Truths. Prodosh Aich
July 1814 Franz Bopp reports to his academic mentor Windischmann also that he cannot learn Sanskrit from Antoine Léonard de Chézy. But why not? Didn’t he know Sanskrit? Instead of indicating a reason, Franz Bopp maintains that he doesn’t require any teacher for learning the Sanskrit language. Since (highlighted by us):
“Indeed I think, ...when I shall have penetrated well into everything which has been written on Indian mythology in European languages, and if I will then be able to proceed further and to draw from the sources (and what did the others do?), when I shall have become conversant with the philosophical systems of India as well as with that of our fatherland (Vaterland) and that of the Greek, then, dear friend, I will be ready to understand Indian literature without any translation and, if necessary, also without a dictionary.” How revealing!
Franz Bopp has come to know that the Englishmen from Kolkata were planning to bring out a Sanskrit-English-Dictionary in two years. But did he really need it? According to his claims, he mastered Sanskrit characters and their sounds (“their sounds”? How?) so well that he is already thinking of “occupying” them in his own way. How? What did he mean? Well, on July 27, 1814 he explains it to his academic mentor Windischmann:
“...I have worked out an alphabet by which one can reproduce the system of Sanskrit alphabetic characters in a pure form, ... Before I write the grammar, I presumably should make my system of characters known and for this purpose I want to take the Bhagawatgita, the most beautiful parts of which you already know from Schlegel’s (Friedrich von) translation, and publish the (original) text with a very literal translation in Latin, and my brother will probably make the Dewanagari alphabetic characters for a few pages.”
Franz Bopp discloses also his motive behind this undertaking. We read in the same letter dated July 27, 1814:
“Whatever is printed in Calcutta in its original text is so expensive that hardly any individual, who is not very rich, can acquire several volumes without great sacrifices. The 1st volume of Ramayana costs here 160 Francs, the grammar of Carey 280 Francs etc.”
He is concerned about the “price”. He wants to print the original texts so cheap that many Germans could afford them. And in order to fulfil this missionary zeal he wants to “occupy” Sanskrit, take “possession” of Sanskrit, in his own way. He not only feels fit for this purpose, he formulates even his own claim, also on July 27. He establishes his claim basing just upon invented facts:
“One writes the Sanskrit in more than 10 different ways. Every different nation in India has adapted its system of alphabetic characters to the Dewanagari or to the actual Sanskrit system of alphabetic characters, and writes its Sanskrit accordingly. Why shouldn’t we Europeans, whose languages do actually originate from Sanskrit, also adapt our alphabet to that, in order to spread the precious writings of the “Indier” all the more?”
Well why shouldn’t the Europeans even write their own “Sanskrit-literature“ in the next step? This is not just a sarcastic question. We take a note for our memory. This is also a reminder for modern scholars.
Franz Bopp has repeatedly emphasised that he has learnt Sanskrit without any help. All on his own. Absolutely self-taught. But this could only have meant, “Help” from persons as teachers. By this time about half a dozen Sanskrit “grammar guides” were available in Paris. All in English and Franz Bopp knows English, – a grammar by the missionary William Carey (this he himself has referred to), A grammar of the Sungscrit language, Serampore 1804, by Henry Thomas Colebrooke, A grammar of the Sanscrit language, Calcutta 1805, by Charles Wilkins, A grammar of the Sanskrita language, London 1808, and An essay on the principles of Sanskrit grammar. Part I, Calcutta 1810, by “Senior Merchant on the Bengal establishment” H. P. Forster. How was their quality? Our question is more rhetorical. These were the first ventures by persons with little educational training and with questionable intellectual abilities. The quick sequence of the publishing dates indicates not only haste. We shall deal with all these persons in due time.
From a letter of recommendation by Professor Windischmann in 1814 to the Commissioner of the Bavarian government, Baron Aretin, we get also some more information about the period of Franz Bopp’s apprenticeship in Paris:
“I led him by instructions to the myth systems and exquisitely in the large and meaningful teachings of the Indian philosophy (as far as they are known to us from thorough translations) to a better understanding of what he needs to do in order to become most thoroughly acquainted with the language. Now there was no halt; he asked for the sources, and it was no trouble to prompt his father (having six children) to support him, as far as possible, for a few years in Paris. There he has been learning first the difficult Sanskrit language since nearly two years, under instructions of M. Chezy, then Arabic and Persian under the instructions of M. Sylvestre de Sacy to the extent that especially in the first one, only a few will be found in Germany and France equal to him (How should he be able to judge this?). Chezy also felt this soon from this progress of the young man and became a little jealous (How should he be able to ascertain this?); but he did not allow himself to be put off by that. Moreover, when some difficulties were put in his way in the further lending out of books and manuscripts he has copied himself what he needed for his current work in Dewanayhavi (!) letters (which letters?) in the most arduous way to carry on his work without interruption. He was thus forced by need to put together by himself a whole grammar which he ultimately worked through with so much zeal and success that he will be able to publish his own grammar for the general benefit within a year, combined with a collection of the most beautiful spots of Indian poems and teachings; and all these he will get printed in accordance with the Indian text in his own skilfully developed European alphabet system corresponding to the Indian pronunciation (Indian pronunciation? Something like ‘Dewanayhavi’? How should he be able to pronounce any word? He does not get an opportunity of listening to the sounds of the alphabets and of the words.), because Sanskrit letters are so expensive. He has also given me specimens of his translations from the Sanskrit, exactly in the verse measures of the original of the great Indian poem "Ramayana" (of the great Indian poem "Ramayana"?), which bears the same accuracy in dealing with the inner sense and expression as Friedrich Schlegel’s (up to now the only person in Germany who presumably understands Sanskrit).
Much can be expected from such a talent for thorough knowledge of the language and literature which becomes day by day more important for the history of mankind, for the knowledge about the oldest religions, laws and teachings and we Germans should neglect them the less, the more in England great progress is made and professorship is being established in the universities all over (professorship is being established in the universities all over?).
Since the domestic circumstances of the tireless young man do not suffice, however, to support him up to the maturity in this profession and now His Majesty has been pleased to sanction most graciously an adequate grant to meet the needs, so I appeal on behalf of Mr. Bopp that Your Excellency may most kindly take up this matter and lead it to the end, so that our true Indians might soon enjoy the paternal grace of our beloved king and be thus incited to accomplish his work, already begun, with increased zeal and cheerfulness. As far as his actual needs are concerned, these are not considerable. He lived up to now parsimoniously and meagrely and tried to earn what he needed additionally whenever the time allowed him by some extra work. However, as he is hindered by his scarce resources to acquire by his own means the necessary helps for his studies, already available in printed form, having lost far too much time with arduous copying, it is now primarily to be seen to it that he can dedicate his energy undivided to the big objects of his profession and be able to procure himself the necessary aids, among which as the most urgent yet, for example, the edition of Ramayana appeared in Calcutta (in which language?), which, to begin with, he wants to translate completely, then the Sanskrit Chrestomathy by Carrie (by whom?) etc. etc., costing 180 and 140 francs, so I believe un-authoritatively,