Indian Antiquary Vol 38

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 30

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(FEBRUARY, 1909.
steps. Pischel had now become aniversally recognized as the chief anthority on the Prakrits, and he was accordingly asked by the late Professor Bühler to write the Irakrit Crammar for his Enoyclopedia of In lo-Arym Research. This Grammar, which appeared in Strassburg in 1900 and was awarded the Volney prise by the French Academy, will long remain the standard work on tho Prakrit dialects. The high estimation in which Pischel was held as a Prakrit grammarian was also evidenced by the fact that he was, last year, requested by the Calcutta University to revive the study of the Prakrits in India 1 a series of lectores.
In connection with these studies on the Prakrits, I must also mention the editions of Pâli works, such as the Assaldyanı Sutta (London, 1880) and the Thérigátha (London, 1883), and the various papers devoted to the investigation of the language and customs of the Gipsies of Europe. The edition of the Sakuntald on the other hand led to extensive studies about the history of the Indian drama and into the system of the rhetoricians. The literary history of India, on the whole, was one of his favourite subjects, and Professor Pischel's lectures on this topic are the best lectures I ever heard in any university. He did not, however, publish them. Bat he showed, in his paper on the court-poets of Lakshmapasēns (Göttingen, 1893), his capacity for making the subject interesting. His literary history of India was a different work, destined for a wider pablie.
When Pischel made his entrance in the learned world, the study of the Vedas in Germany was under the spell of the school of Professor Roth, who tried to anderstand them out of themselves, without consulting the traditional explanation of Indian scholars. Piscbel was of opinion that this method was estentially wrong. The Indian tradition, no doubt, contains a lot of valueless rubbish. There are, however, also traces of a good old tradition, mixed op with the phantastic speculations of later ages. In order to show how he thonght it possible to exploit this tradition, Pischelin 1889 started a periodical publication Vedic Studies (Stuttgart 1889-1901), together with his friend Karl F. Geldner. These studies have not failed to exercise a great influence on the views now commenly held in Germany on the Vedas.
After his transfer to Berlin, Professor Pischel was brought into contact with the rich finds brought home by the German expeditions from Central Asia. He took a very keon interest in them and published some fragments of the Buddhist Canon in the Proceedings of the Berlin Academy (1904, XIV and xxxix). He was able to show that the Sanskrit Canon to which they belong, has not been entirely lost, and that it has not been translated from Pali Though the two often agree verbally, and though we can prove that the old Buddhist tradition was to a great extent homogeneous, the differences in arrangement and in details are considera ble. It seems necessary to explain many of the instances of concurrence by the supposition of a common source handed down in Magadht Prakrit.
I do not intend to give a full bibliography of Professor Pischel's papers. What I have mentioned is, I hope, sufficient to show how wide the field was over which he spanned. And in every branch where he has been working, he has left his mark. His solid learning and his wide horizon made him eminently fitted for his work. But the influence he exercised cannot be measured from a mere catalogue of his writings. He was an excellent teacher, and none of his pupils ever appealed to him in vain. Every mail, moreover, bronght a heap of letters, from every quarter of the globe, with enquiries about the most different snbjects connected with Iudian lore, and he was a very conscientious letter-writer. His loss will therefore be widely felt, mostly, however, among his personal friends and popils, who had learned to appreciate not only his learning, but also his kind heart and his sympathetic interest in everything concerning them. He was very happy when an opportunity at last offered itself of realising the dream of his youth, to visit India and see with his own eyes what had always interested him more than anything else. It is sad to think that his dream should end in the vast Nirvana, and that he should not be permitted to return from India, enriched with fresh impressions of the actual life and existing conditions.
Rudrata's Oriedratilaka and Rwyyaka's Bandayal Kiel 1663, Heimat der Puppopiela. Halle : 1900. 6 Die orientalischen Literature, I, 7.