Max Müller

German-born British philologist, orientalist and indologist (1823-1900) · Germany · Academics · Died at 76

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He gave the English-speaking world its first systematic access to the sacred texts of the East, editing all fifty volumes of a translation series that opened Hindu, Buddhist, and Zoroastrian scripture to modern scholarship. A philologist who built bridges and started fires.

Academics Writer / Author Literature 19th Century

A life in dates

1900Died28 October 19001875Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and ArtAward1874Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts orderAward1872“He must be a man of little faith, who would fear to subject his own religion to the same critical tests to which the historian subjects all other religions.”In their wordsPreface (Scribner edition, 1872)Read the whole statement

1868“India must be conquered again, and that second conquest should be a conquest by education.”In their wordsDecember 1868Writing to the Duke of Argyll (December 1868), as quoted in Missionaries in India: Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas (1994) by Arun ShourieRead the whole statement

1866“Languages seemed to float about like islands on the ocean of human speech; they did not shoot together to form themselves into larger continents . . .”In their words(1866: 153-4) quoted in Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history.Read the whole statement

“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.”In their wordsDecember 1866Letter to his wife Georgina (December 1866), published in The Life and Letters of Right Honorable Friedrich Max Müller (1902) edited byRead the whole statement

1862Volney PrizeAward1860“History seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual education before, in the fullness of time, it could be admitted to the truths of Christianity.”In their wordsHistory of Ancient Sanksrit Literature (1860)Read the whole statement

1847“It is curious to see how the descendants of the same race, to which the first conquerors and masters of India belonged, return . . .”In their wordsMuller (1847) (349). quoted from Bryant, E. F. (2001). The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture : the Indo-Aryan migration debate. OxfordRead the whole statement

1823Born6 December 1823

Also in Deutsch

Photos 2

Friedrich Max Müller by Bassano 1883

Auld lang syne - F. Max Müller

In their own words 10

Max Müller

10 statements, newest first

He must be a man of little faith, who would fear to subject his own religion to the same critical tests to which the historian subjects all other religions.
1872, Preface (Scribner edition, 1872), Own words
India must be conquered again, and that second conquest should be a conquest by education.
Dec 1868, Writing to the Duke of Argyll (December 1868), as quoted in Missionaries in India: Continuities, Changes, Dilemmas (1994) by Arun Shourie, Own words
Languages seemed to float about like islands on the ocean of human speech; they did not shoot together to form themselves into larger continents . . .
1866, (1866: 153-4) quoted in Bryant, E. F., & Patton, L. L. (2005). The Indo-Aryan controversy : evidence and inference in Indian history., Own words

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Awards

Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art1875

Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order1874

Volney Prize1862

Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi

Doctor honoris causa of the University of Dublin

Honorary Doctor of the University of Edinburgh

Honorary Member

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About this person

Friedrich Max Müller was born in Germany on 6 December 1823 and became a British comparative philologist and Orientalist who founded the Western academic study of Indology and religious studies. Early in his career at Oxford - where he became professor first of modern languages, then of comparative philology in a chair created for him - he believed India needed Christian transformation, but his view grew more nuanced as he championed ancient Sanskrit literature. He directed the Sacred Books of the East, a fifty-volume English translation project that outlasted him, and spent decades embroiled in controversy: accused of being anti-Christian, opposed to Darwinian evolution in favour of theistic versions, and a promoter of Aryan culture who explicitly rejected its racial misuse even as the term later twisted into 20th-century ideology. He was made a member of the UK Privy Council, awarded the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art, and died 28 October 1900.

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Germany

Academics from Germany 6

Mileva Marić62.1

Richard David Precht61.6

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