AW: Request for an Illustration from Early German work on Indian myths(F. Wong)

[Gruenendahl, Reinhold]

Von: Allen W Thrasher [mailto:athr at loc.gov]

 
Could Reinhold elaborate further on the nature of the work and his comment,
"it it belies all manner of
assertions about "romantic indology" etc."?
 
 
Whatever description I could give of this multi-facetted work would be
inappropriate, I think. The article pointed out by Luis Gonzalez-Reimann may
give a first impression, although (necessarily) from the perspective of
Müller's influence on Malfatti. [I hope to bring out an electronic edition on
GRETIL soon, but the particular type of Fraktur, in combination with poor
print quality, makes OCR a difficult  business.]
 
What I alluded to with the above remark is that although he nominally adheres
to the notion of India as the cradle of humanity, belief, learning, the arts,
etc., -- a notion that is usually associated with Herder and F. Schlegel's
1808 essay, but, contrary to the pronouncements of present-day theorists, is
absent in indological writings --, Müller is far from depicting India as a
"romantic" paradise. In his expositions as well as in his plates he
explicitly strives for accuracy. Consequently, no love is lost, e.g., on the
"Oriental scenery" of the Daniell brothers, along with other British works on
India.
 
Just for the record: Müller cannot be considered an indologist by any
standard, although he frequently refers to A.W. Schlegel, at the time of
publication still the only established indologist in Germany.
 
Best regards
Reinhold Grünendahl