Julius Eggeling
German-born Sanskritist, translator of the Shatapatha Brahmana
- Born
- 1842
- Died
- 1918
- Known for
- Satapatha Brahmana, 5 vols. (1882–1900), Sacred Books of the East
- Position
- Professor of Sanskrit, University of Edinburgh (1875–1914)
Edinburgh professor whose translation of the Shatapatha Brahmana contains the oldest Indian version of the flood of Manu.
What is Julius Eggeling known for?
Heinrich Julius Eggeling was a German-born scholar of Sanskrit who spent his career in Britain. He was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Edinburgh from 1875 to 1914.
His main work was the translation of the Satapatha (Shatapatha) Brahmana, a long Vedic prose text about sacrificial ritual, for Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East. It appeared in five volumes between 1882 and 1900 and is still the only complete English translation.
The first volume (1882) includes the passage in book 1, chapter 8, where a small fish asks Manu to protect it and later warns him of a coming flood. Manu builds a ship, the fish tows it to a northern mountain, and Manu alone survives. This is the earliest Indian flood story and is often compared with the Mesopotamian and biblical accounts.
The site quotes Eggeling's 1882 translation for the story of Manu and the fish, the oldest Indian flood account.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeManu and Matsya (the fish)
Sources
- Internet Sacred Text Archive, 'The Satapatha Brahmana', tr. Julius EggelingPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Julius Eggeling'Reference
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.