(Doctorate in Medicine).
This Dr.Taylor claimed to have made his translation from an original Sanskrit publication of this drama written by one Krishna Misri. And our search to find this Dr. J. Taylor and Krishna Misri in the web search engines does not lead us to anywhere. Instead, we are always referred back to Hermann Brockhaus. We are dumbfounded.
We write the WS 1842/1843. Hermann Brockhaus reads at Leipzig University “History of Indian Literature” and “Probodha Chandrodaya”. To judge what it means we must know about what is current in Europe as “History of Indian Literature” and how this knowledge on Indian literature has travelled from India to Europe. The same procedure is needed concerning “Probodha Chandrodaya”. We leave these issues here as planned items for the next chapter. Presently we take a note that Hermann Brockhaus knows English and we focus on Friedrich Maximilian Müller’s studies at Leipzig.
In the beginning of SS 1843 Friedrich Maximilian Müller is 19 and half years old. There is no indication in “My Autobiography”, nor is there a record at Leipzig University, that he sits in examinations to acquire his first academic degree of “Baccalaureates”. There is no indication whatsoever that he informs his mother that he has not tried even to acquire his first academic degree of “Baccalaureates”. We are apprehensive. What is happening with him? There is no indication whatsoever that he informs the Anhalt-Dessau government authorities on the progress of his studies. He is drawing a scholarship for poor students for a limited period. Has he developed exam anxieties or is he facing difficulties to choose his subjects for exam?
We continue to read in the 45 pages titled “University” in “My Autobiography” written by Max Müller. We remember his two major sufferings: Poverty and chronic headaches. There is not a word on his major handicaps while studying at Leipzig University. As it is in the previous chapters of his autobiography presented by Max Müller, essential and crucial facts about his real life at Leipzig University are almost concealed in the midst of general descriptions. We read, for example, an authentically vivid description that leads us directly to the German educational set up but only indirectly to Friedrich Maximilian as well (p.117-119, “My Autobiography”):
“It is in every respect a great jump from a German school to a German university. At school a boy, even in the highest form, has little choice. All his lessons are laid down for him; he has to learn what he is told, whether he likes it or not. Few only venture on books outside the prescribed curriculum. There is an examination at the end of every half-year, and a boy must pass it well to get into higher form. Boys at public school (gymnasium), if they cannot pass their examination at the proper time, are advised to go to another school, and to prepare for a career in which classical languages are less important.
I must say at once that when I matriculated at Leipzig, in the summer of 1841, I was still very young and very immature. I had determined to study philology, chiefly Greek and Latin, but the fare spread out by the professors was much too tempting. I read Greek and Latin without difficulty; I often read classical authors without ever attempting to translate them; I also wrote Latin easily. Some of the professors lectured in Latin, and at our academic societies Latin was always spoken. I soon became a member of the classical seminary under Gottfried Hermann, and of the Latin Society under Professor Haupt. ... I still have my Collegien-Buch, in which every professor has to attest what lectures one has attended. The number of lectures on various subjects which I attended is quite amazing, and I should have attended still more if the honorarium had not frightened me away. Every professor lectured publice and privatim, and for the more important courses, four lectures a week, he charged ten shillings, for more special courses less or nothing. This seems little but it was often too much for me; and if one added these honoraria to the salary of a popular professor, his income was considerable, and was more than the income of most public servants. I have known professors who had four or five hundred auditors. This gave them 250 Pounds twice a year, and that added to their salary, was considered a good income at that time.”
His sufferings due to poverty and the cute story of his “first love, Sanskrit and the rest” (p.109-111) is catching us up again. Now we read on page 112 in the “My Autobiography”. Highlights by us:
“In spite of the res angusta domi, I enjoyed my student-life thoroughly, while my home was made very agreeable by my mother and sister. My mother was full of resource, and she was wise enough not to interfere with my freedom. My sister, who was about two year older than myself, was most kind-hearted and devoted both to me and to our mother.”
We have read these lines more than once to get the basic trait of the character of Friedrich Maximilian as mediated to us by Max Müller and of course by his educational progress. He is pathologically egoistic. He enjoys his student-life thoroughly. He praises his mother who was full of resource, and she was wise enough not to interfere with his freedom. Does he, at least, report to the mother about the progress in his studies?
Then we read on page 113 in the autobiography: “Of society, in the ordinary sense of the word, I saw hardly anything. I am afraid I was rather a bear, and declined even to invest in evening dress. I joined a student club which formed part of the Burschenschaft, but which in order to escape prosecution adopted the title of Gemeinschaft. I went there in the evening to drink beer and smoke, and I made some delightful acquaintances and friendships.” Later we shall know that he smokes cigars only.
Friedrich Maximilian Müller has obviously raised himself to a master of suppressing things, if we trust Max Müller’s writings on him. We recall his 15 thalers scholarship for poor students and the small pension of his mother Adelheid. We take just one more example to comprehend how light heartedly he shows off. Members of a “Burschenschaft” wear ribbons to show their identity in public. Friedrich Maximilian Müller is once caught by the police wearing Ribbon. We read (p. 115-116, “My Autobiography”):
“I myself got a taste of prison life for the offence of wearing the ribbon of a club which the police regarded with disfavour. I cannot say that either the disagree or the discomfort of my two day’s durance vile weighed much with me, as my friends were allowed free access to me, and came and drank beer and smoked cigars in my cell – of course at my expense – but what I dreaded was the loss of my stipendium or scholarship, which alone enabled me to continue my studies at Leipzig, and which as a rule, was forfeited for political offences. On my release from prison I went to the Rector of the University and explained to him the circumstances of the case – how I had been arrested simply for membership of a suspected club, I assured him that I was innocent of any political propaganda, and the loss of my stipendium would entail my leaving the University.”
Friedrich Maximilian Müller lives his student life, as it is then common at Leipzig. Generally, students then were scions of wealthy people. He has joined a “Burschenschaft”. Members of a “Burschenschaft” learn also duelling. We read on page 116, Autobiography:
“Duelling was then, as it is now, a favourite pastime among students; and though not by nature a brawler, I find that my student days at Leipzig I fought three duels, of two of which I carry the marks to the present day.”
Scar marks on the face are prestigious visible signs of academicians in Germany even today. In the fifth semester, SS 1843, Friedrich Maximilian Müller reduces the numbers of lectures attended to nine. What does it indicate? Resignations? These lectures are:
1 Greek and Latin Seminary Hermann & Klotze
2 History of Greeks and Romans Wachsmuth
3 History of Civilization Wachsmuth
4 History after the Fifteenth Century Flathe
5 History of Ancient Philosophy Niedner
6 Philosophical Society Weisse
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