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

Page 391

DECEMBER, 1898.]
IN MEMORIAM GEORGE BÜHLER.
IN MEMORIAM GEORG BÜHLER.
A POSTSCRIPT.
383
BY R. C. TEMPLE.
It has been a melancholy pleasure to me, after much correspondence and with the effective assistance of Dr. Winternitz, to compile this memorial number of the Indian Antiquary in honour of my genial friend and invaluable guide and co-operator of so many years. It is natural that, when called upon, many fellow-workers should have come forward with their parting appreciation of one who was not only a matured scholar and a safe master, but also always a kindly friend, a generous opponent and a fair fighter, thinking in all controversies not so much of himself as of the right of the cause he fought for. It is natural also that the conductor of this Journal, which he helped from its very commencement, as we have already heard from Dr. Burgess, continuously up to his sudden death 26 years later (I had to publish his last contribution uncorrected for the press, and from the other side of the world, from Yokohama and San Francisco, in ignorance of the calamity that had overtaken my friend, I "wrote letters to the dead" about projected contributions), should desire to go out of the usual course to do honour to the memory of one who had conferred so many benefits with such unstinted, unselfish lavishness on the studies it serves to forward. Indeed, those who have been able to assist me in this undertaking have esteemed their pious labours to be a privilege; so do I in my turn esteem it a privilege to have had the right to indite this postscript as a last testimony, however inadequate, to the worth of the mutual friend, who was also the actual master and teacher of so many of us.
I have been able to set before the reader a goodly array of writers for this special number, but it will be readily understood that for individual reasons many who would gladly have come forward with friendly articles or notes have been prevented from doing so. From these I have had kindly expressions of sympathy and regret at inability to actively assist. The venerable scholars, O. von Böhtlingk and A. Weber, pleaded age and infirmity, and generous and appreciative letters were sent by Lord Reay, Sir Raymond West, Drs. Whitley Stokes and Fleet in England, and from Profs. Garbe, R. Pischel and Hillebrandt among others on the Continent of Europe.
Abundant information has already been given as to the main facts of Bühler's career :his services to Comparative Philology and to Indian Studies of a very wide range; mythology, Vedic and Sanskrit; Indian literature, ancient and modern, Sanskrit, Pali, Jain, Buddhist, legal, Belles Lettres; geography, chronology, epigraphy, archeology, palæography; history and philosophy, ancient and modern, religious, political, epic; grammar, lexicography, philology, law:his many works, culminating in the great Encyclopædia unfinished at his death:- his efficiency as an official, a teacher, an organiser:- his exceeding skill as an Oriental and European lingnist: his many fine personal qualities, knowledge of human nature, tact and skill in bringing to the fore the better instincts of those with whom he was in contact :- his knowledge and energy as a collector of MSS. and his large-hearted generosity in their disposition:- his power of making and keeping friends.
There is, indeed, nothing for me to add to the long catalogue of Bühler's capacities and works accomplished, beyond making good one small deficiency, which after all it properly lies with me to supply, a list of his 85 contributions to this Journal, though it cannot be a full measure of the work he did for it, owing to his never-ending kindness in looking over and improving on the work of others less gifted and less completely equipped.
Bühler's Contributions to the Indian Antiquary. 1872.
1. On the Chandikasataka of Banabhatta.
2. Note on MSS. of the Atharvaveda.