Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of LanguageMüller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Religion
Chips from a German Workshop, Volume 4: Essays Chiefly on the Science of Language
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)
Comparative linguistics; Folklore; Literature -- History and criticism; Mythology; Religions
Dr. Leitner’s labors in Dardistan should here be mentioned. They date
from the year 1866. Considering the shortness of the time allotted to
him for exploring that country, he has been most successful in
collecting his linguistic materials. We owe him a vocabulary of two
Shinâ dialects (the Ghilghiti and Astori), and of the Arnyia, the
Khayuna, and the Kalâsha-Mânder. These vocabularies are so arranged as
to give us a fair idea of the systems of conjugation and declension.
Other vocabularies, arranged according to subjects, allow us an insight
into the intellectual life of the Shinas, and we also receive most
interesting information on the customs, legends, superstitions, and
religion of the Dardus. Some of the important results, obtained by the
same enterprising scholar in his excavations on the Takht-i-bahai hills
will be laid before the Archæological Section of this Congress. It is
impossible to look at the Buddhist sculptures which he has brought home
without perceiving that there is in them a foreign element. They are
Buddhist sculptures, but they differ both in treatment and expression
from what was hitherto known of Buddhist art in various parts of the
world. Dr. Leitner thinks that the foreign element came from Greece,
from Greek or Macedonian workmen, the descendants of Alexander’s
companions; others think that local and individual influences are
sufficient to account for apparent deviations from the common Buddhist
type. On this point I feel totally incompetent to express an opinion,
but whatever the judgment of our archæological colleagues may be,
neither they nor we ourselves can have any doubt that Dr. Leitner
deserves our sincere gratitude as an indefatigable explorer and
successful discoverer.
Many of the most valuable treasures of every kind and sort, collected
during these official surveys, and by private enterprise, are now
deposited in the Indian Museum in London, a real mine of literary and
archæological wealth, opened with the greatest liberality to all who are
willing to work in it.
It is unfortunate, no doubt, that this meeting of Oriental scholars
should have taken place at a time when the treasures of the Indian
Museum are still in their temporary exile; yet, if they share in the
regret felt by every friend of India, at the delay in the building of a
new museum, worthy both of England and of India, they will also carry
away the conviction, that such delay is simply due to a desire to do the
best that can be done, in order to carry out in the end something little
short of that magnificent scheme of an Indian Institute, drawn by the
experienced hand of Mr. Forbes Watson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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