Si !i.?:*y ',- HSiiS "". --.-'"— •..: - riats « ,: QJnmell Htttuersttj} Cihrarij Sthara, New 5f ark CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library DS 425.M94 India: what can It teach us?A course of 3 1924 023 223 344 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023223344 : INDIA WHAT CAN IT TEACH US? % €anxB& of £«*««« DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OP CAMBRIDGE F. MAX MULLEE, KM. HON. OF ifc- DOCTOR LAW THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE J MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE. Iranian LONGMANS, GKEEN, AND CO. ', 188 3. , UNI i Y [ All bights reserved. ] : OXFOED J. H. STACY, BY B. PICKABD HALL, M.A., AND PBINTEBS TO THE UNIVEBSITY. DEDICATED E. B. COWELL, M.A. LL.D. PEOBESSOB OB SANSKBIT AND BELLOW OP COBPTJS CHEISTI COLLEGE IN THE UNIVEBSITX OB CAMBBIDSE. a 2 My dear Cowell, As these Lectures would never have been written or delivered but for your hearty encourage- ment, I hope you will now allow me to dedicate them to you, not only as a token of my sincere admiration of your great achievements as an Oriental scholar, but also as a memorial of our friendship, now more than thirty years old, a friendship which has grown from year to year, has weathered many a storm, and will last, I trust, for what to both of us may remain of our short passage from shore to shore. I must add, however, that in dedicating these Lectures to you, I do not wish to throw upon you any responsibility for the views which I have put forward in them. I know that you do not agree with some of my views on the ancient religion and literature of India, and I am well aware that with regard to the recent date which I have assigned to the whole of what is commonly called the Classical Sanskrit Literature, I stand almost alone. No, if friendship can claim any voice in the courts of VI DEDICATION. science and literature, let me assure you that I shall consider your outspoken criticism of my Lec- tures as the very best proof of your true and honest friendship. I have through life considered it the greatest honour if real scholars, I mean men not only of learning, but of judgment and character, have considered my writings worthy of a severe and searching criticism, and I have cared far more for the production of one single new fact, though it spoke against me, than for any amount of empty praise or empty abuse. Sincere devotion to his studies and an unswerving love of truth ought to furnish the true scholar with an armour imperme- able to flattery or abuse, and with a vizor that shuts out no ray of light, from whatever quarter it may come. More light, more truth, more facts, more combination of facts, these are his quest. And if in that quest he fails, as many have failed before him, he knows that in the search for truth failures are sometimes the condition of victory, and the true conquerors often those whom the world calls the vanquished. You know better than anybody else the present state of Sanskrit scholarship. You know that at present and for some time to come Sanskrit scholar- ship means discovery and conquest. Every one of your own works marks a real advance, and a per- manent occupation of new ground. But you know also how small a strip has as yet been explored of the vast continent of Sanskrit literature, and how DEDICATION. Vll much still remains terra incognita. No doubt this ex- ploring work is troublesome, and often disappointing, but young students must learn the truth of a re- mark lately made by a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service, whose death we all deplore, Dr. Burnell, ' that no trouble is thrown away which saves trouble to others.' We want men who will work hard, even at the risk of seeing their labours unrequited ; we want strong and bold men who are not afraid of storms and shipwrecks. The worst sailors are not those who suffer shipwreck, but those who only dabble in puddles and are afraid of wetting their feet. It is easy now to criticise the labours of Sir William Jones, Thomas Colebrooke, and Horace Hayman Wilson, but what would have become of Sanskrit scholarship if they had not rushed jn where even now so many fear to tread ? and what will become of Sanskrit scholarship if their con- quests are for ever to mark the limits of our know- ledge? You know best that there is more to be discovered in Sanskrit literature than Nalas and $akuntalas, and surely the young men who every year go out to India are not deficient in the spirit of enterprise, or even of adventure? Why then should it be said that the race of bold explorers, who once rendered the name of the Indian Civil Service illustrious over the whole world, has well-nigh become extinct, and that England, which offers the strongest incentives and Vlll DEDICATION. the most brilliant opportunities for the study of the ancient language, literature, and history of India, is no longer in the van of Sanskrit scho- larship ? If some of the young Candidates for the Indian Civil Service who listened to my Lectures, quietly made up their minds that such a reproach shall be wiped out, if a few of them at least determined to follow in the footsteps of Sir William Jones, and to show to the world that Englishmen who have been able to achieve by pluck, by perseverance, and by real political genius the material conquest of India, do not mean to leave the laurels of its intellectual conquest entirely to other countries, then I shall indeed rejoice, and feel that I have paid back, in however small a degree, the large debt of gratitude which I owe to my adopted country and to some of its greatest statesmen, who have given me the opportunity which I could find nowhere else of realising the dreams of my life,—the publication of the text and commentary of the Rig-veda, the most ancient book of Sanskrit, aye of Aryan litera- ture, and now the edition of the translations of the ' Sacred Books of the East.' I have left my Lectures very much as I deli- vered them at Cambridge. I am fond of the form of Lectures, because it seems to me the most natural form which in our age didactic composi- tion ought to take. As ,in ancient Greece the dialogue reflected most truly the intellectual DEDICATION. IX life of the people, and as in the Middle Ages learned literature naturally assumed with the recluse in his monastic cell the form of a long monologue, so with us the lecture places the writer most readily in that position in which he is accustomed to deal with his fellow-men, and to communicate his knowledge to others. It has no doubt certain disadvantages. In a lecture which is meant to be didactic we have, for the sake of completeness, to say and to repeat certain things which must be familiar to some of our readers, while we are also forced to leave out information which, even in its imperfect form, we should probably not hesitate to submit to our fellow- students, but which we feel we have not yet suffi- ciently mastered and matured to enable us to place it clearly and simply before a larger public. But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. A lecture, by keeping a critical audience constantly before our eyes, forces us to condense our subject, to discriminate between what is important and what is not, and often to deny ourselves the pleasure of displaying what may have cost us the greatest labour, but is of little consequence to other scholars. In lecturing we are constantly reminded of what students are so apt to forget, that their knowledge is meant not for themselves only, but for others, and that to know well means to be able to teach well. I confess I can never write unless I think of somebody for whom I write, and I should X DEDICATION. never wish for a better audience to have before my mind than the learned, brilliant, and kind-hearted assembly by which I was greeted in your University. Still I must confess that I did not succeed in bringing all I wished to say, and more particularly the evidence on which some of my statements rested, up to the higher level of a lecture, and I have therefore added a number of notes containing the less organised matter which resisted as yet that treatment which is necessary before our studies can realise their highest purpose, that of feeding, invigorating, and inspiriting the minds of others. Yours affectionately, F. MAX MULLER. Oxford, December 16, 1883. CONTENTS. PAGE Dedication .. iii Lecture I. "What can India teach us . i-33 „ IL On the truthful character op the Hindus 34-75 „ III. The human interest of Sanskrit Lite- rature ..... 76-113 „ IV. Objections 1 14-140 „ V. The Lessons of the Veda . i4i-r75 „ VI. Vedic Deities '. 176-201 „ VII. Veda and Vedanta 202-255 Notes and Illustrations 257-377 Note A (p. 9). On the treasures found on the Oxus and at Mykenae . 259-260 ,. B(p. 25). On the name of the Cat and the Cat's eye .