Reviews Of Diffeent Books

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 10

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REVIEWS
last two were written as contributions for a comprehensive study of Vedanta and Mimämsä, but the political situation in Germany after 1933 prevented Strauss from continuing his research. In 1935 Strauss was dismissed from his post as professor, and in 1939 he came to Holland where he received a friendly welcome in the house of friends in Bloemendaal. Five months after the occupation of Holland he died - on the twentieth of October 1940.
Strauss became interested in Indian philosophy under the influence of Paul Deussen together with whom he translated philosophical texts from the Mahabharata (Vier philosophische Texte des Mahabharatam, Leipzig, 1906). He was himself well aware of the imperfections of this work as is obvious from remarks made in his review of Modi's Akṣara (cf. p. 543). Strauss's own translations are excellent examples of how difficult texts can be translated both faithfully and lucidly, cf. his translations of Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya, Kielhorn I, 242, 10247, 16 (pp. 258-271), of Brahma-Sutra 3,3,1-9 with Samkara's bhasya and Vacaspatimisra's Bhamati (pp. 344-378) and of Mimämsäsūtrabhāṣya 1,1,1-5 and 1,3,30-35 (pp. 404-442).
Friedrich Wilhelm has included a representative selection of Strauss's many reviews (pp. 508-556)' which are listed in the bibliography. He has also added a list of texts studied by Strauss, an index of Sanskrit words and a subject index. A few additions can be made to the bibliography. On the tenth anniversary of the death of Strauss, G. A. van den Bergh van Eysinga (1874-1957) wrote "In memoriam prof. Otto Strauss" in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (20.10.1950). In it he recalls how he met Strauss for the first time when the latter had just begun his studies at the university of Munich. Van den Bergh van Eysinga, who is well known to Indologists on account of his Indische Einflüsse auf evangelische Erzählungen (Göttingen, 1904; 2nd. ed., 1909) remained a close. friend of Strauss until his death. No mention is made by him of the fact that Strauss was his guest during his stay in Holland. F. B. J. Kuiper tells me that in the summer of 1940 David Friedmann and he visited Strauss and sat beside his sick-bed during this time. Van den Bergh van Eysinga also mentions that Strauss published several articles and reviews in the Nieuw Theologisch Tijdschrift, which he edited for thirty years. His "In memoriam" gives the titles of two articles: "Die guten Werke als indisches Problem" (1934, pp. 201-205) and "Zur Interpretation der Bhagavadgitā" (1936, pp. 247-262). It will not be difficult to compile a more complete list of his contributions to the Nieuw Theologisch Tijdschrift which, alas, is not to be found in any Australian library.
NOTES
1 On p. 556 the footnote is not reproduced.