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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1898.
Bübler for MSS. He who wanted to do archeological or epigraphic work, turned to Bühler for inscriptions and, it may be, for ways and means to go ont to India. He who wanted information about any difficult roint in Indian research, turned (it seemed the most natural thing) to Bühler for advice. Thus he will be missed by every Sanskrit scholar and Iodologist ; but his nearer friends and pupils feel without him as if cast adrift.
Bühler's leadership among Indologists, though it had long been an understood fact, was to find its outward expression in the great work, which occupied him during the last years of his life, and which was to be the crown of his life-long labours in the field of Indian research, - in his Encyclopedia of Indo-Aryan Research. Upwards of thirty scholars of various nationalities — from Austria, England, Germany, India, the Netherlands, and the United States - bad joined Bühler, in order to give, according to an elaborate scheme which he himself had worked out, systematic treatises on all the different branches of Indology, and thus for the first time to render a complete account of the present state of our knowledge of India in a concise survey of Indian philology, literature, history, antiquities, religion, sciences, and art. Bühler had not only planned the whole work, enlisted his collaborators, and undertaken the general editorship, but he had also reserved for himself the treatment of some of the most difficult subjects. He had the satisfaction of seeing the great undertaking started by the publication of several excellent contributions. But only one of his wn contributions was he allowed to see completed, - that on Indian palæography which has already been mentioned. He had also promised to treat, together with Prof. Jolly and Sir Raymond West, on sociology, clans, castes, etc., and on economies, tenures, commerce, etc.; and how he would have brought his extensive knowledge of modern Indian life to bear on these subjects! Together with Dr. Stein, he had intended to treat the subject of geography, with which he was so familiar, both by his journeys extending over so many parts of India and by his epigraphic researches. But above all, his plan, which he had carried about for so many years, of writing a Connected History of India, was to be accomplished in this work. He had promised to treat on the literary and epigraphio Sources of Indian History, and on the Political History from the earliest times to the Mahommedan Conquest, with a chapter on Chronology. That he has not been spared to accomplish this task, is undoubtedly the greatest misfortune that could have befallen Indian studies. It is one comfort to know that the Encyclopedia which has been started so auspi. ciously is to be continued, Prof. Kielhorn having undertaken the editorship of the work in succession to Bühler. And there can be no doubt that men like Prof. Kielhorn, Dr. Ilaltzsch, and Dr. Fleet will be able to take up the work on Indian history, which Bühler left undone, that Prof. Jolly, Sir Raymond West and Dr. Stein will be able to accomplish tho tryk in which Biibler was to assist then, and that they will do so in the spirit of their departed friend; but surely those scholars, and in fact all those who are still engaged in any work in connection with the Encyclopedia, will feel the loss of Bühler most. deeply, and miss him most frequently and most painfully,
What enabled Bühler to so eminentiy become the leading spirit of such an undertaking as the Encyclopedia, was the fact that he was one of the few universal Indologists (a term recently applied by Büller to the veteran Sanskrit scholar Prof. Weber) who are still living. With the advance of Indian studies it has become well nigh impossible for any one scholar to
* The following Parts have been published up to the present date, i.e., under Bubier's editorship :
Vol. I., 8, 6. The Indian Systems of Lexicography (Koshas) by Th. Zacharis (in German). . 1., 6. Vedio and Sanskrit Syntax by J. S. Speyer (in German). , I., 11. Indian Palaeography (with 17 plates) by Bühler (in German). II., 3, 6. Coins (with plates) by E. J. Rapson (in English).
8. Law and Custom by J. Jolly (in German). 1, a. Vedic Mythology by A. Macdonell (in English).
Ritual Literature, Vedie Sacrifices and Charms by A. Hillebrandt (in German),
Sâm khya and Yoga by R. Garbe (in Germar). III., 8. Buddhism by H. Kern (in English),
