CHAPTER VI.
THE SCHLEGELS.
Friedrich Schlegel's Weisheit der Indier—Foundation of Sanskrit Study in Germany.
We have now come to the period of the foundation of Sanskrit philology in Germany. English statesmanship had completed the material conquest of India; German scholarship now began to join in the spiritual conquest of that country. With this undertaking the names of Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel are prominently identified. The chief work of these brothers lies in the field of philosophy, translation and criticism, and is therefore beyond the scope of this investigation. Suffice it to say that Friedrich's famous little book Die Weisheit der Indier, published in 1808, besides marking the beginning of Sanskrit studies and comparative grammar in Germany,[125] is also of interest to us because here for the first time a German version of selections from the Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaṇa and the Code of Manu, as well as a description of some of the most common Sanskrit metres is presented,[126] and an attempt is even made to reproduce these metres in the translation. The work of August Wilhelm Schlegel as critic, translator and editor of important works from Sanskrit literature is too familiar to need more than mention.[127] It is well known that to his lectures Heine owed his fondness for the lotus-flowers and gazelles on the banks of the Ganges.
On the poetry of the Schlegels their Oriental studies exercised very little influence. Friedrich translated some maxims from the Hitōpadēśa and from Bhartṛhari;[128] August likewise translated from the same works, as well as from the Epics and Purāṇas.[129] There are only two original poems of his that have anything to do with India, and both of these were written before he had begun the study of Sanskrit. The first is "Die Bestattung des Braminen,"[130] a somewhat morbid description of the burning of a corpse. It was addressed to his brother Karl August, who had joined a Hanoverian regiment in the service of the East India Company. The second of these poems is "Neoptolemus an Diokles" (ii. 13), written in 1800, and dedicated to the memory of this same brother who had died at Madras in 1789.[131] As a matter of fact, there is really nothing Oriental in the spirit of the poem.
Aside from translations, the only poems that are connected with Schlegel's Sanskrit studies, are the epigrams against his illustrious contemporaries, Bopp and Rückert. Those against the former (ii. 234) are of no special interest here. With those against Rückert, however, the case is different. It is worth while noting that towards the distinguished scholar-poet Schlegel assumed a patronizing attitude. To Rückert's masterly renderings from Sanskrit literature he referred slightingly as "Sanskritpoesiemetriknachahmungen" (ii. 235). But when he hailed the younger poet as
Aller morgenländ'schen Zäune König,
Wechselsweise zeisigkranichtönig! (ii. 218),
he came much nearer to the truth than he imagined at the time. For, while it will be conceded that Rückert did not always sing with equal power, it also is indisputable that he is the leading spirit in the movement under investigation. But we shall not anticipate a discussion of this poet's work, which is reserved for a succeeding chapter.