Editing Max Müller (section)

== Early life and education ==

Max Müller was born into a cultured family on 6 December 1823 in [[Dessau]], the son of [[Wilhelm Müller]], a [[Lyric poetry|lyric poet]] whose verse [[Franz Schubert]] had set to music in his song-cycles ''[[Die schöne Müllerin]]'', and ''[[Winterreise]]''. His mother, Adelheid Müller (née von Basedow), was the eldest daughter of a prime minister of [[Anhalt-Dessau]]. [[Carl Maria von Weber]] was a [[godparent|godfather]].<ref name="ODNB2007">R. C. C. Fynes (May 2007), ''Müller, Friedrich Max (1823–1900)'', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18394], accessed 17 March 2013] {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

Müller was named after his mother's elder brother, Friedrich, and after the central character, Max, in Weber's opera ''[[Der Freischütz]]''. Later in life, he adopted Max as a part of his surname, believing that the prevalence of Müller as a name made it too common.<ref name="ODNB2007" /> His name was recorded as "Maximilian" <!--on several official documents (e.g. university register, marriage certificate),--> on some of his honours,<ref name="belles-lettres">[http://www.aibl.fr/membres/academiciens-depuis-1663/?lang=fr ''Académiciens depuis 1663''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610221355/http://www.aibl.fr/membres/academiciens-depuis-1663/?lang=fr |date=10 June 2015 }}. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.</ref> and in some other publications.<ref name="Johnston1900">Charles Johnston (1900) [https://archive.org/details/americanmonthly12shawgoog ''An Estimate of Max Müller (1823–1900)'']. ''[[The American Monthly Review of Reviews]]'', Vol XXII, July–December. The Review of Reviews Company: New York, pp.703–706.</ref>

Müller entered the [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] (grammar school) at Dessau when he was six years old. In 1835, at the age of twelve, he was sent to live in the house of [[Carl Gustav Carus]] and attend the Nicolai School at [[Leipzig]], where he continued his studies of music and classics.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30269|title=My Autobiography: A Fragment|first=F. Max (Friedrich Max)|last=Müller|date=16 October 2009|access-date=19 September 2022|page=97|via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> It was during his time in Leipzig that he frequently met [[Felix Mendelssohn]].<ref name="ODNB2007" />

In need of a scholarship to attend [[Leipzig University]], Müller successfully sat his [[abitur]] examination at [[Zerbst]]. While preparing, he found that the syllabus differed from what he had been taught, requiring him to rapidly learn mathematics, modern languages and science.<ref name="ODNB2007"/> He entered Leipzig University in 1841 to study philology, leaving behind his early interest in music and poetry. Müller received his [[Academic degree#Germany|Ph.D. degree]] in Sep 1843.<ref>{{Cite DNBSupp |wstitle = Max Müller, Friedrich |volume= 3 |last= Macdonell|first= Arthur Anthony|author-link= Arthur Anthony Macdonell | pages = 151-157 |short=1}}</ref> His final dissertation was on [[Spinoza]]'s ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]''.<ref name="gifford_bio">{{cite web |first1=Sara |last1=Abraham |first2=Brannon |last2=Hancock |url=https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/friedrich-max-m%C3%BCller |title=Friedrich Max Müller |website=Gifford Lectures |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105224955/https://www.giffordlectures.org/lecturers/friedrich-max-m%C3%BCller |archive-date=2016-01-05 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He had an aptitude for classical languages, learning [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[Arabic]], [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Sanskrit]].

===Sanskrit studies===
In 1844, Müller studied in [[Berlin]] with [[Friedrich Schelling]]. He began to translate the ''[[Upanishads]]'' for Schelling, and continued to research Sanskrit under [[Franz Bopp]], the first systematic scholar of the [[Indo-European languages]] (IE). Schelling led Müller to relate the history of language to the history of religion. At this time, Müller published his first book, a German translation of the [[Hitopadesha |''Hitopadesa'']], a collection of Indian [[fable]]s.<ref>{{cite book |title=Fifty Key Thinkers on Language and Linguistics |author=Margaret Thomas |page=109 |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-37302-9}}</ref>

In 1845, Müller moved to Paris to study Sanskrit under [[Eugène Burnouf]]. Burnouf encouraged him to publish the complete [[Rigveda]], making use of the manuscripts available in England. He moved to England in 1846 to study [[Sanskrit]] texts in the collection of the [[British East India Company |East India Company]]. He supported himself at first with creative writing, his novel ''German Love'' being popular in its day.

Müller's connections with the East India Company and with Sanskritists based at [[Oxford University]] led to a career in Britain, where he eventually became the leading intellectual commentator on the [[culture of India]]. At the time, Britain controlled this territory as part of its Empire. This led to complex exchanges between Indian and British intellectual culture, especially through Müller's links with the [[Brahmo Samaj]].

Müller's Sanskrit studies came at a time when scholars had started to see language development in relation to cultural development. The recent discovery of the Indo-European language group had started to lead to much speculation about the relationship between [[Classical antiquity |Greco-Roman]] cultures and those of more ancient peoples. In particular the [[Vedas |Vedic]] culture of India was thought to have been the ancestor of European Classical cultures. Scholars sought to compare the genetically related European and Asian languages to reconstruct the earliest form of the root-language. The Vedic language, [[Sanskrit]], was thought to be the oldest of the IE languages.

Müller devoted himself to the study of this language, becoming one of the major Sanskrit scholars of his day. He believed that the earliest documents of Vedic culture should be studied to provide the key to the development of [[Paganism |pagan]] European religions, and of religious belief in general. To this end, Müller sought to understand the most ancient of Vedic scriptures, the ''[[Rig-Veda]].'' Müller translated the [[iarchive:RgVedaWithSayanasCommentaryPart1 |Rigveda Samhita]] book written by the 14th century Sanskrit scholar [[Sayana]]charya from Sanskrit to English. Müller was greatly impressed by [[Ramakrishna Paramhansa]], his contemporary and proponent of [[Vedanta |Vedantic]] philosophy, and wrote several essays and books about him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/articles/on_sri_ramakrishna.htm#muller |title=Vedanta Society of New York: Ramakrishna |access-date=25 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916163215/http://www.vedanta-newyork.org/articles/on_sri_ramakrishna.htm#muller |archive-date=16 September 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Friedrich Max-Müller by George Frederic Watts.jpg |thumb |right |Portrait of the elderly Max Muller by [[George Frederic Watts]], 1894–1895]]

For Müller, the study of the language had to relate to the study of the culture in which it had been used. He came to the view that the development of languages should be tied to that of belief-systems. At that time the Vedic scriptures were little-known in the West, though there was increasing interest in the philosophy of the [[Upanishads]]. Müller believed that the sophisticated Upanishadic philosophy could be linked to the primitive [[henotheism]] of early Vedic Brahmanism from which it evolved. He had to travel to London to look at documents held in the collection of the [[British East India Company]]. While there he persuaded the company to allow him to undertake a critical edition of the Rig-Veda, a task he pursued over many years (1849–1874).<ref>{{cite book |title=Sayana, Volume 203 |author=B. R. Modak |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-7201-940-2 |page=33 |year=1995}}</ref> 

For Müller, the culture of the Vedic peoples represented a form of [[nature worship]], an idea clearly influenced by Romanticism. Müller shared many of the ideas associated with [[Romanticism]], which coloured his account of ancient religions, in particular his emphasis on the formative influence on early religion of emotional communion with natural forces.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-7xYYt0oJsC&q=max%20muller%20romanticism&pg=PA336 |title=Studying Hinduism: Key Concepts and Methods |first1=Sushil |last1=Mittal |first2=Gene |last2=Thursby |date=10 September 2007 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |access-date=25 August 2016 |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0-203-93973-4}}</ref> He saw the gods of the Rig-Veda as active forces of nature, only partly personified as imagined [[supernatural]] persons. From this claim Müller derived his theory that mythology is "a disease of language".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32856/32856-h/32856-h.html |title=The Science of Language |access-date=9 September 2023}}</ref> By this he meant that myth transforms concepts into beings and stories. In Müller's view, "gods" began as words constructed to express abstract ideas, but were transformed into imagined personalities. Thus the Indo-European father-god appears under various names: [[Zeus]], [[Jupiter (god) |Jupiter]], [[Dyaus Pita]]. For Müller all these names can be traced to the word ''"Dyaus",'' which he understood to imply "shining" or "radiance". This leads to the terms "deva", "deus", "theos" as generic terms for a god, and to the names "Zeus" and "Jupiter" (derived from deus-pater). In this way a metaphor becomes personified and fixed.{{sfn|Müller|1897|pp=497–503}}