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_full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): German Indology Challenged _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 German Indology Challenged 99 Chapter 4 German Indology Challenged On the Dialectics of Armchair Philology, Fieldwork, and Indigenous Traditions in the Late Nineteenth Century Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn 1 Introduction A spirit of discovery, hard-will and dedication to work are certainly the person- ality traits most frequently encountered in biographies of nineteenth-century European Oriental scholars. They are mostly praised for their tenacity and readiness to endure material sacrifices in order to reach their professional goals. At the beginning of the nineteenth-century, secular Oriental scholarship was still at its very start. Deciding to specialize in Oriental languages outside the framework of theological training and Biblical scholarship equalled an un- predictable bet on one’s professional future. Moreover, some Oriental lan- guages had just entered the framework of European scholarship: tools like grammars, dictionaries or textbooks were spare, if not completely missing. For this reason, the achievements of Orientalists forced the admiration of their biographers, and Oriental scholars often thought of themselves as adventurers of science, comparing their efforts in deciphering scriptures or understanding ancient texts with the physical challenges faced by colonial administrators in the field.1 The German born Iranologist and Indologist Martin Haug (1827-1876) is no exception to such biographical descriptions. In the various texts on his life and work, the celebration of the ethics of the Orientalist takes the shape of a true success story. Based on Haug’s own accounts (written at the early ages of 25 and 32), his biographers particularly emphasise his social origins as the eldest son of a Swabian peasant and the fact that he had to overcome many obstacles to live his passion for learning and become an academic.2 The extraordinary 1 Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn, “La philologie comme épopée: aspects de la tradition histo- riographique de l’indianisme en Allemagne au 19e siècle,” Histoire épistémologie langage 33/2 (2011), 103-119. 2 Theodor Benfey, Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft und orientalischen Philologie in Deutschland (Munich: Cotta, 1869), 611, 614, 624, 633; Wilhelm Eilers, “Haug, Martin,” in Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 8 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1969), 91-92; E. P. Evans, “Biographical Sketch,” © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004406315_006 100 Rabault-feuerhahn tenacity with which he fought against adversity and made his way to an aca- demic career thus becomes a distinctive feature of his life.3 A major event in Martin Haug’s biography was his appointment by the Brit- ish government as a Superintendent of Sanskrit Studies in the Poona College, near Bombay, in 1858. This position, which he held from 1859 to 1866, made him one of the first German Indologists to go overseas: apart from missionar- ies, until late into the nineteenth-century German specialists of India were armchair philologists. This of course was largely due to the fact that Germany had neither colonies nor trading posts in India. Although they acknowledged that this situation made it more complicated to access Indian manuscripts and books printed in India, the vast majority of them claimed that strong philo- logical skills mattered more than the direct contact with native speakers and indigenous commentary traditions. Their focus was on Sanskrit and on Indian antiquity. Their strictly textual and erudite approach was a proof that they were solely driven by scholarly interest and that their scholarship was more thoroughgoing than that of the British. The paradoxical injunction to distinguish oneself as an outstanding scholar and at the same time to fit in within the system is a central issue in the building of academic careers. The proposition from the British government came at a time when Haug, who had obtained his doctorate in 1854, started to despair of ever obtaining a position at a German university. For this reason, his decision to accept the position in Poona can be interpreted as a strategy to beat his Ger- man colleagues on their own field by adopting a new perspective and accumu- lating a groundbreaking experience. Until now, Haug remains famous for having worked in close relationship with Parsee and Hindu scholars and hav- ing promoted and integrated their views into his own writings. This marked a great difference with the methods of his former professors and colleagues in Germany and ensured him a rare, if not unique knowledge. Such a reading should not, however, overshadow the complexities of his tra- jectory. His correspondence shows evidence that he dreamt of going to India in Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings and Religion of the Parsis, ed. E. W. West (London: Trübner and Co., [1884] 2000), xvii-xxxi; E. Gaiser, “Martin Haug,” Bezzenbergers Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen 1 (1877), 70-80; Julius Jolly, “Haug, Martin,” in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 11 (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1880), 54-56; Ernst Trumpp, “Martin Haug,” Beilage zur Augsburger Allgemeinen Zeitung 182 (1876). Haug’s auto- biographical account from 1859 reaches until the year 1854 and was extensively published by Friedrich Veit in: Festschrift zur Erinnerung an die Haug-Feier in Ostdorf, ed. Friedrich Veit, (Tübingen: Buchdruckerei von Gg. Schnürken, 1909). It is preceded by a biographical sketch by Veit himself. The main source for this text by Veit is another, even earlier autobiography by Haug from 1852: Veit, Festschrift, 1. 3 Gaiser, “Martin Haug,” 70..