Outline of Avasyaka Literature

Author(s): Ernst Leumann, George Baumann
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 33

Introductory essay and tools by Nalini Balbir
surface level." We do not intend to give full biographies and bibliographies of the scholars mentioned, but confine ourselves to relevant information in connection with Leumann's concerns.
References are to the page of Dr Baumann's English translation followed in square brackets by the reference to the page, column (a or b) and line of the original German.
page C [C] Manu Leumann (1889-1977), the elder son of Ernst Leumann and his wife, the piano-player Gertrud Siegemund, was himself an academic. He was a famous linguist and specialist in Latin (cf. Die Lateinischen Adjektiva auf -lis, 1917) who taught at the Universities of Munich and Zürich. His younger brother, Hari, was a specialist in mathematics. I have not found any written comment by Leumann concerning his decision to give Indian names to his children, but this tradition remained persistent in the family. Leumann's grand-daughter (Manu's daughter) had the name Sita.
page C (Cos] "Ernst Leumann's literary bequest": it is now duly catalogued in Plutat 1998.
page C (Cols) “An Outline of the Āvaśyaka literature with excerpts from the Sīlānka manuscript and a photographic reproduction of the same ...": this is Poona manuscript “XII 57" (referred to on p. IX).
page C (C 30] Hermann Oldenberg (1854-1920) was one of the scholars whom Leumann respected most. Along with Johannes Schmidt (1843-1901) and Albrecht Weber (1825-1901), his name comes again in Leumann's preface to his book Zur nordarischen Sprache und Literatur (1912). Oldenberg, who taught at the Universities of Kiel and Göttingen, was a giant of Indology, who is best known for his pioneering work in Vedic and (Pāli) Buddhist studies.
page C [C30] Georg Bühler: Johann Georg Bühler (1837-1898), who is well known for his tremendous contribution to palaeography, epigraphy and manuscriptology, · spent a lot of his life in India. He was appointed Professor of Oriental languages at
Elphinstone College, Bombay (1863). In 1868, he became the Educational Inspector of Gujarat and Officer in Charge of the Search for Sanskrit manuscripts in Bombay Presidency. From 1880 until his death, he assumed the position of Professor of Sanskrit and Indology at the University of Vienna. Bühler's role was decisive for the emerging knowledge of Jainism in the West, as he sent manuscripts to Germany, England and Austria. In 1873-74, he was accompanied on his tour of Rajputana by Hermann Jacobi, who, thanks to Bühler's support, could build his own collection. The search for manuscripts is the most relevant aspect in connection with Leumann, who wrote a short contribution entitled "Bühler as a collector of Mss." (Indian Antiquary 27, 1888, pp. 368-370; reprinted in Leumann's Kleine Schriften, pp. 294-296). The initial sentence of this article "It is generally not known or scarcely noticed to what
*For a similar approach see the extremely valuable footnotes found in Otto Böhilingk an Rudolf Roth, Briefe zum Petersburger Wörterbuch 1852-1885 herausgegeben von Heidrun Brückner und Gabrielle Zeller, bearbeitet von Agnes Stache-Weiske, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2007 (GlasenappStiftung 45) and the editorial note p. XII-XIII. Such tools are extremely important in order not to lose knowledge about the development of science.
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