually only Hagemann and Mrs. von Hastfer joined us at the table.”
Friedrich von Schlegel was learning Persian from Antoine Léonard de Chèzy. Louis Mathieu Langlès brings Alexander Hamilton and the Schlegels together. Alexander Hamilton starts living with the Schlegels. Helmine von Hastfer lives there also. Soon she was to marry Antoine Léonard de Chézy. Friedrich von Schlegel learns Sanskrit from Alexander Hamilton from May to November 1803. The Schlegels leave Paris at the end of April 1804. Friedrich von Schlegel publishes the book: On the language and the wisdom of the Indians, Heidelberg 1808. Our impression is, he would have written this book even if he had not met Alexander Hamilton. This book will remain his only contribution to “Indology”. However a significant one. Alexander Hamilton became famous because of this book. His brother August Wilhelm (1767–1845) was also inspired by it.
*****
And: Those who actually had spread Sanskrit in Europe, Antoine Léonard de Chézy and Franz Bopp claimed to have mastered the Sanskrit language without ever listening to the original sound of the language, without ever seeing the original gestures of the people while reciting the texts. On top of it, they also said that they taught the Sanskrit language themselves – who knows how. These two persons, who are known to have spread a language named Sanskrit, could at best learn the alphabets and composition of the letters in words and only on papers in writing. They did not care nor had any opportunity to be in India. The only person who got an opportunity to listen to the sound of Sanskrit, under the assumption Alexander Hamilton could pronounce the words in “Sanskrit”, was Friedrich von Schlegel, he writes a book in 1808 and then exits from the scene. He does not teach anybody “Sanskrit”.
These “scholars” want us to believe that they just turned to Sanskrit texts and could read and understand. The characters were still unknown to them. These “scholars” must have been suffering from dementia or even worse. They did not remember their laborious efforts of learning their own vernacular.
But, as we mentioned earlier, the first four Sanskrit grammar guides in English were available in Paris: by missionary William Carey (1804), by Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1805), by Charles Wilkins (1808) and by senior merchant H. P. Forster (1810). Now we know how a language called Sanskrit, is brought to and spread in Europe. Is it still the original Sanskrit and not a kind of “Pidgin Sanskrit”? We must admit that we are extremely confused. “Pidgin Sanskrit” would mean just badly articulated Sanskrit. We understand that it was much worse.
*****
Now we come down from Alexander Hamiltion, Friedrich von Schlegel, Antoine Léonard de Chézy, Franz Bopp, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Hermann Brockhaus to Friedrich Maximilian Müller. None of them had learnt the Sanskrit language. We come down to those wonder-some years from 1803 to 1844. How much “Sanskrit” Friedrich Maximilian Müller could have learnt from Hermann Brockhaus at Leipzig? He attended courses only up to the end of the summer term, i.e., till July 1843.
The alphabets of the language called Sanskrit, some Texts in Sanskrit original, their translated versions Persian, Arabic and English, a few rudimentary grammar books were available in Germany. Nothing more. For Friedrich Maximilian Müller it was less. He did not have access to the English language. He might have read Friedrich von Schlegel’s book: On the language and the wisdom of the Indians, Heidelberg 1808. He did not mention to have read this book.
Friedrich Maximilian Müller is done at Leipzig University. He goes to Berlin: “My wish to go to Berlin arose partly from a desire to hear Bopp, but yet more from a desire to make the acquaintances of Schelling.” Franz Bopp is considered to be the pope of Sanskrit in Europe.
In this chapter we have documented our first run to ascertain how much of “Sanskrit” was available in Germany that could be learnt at most by Friedrich Maximilian Müller. We shall have to continue our search to find out how, when, by whom the Sanskrit language is brought to Europe and which Sanskrit language does actually arrive to Europe in our later chapters in due course.
Looking a little ahead, we have also dealt with “scholars” of our time who wanted us to believe that Alexander Hamilton brings Sanskrit from India to Paris in 1803. We know by now whatever these “scholars” wanted us to believe on, about and of the Sanskrit language does not corresponds