Abstract
‘It is language and religion that make a people, but religion is even a more powerful agent than language’, wrote Friedrich Max Müller , the pioneer of comparative philology and scientific study of religion. Nineteenth-century Europe underwent major turmoil by the rise of critical thinking from scientific luminaries like Charles Lyell and Darwin, growth of the romantic and nationalistic movement and the reigning crisis of faith. The supremacy of religious scholars as the guardians of knowledge was repeatedly questioned. Consequently, there was an increased need of a more scientific approach looking at ancient religious texts. In 1845, after following the lecture of Burnouf on Rig Veda, Müller got attracted towards the study of Sanskrit . However, Müller’s research was not free from the contemporary sociopolitical influences. One of his mentors, Baron von Bunsen , toiled to develop a philosophy of religion by linking comparative philology and theology. Müller’s magnum opus—The Sacred Books of The East project, was an effort, partly directed to this cause. It received generous support from the British Empire due to colonial interests it served and due to the intellectual curiosity, it raised about the origin of civilization. During this work, Müller established the word Aryan to refer to people speaking old Indo-European branch of languages. Thereafter, Müller started to reconstruct the intellectual history of mankind by first, considering language as the basis for intellect and second, by applying the theory of evolution to religion. Thus, language, race and religion were merged in the same pot paving the way for Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT). In this part of my study, I take a critical look into the scholarly pursuit of Müller and argue that his scientific methods were not necessarily sound. To fit a set of preconceived notions in scientific wrapper, he helped formulate the questionable notion of AIT. Thus, my analyses not only throws light into the formulation of AIT but also shows that scientific studies of nineteenth century were not free from individual ideologies and sociopolitical interests (Notably, this is aligned with the argument in the ‘strong program’ of culture. See for example, [The Strong Program in Cultural Sociology by Jeffrey C. Alexander and Philip Smith. This essay has appeared in The Handbook of Sociological Theory, edited by Jonathan Turner (New York: Kluwer, 2001), and in Alexander’s The Meanings of Social Life (New York: Oxford, 2004)]).
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Notes
- 1.
(Humboldt) Humboldt had a flair of publishing his findings unlike many of his contemporaries. Many of his travel diaries across would constitute thousands of pages, which studied different elements of nature—plants, animals, geology—in unison. His published works would lead to the foundation of multiple nascent scientific fields like plant geography and meterology. Coincidentally, his brother Wilhelm von Humboldt would be instrumental in spearheading the modern education system in Germany. Humboldt travelled through America, Spanish America, Europe and Russia in his lifetime. Among others, Charles Darwin , frequently referred to Humboldt’s writings in his famous voyage on HMS Beagle.
- 2.
Lane (Mar 29, 2011, p. 248) The book by Lane is an excellent analysis of how Victorian intellectual icons converted doubt from a fearsome mental state to an ethical necessity that balances out certainty and fanaticism.
- 3.
Larsen (2008) The case of Thomas Copper, poet and William Hone, satirist and writer, are prominent, who adopted Christianity after preaching and practising scepticism for years. Edward Royle wrote in the book—‘Victorian Infidels’—about eight leaders of the Secularist movement in 1860: G. J. Holyoake, Joseph Barker, Charles Bradlaugh, Austin Holyoake, John Watts, J. H. Gordon, Robert Cooper and J. B. Bebbington. Of this group, three members—Barker, Gordon and Bebbington—embraced evangelical Christianity.
- 4.
Howard (2006) Howard’s detailed and careful analysis shows how Germany rebuilt its education system with the flagship university in Berlin from its Protestant theologian faculty.
- 5.
The teaching of theology was instituted in Bologna in 1364 and much like the rest of the Europe, the stormy debates of Enlightenment era also raged in Bologna. Italian philosopher and medical doctor Pietro Pomponazzi (16 September 1462–18 May 1525) was a professor of Bologna. He challenged the Aristotelian beliefs, closely held by the church, in his Tractatus de immortalitate animae (‘Treatise on the Immortality of the Soul’, 1516). The book was publicly burned at Venice and he had run the risk of extreme penalty till Cardinal Pietro Bembo helped him. He had to defend his views in two following treatises and withheld several other works, which were published posthumously. He demonstrated his rational and sceptical tone in further works such as ‘On Incantations’ (1520), where he applied the principle of causality to religion. However, he declared his complete loyalty to the Catholic faith and argued that the theological adherence and scepticism can coexist, by choosing to study the Aristotelian theory interpreted by St. Thomas Aquinas .
- 6.
The book was published posthumously in 1836.
- 7.
Westminster John Knox Press (2013).
- 8.
Robinson (1969) The model of Robinson was further examined by Margaret C. Jacob in ‘The Cultural Meaning of Scientific Revolution’, who proclaimed that the emergence of scientific revolution created a culture of curiosity, improvement and learning, thus fuelling industrial revolution. While that is in principle correct, these authors, perhaps inadvertently, skip the history of colonialism and how without the rampant loots of British colonies, Industrial revolution would not have been a success.
- 9.
Plumb and Europa (1974, pp. 129–151) [Chapter—‘What did the Industrial Revolution in Britain owe to Science?’].
- 10.
Mason (1962, p. 503).
- 11.
S.J. (1620–1668, 1988) Roth was a polyglot, having mastered Persian, Kannada, Hindustani and Sanskrit , apart from several European languages. He spent considerable time in different places of India, including Goa and Agra, where he finally died and was buried.
- 12.
Voltaire (1777, letter of 15 December 1775) In fact, Urs App, in his well-articulated book ‘The Birth of Orientalism ’, covers the crucial role played by Voltaire in the genesis of Orientalism in depth.
- 13.
Geulen (2007).
- 14.
Robb (n.d., p. 231) Risley used the ratio of the width of a nose to its height to divide Indians into Aryan and Dravidian races, as well as seven castes. He relied on the anthropometrical studies for indology, in contrast to the prevalent methods based on ancient texts. Among other works, he published a paper in 1891, titled ‘The Study of Ethnology in India’, which is described by Trautmann as the racial theory of Indian civilization. Apart from Max Müller , according to Trautmann, Risley was the main proponent of this theory, which attempted to establish that Indian civilization experienced a cataclysmic event when the fair-skinned, Sanskrit -speaking Aryans clashed with dark-skinned, barbarian aborigines.
- 15.
Müller (1848, 13th June, pp. 153, 154).
- 16.
Anon (n.d., p. 154) Indeed at that time, St. Petersburg had a chair for every department of Oriental scholarship. Vienna had a Oriental seminary, Prussia encouraged young Oriental scholars by employing them afterwards as consuls and interpreters.
- 17.
‘The Essential Max Müller : On Language, Mythology and Religion’ by J. Stone (Editor).
- 18.
Weltgeist or World-spirit is Hegel’s version of the God of Christianity rooted in realism. According to him—‘The History of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of Freedom…. Itself is its own object of attainment and the sole aim of Spirit. This result it is, at which the process of the World’s History has been continually aiming’.—G.W.F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History (1822. J. Sibree translation).
- 19.
The hypothesis is a solution to what is known as the synoptic problem: the question of how best to account for the differences and similarities between the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The answer to this problem has implications for the order in which the three were composed, and the sources on which their authors drew. Prior to the proposal of Weisse, most Catholic scholars held to the Augustinian hypothesis (Matthew > Mark > Luke) and Protestant biblical critics favoured the Griesbach hypothesis (Matthew > Luke > Mark).
- 20.
Müller (1882) Müller carried the penchant of going beyond ‘mere classical studies’ and studying the universal progression of religion and philosophy from the perspective of linguistic evolution.
- 21.
Müller (1848, 13th June, pp. 34, 36) Burnhouf was in regular correspondence with British residents in India, such as Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800–1894), who would send him Sanskrit manuscripts during his stay at Nepal. Hodgson selected six famous libraries as the depositories of his Buddhist texts—Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta; the College of Fort William; the Royal Asiatic Society , London; the India Office Library, London; and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Having thus placed at the disposal of British scholars a munificent endowment of manuscripts, he enriched French Orientalists with a scarcely less splendid donation of 147—transmitted to Burnouf and the Paris Asiatic Society .
- 22.
Anon (n.d.) Müller wrote an article on Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa in ‘Nineteenth Century’. Swami Vivekananda, a noted disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhansa , and an Indian monk, met him during 1896 at Müller’s residence in Oxford.
- 23.
Müller (n.d., p. 50) Like many contemporaries, Bunsen supported historical interpretation of Biblical scripture. He believed that German scholarship, particularly as it related to history, philology and religion, could bring benefits to Britain. Bunsen depended on Müller’s vigour and scholarship. He aided Müller by inviting him regularly to the Prussian Embassy to meet leading figures of the day and by ensuring his participation in a presentation to the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford in 1847. Bunsen communicated in no unclear terms to Müller that ‘We must show them what we have done in Germany for the history and philosophy of language, and I reckon on your help’.
- 24.
Max Müller (n.d.) Indeed Müller would spend a good amount of his life in the translation and interpretation of Rig-veda. His association with it through the usage of ‘our own oldest inheritance’ is unclear whether that simply refers to a scholarly inheritance or inheritance as in the Oriental root of Germany.
- 25.
Müller (1848, 13th June, pp. 97, 98) Also notable is the use of a specific date by Müller here.
- 26.
Müller (n.d., p. 56).
- 27.
Sushil Mittal (n.d., p. 336).
- 28.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 78) Readers would remember his tutor in Leipzig Hermann Lotze, who did pioneering work in scientific psychology. Notably, Wilhelm Wundt, the first person to term himself a psychologist founded a formal laboratory of experimental psychology in the same University of Leipzig in 1879.
- 29.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 501).
- 30.
Müller (n.d., p. 195) Notably the usage of the word Aryan here with ‘our’ in several context does indeed help little but, blur the borders of language, race and ethnicities. To have a wonderful past that has been uncovered in a mystic land thousands of miles away, fell in a perfect extrapolation of the romantic nationalism. Further, following the Hegelian ideals of Baron Bunsen to form an Anglo-German alliance, Müller took to tasks that went beyond academic interests. He was the first president of English Goethe Society. He, with his wife, translated and edited the memoirs of Baron Stockmar, a German physician and statesman, who played leading role in English affairs as a close confidante of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria .
- 31.
Müller (1861, pp. 1, 29).
- 32.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 481) This was, in fact, a great debate of that time and also remains a relevant open question now. ‘The distinction of language in man is very great from all animals’, Darwin wrote, ‘but do not overrate—animals communicate to each other’ (Barrett, Paul. et al. eds. Charles Darwin ’s Notebooks, 1836–1841. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and British Museum (Natural History), 1987). Max Müller asserted that language was the ‘one great barrier between the brute and man’; ‘no process of natural selection will ever distil significant words out of the notes of birds and the cries of beasts’. Darwin eventually published his views on language in Descent of Man (1871), as part of a chapter on the comparative mental powers of humans and the lower animals. He acknowledged that language had ‘justly been considered as one of the chief distinctions between man and the lower animals’.
- 33.
Valone (1996).
- 34.
Müller (n.d., p. 61) George Bühler was an expert in ancient Indian languages and law. He was a close associate of Max Müller , participating in the translation of several volumes in the Sacred Books of the East project. He also accepted the invitation from Müller for joining as a Professor of Oriental Studies in the Elphinstone College of Bombay, and became a member of the Royal Asiatic Society , Bombay branch.
- 35.
Max Müller (n.d., p. 117) .
- 36.
Bunsen (1884 to 1885, p. 88) Bunsen dreamt of a strong protestant church presence. In fact, his selection as a Prussian ambassador, was partly due to the common interest he shared with Prussian king Fredereick William IV, about setting up a Prusso-Anglican bishopric at Jerusalem.
- 37.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 186) This method was known to Bunsen, himself a scholar on several languages. Notably, Bunsen had been influenced heavily in the company of the noted historian Niebuhr. Niebuhr was a leader of the romantic era, and a prominent voice on the classical Roman history, where he applied philological analyses.
- 38.
Anon. (n.d.) This ambiguity about the dating of Rig Veda is expected given the absence of any circumstantial evidence, until Indus valley civilization is unearthed.
- 39.
Max Müller (1891, pp. 86, 87) Archibald Henry Sayce was a noted British linguist and Assyriologist. Among other accomplishments, he deciphered several ancient Egyptian texts, set up new studies on ancient astronomical studies and discovered remains of the lost Hittite empire that existed long before the age of Old Testament.
- 40.
Müller (n.d., p. 56).
- 41.
Müller (n.d., p. 164).
- 42.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 47) It was interestingly noted that at least one-tenth of the audience were ordained ministers of the Gospel.
- 43.
Müller (1882).
- 44.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 110) These ideas are not far from how it was developed by Hegel. That the world-spirit originated in the East and manifested itself in the finest form in the West (Christianity).
- 45.
Anon. (n.d., p. 49).
- 46.
Max Müller (n.d., pp. 276, 277) .
- 47.
Müller (1848, 13th June, p. 262).
- 48.
Müller (n.d., p. 263) In the University of Glasgow, which was conducting the Gifford lectures, there was a petition from the faculty of Theology that desired the senate to make it clear to the general public that the ‘sole responsibility for the mode in which the subject may be treated rests with the Lecturer’.
- 49.
Max Müller (1892) In fact, this incident possibly represents an early example of civil debate between freedom of expression and the sensitivity of the religions. The Gifford lectures were set up specifically for the scientific studies of the religion, which went further than they could anticipate.
- 50.
Müller (n.d., p. xvi).
- 51.
Max Müller (n.d., p. 141) This is the first instance, where the intentions of Müller to propose a religion is found. While it is conceived only within the scope of saints and gods in the context of India, for Müller, he had the examples of von Bunsen (setting up an Prusso-Anglican church in Jerusalem) and Martin Luther , who started as a protestant reformer, leading to form a church. To Müller, Indian social reformers could play the same role, where he would provide them with the necessary foundation through the sacred books of the east .
- 52.
Müller (1895).
- 53.
Max Müller (n.d., p. 296) .
- 54.
Max Müller (n.d., p. 4).
- 55.
Anon. (n.d., p. 129).
- 56.
Müller (1882).
- 57.
Bryant (2001) To complete the picture, the current Indo-Aryan migration theory postulates that the Yamna culture is the ‘Urheimat’ of the Indo-Europeans, from where the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BC) emerged eastward, further from which developed the Andronovo culture (1800–1400 BC). Andronovo culture interacted with the BMAC (2300–1700 BC) and, due to this interaction, Indo-Iranians originated. Indo-Iranians split into the Indo-Aryan and the Iranian branches around 1800 BC. The Indo-Aryans migrated to the Levant, northern India, and possibly east Asia. Aryan Invasion Theory is essentially a skewed variant of the above theory, which artificially places the western branch of the Indo-Aryans at a superior scale and also uses a clock that matches with Biblical history.
- 58.
Anon. (1992, p. 248) These early studies got ingrained with the linguistic theory of Müller, and in the longer duration got hijacked by racial theorists, such as British administrator Herbert Hope Risley .
- 59.
(Müller, Great Britain) Müller was in touch with the various Missionaries for both the collection of ancient texts and linguistic studies. In his Lectures on the Science of Language, he mentions Sanskrit , Greek, Latin and Gothic as the ‘royal heads in the history of language’. However, to search for their offsprings and linguistic rivulets, he mentions of his correspondences with Missionaries in India, Central Asia, America and Africa.
- 60.
Pictet (1878a).
- 61.
Pictet (1878b).
- 62.
Müller (1888, p. 120).
- 63.
Müller (n.d., p. 172).
- 64.
Müller (1848, 13th June, pp. 97, 98).
- 65.
Speech before the University of Stassbourg, 1872, Chaudhuri (Oct 3rd, 1974) The mixing of language and race, apart from being used as a tool by racial ethnologists, also received heavy criticism when Müller tried to assert the position of „Aryan brethren“. Notably, John Crawfurd, a former chair of Ethnological society and a British diplomat, sarcastically commented—„…that would amount to allowing that there was no difference in the faculties of the people that produced Homer and Shakespeare, and those that have produced nothing better than the authors or Mahabharat and Ramayana; no difference between the home-keeping Hindus, who never made a foreign conquest of any kind, and the nations who discovered, conquered, and peopled a new world“.
- 66.
Anon. (n.d., pp. 4–8).
- 67.
Witzel (2000).
- 68.
Sir Edmund Leach (1990, pp. 227–245).
- 69.
Max Müller (n.d., p. 67) .
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Chattopadhyay Banerjee, S. (2019). Max Müller’s Beginning of Modern Religious Study and the Silent Formulation of Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT). In: The Development of Aryan Invasion Theory in India . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7755-6_2
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