Indian Antiquary Vol 27

SR No.: 032519
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1898
But he had not been there very long when at last an opportunity seemed to offer itself for the fulfilment of his greatest desire. At that time he was determined to go to India at any cost, and as he often told his pupils, when he wished to encourage them to go out to India) would Lave gone out as a merchant's agent, had no better chance offered itself. Thus, when he was told that there was an opening in the Education Department in India, he did not stop to consider the circumstances connected with the appointment in question, but started at once for India, and when he arrived in Bombay, he found that the post which was promised him was not vacant! Happily, however, in those days European scholars were constantly wanted in the Educational Department. He became acquainted with Sir Alexander Grant, then Principal of the Elphinstone College in Bombay. Sir Alexander had already done much for education in India, and was particularly anxious to raise the standard of Sanskrit studies in the College. It was through his exertions that in December, 1862, Raghoonath Shastry was sent from the Poona College to Bombay, to teach Sanskrit, and he soon succeeded in obtaining for Bühler an appointment as Professor of Oriental Languages at the Elphinstone College.
In his Report to the Director of Pablic Instruction, Bombay, for the year 1862-63, Sir Alexander Grant refers to Bühler's appointment and adds : Dr. Bühler seems in every way well qualified for the duties of his chair. He reports that as Sanskrit studies have been only just started in the college, the standard is as yet low. This will be doubtless remedied by his exertions in the course of time, and we are now in a position to assert that every student in college will be regularly grounded in either Sanskrit or Latin, I need not point out to you the importance of this step from an educational point of view. In his next Report (1863-64) Sir Alexander, after referring to the services of the Professors in general, adds : Dr. Bühler especially seems to me to deserve mention for the cordial way in which he has thrown himself into the work of the College. Not only as a man of learning, but also as a practical educationist, he has been a great acquisition to our staff. He not only taught Sanskrit, but also Comparative Philology and Latin, occasionally also Ancient History. He paid great attention to the College Library, to which many standard Sanskrit works were afterwards added through his exertions. In every way he worked hard to make the Natives acquainted with European methods of research and with the results of Oriental studies in Europe, but at the same time he was aware of the great value, which the traditional learning of Native Paņdits may have for the progress of Sanskpit studies, both in Europe and in India. In one of his first Reports on his college work he recommends to Government the appointment of one of the thorough-bred Shastrts of the old school, both as a help to the advanced students and as an assistance to the Professor. The Shastris,' he says, 'are the representatives of the traditional knowledge of Sanskrit, and in the present state of Sanskļit stadies their services are by no means to be underrated. It was his constant effort to combine the advantages of classical European education with those of the traditional Hindu methods of teaching. That India has produced such scholars as Bhåndärkar, Shankar Pandit, Telang, Apte, and others, and that these men, who have acquired and made so excellent a use of European methods of criticism, have been educated in the Bombay Presidency, is to a very great extent due to the beneficial influence of Bühler and it must be said later on also of Kielhorn.
In the Report of the Director of Public Instruction, Bombay, for the year 1865-66, reference is made for the first time to the plan of publishing A Collection of Sanskrit Classics for the Use of Indian High Schools and Colleges' under the title Bombay Sanskrit Series, to be edited under the superintendence of Profs. Bühler and Kielhorn. Althongh, in the first instance, intended for the use of schools in India, the excellent editions of standard Sanskrit works published in the Bombay Sanskrit Series have become of the greatest importance for the progress of Sanskrit studies in Europe. We need only compare the beautiful editions of Sanskrit texts, published in this Series, with the carelessly printed and (excepting a few landable exceptions) utterly uncritical editions published in the Calcutta Bibliotheca Indica, to see how beneficial the influence of men like Bühiler and Kielhorn bas proved also in this