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European family of languages. The other was the discovery of the
close relationship between the ancient myths of India and those of
Europe. This proved the kinship not only of the language but also
of the religion of a large group of peoples scattered over Europe and
Asia.
These two discoveries had an important effect on the self-
perception of many among the educated Europeans. It must be
remembered that the large tracts of Europe to the North and West
of the Alps had entered the scope of history only at a rather late
period as a result of the Roman conquests of these areas. Now there
was sudden hope that traditions preserved in the languages of
ancient India and ancient Iran would throw fresh light also on the
early history and religion of the peoples of Northern Europe. And
it was exciting to know that the sacred texts preserved in the Indian
Veda and the Iranian Avesta were even older than Homer and
appeared to be at leastas old and as venerable as the Old Testament.
It was these discoveries which fascinated German minds and
which led to the almost simultaneous creation of three new branches
of learning in German Universities:
the comparative Science of Languages (starting mainly from
Indo-European languages it developed later into General Linguistics);
the comparative Study of Mythology (which developed
further to Comparative History of Religions or Science of Religions);
and
Indology, a subject for which the first chair was founded in
1818 at the University of Bonn and which spread subsequently to
Several other Universities, retaining its attraction to the present day.
To the young Hermann Gundert who studied Theology and
Philosophy at Tuebingen University from 1831 onwards these new
subjects offered stimulations that were decisive for his future. From
them he learned that the cultural history of by-gone times may be
reflected in word forms; that the comparison of languages and
careful etymology make it possible to reconstruct the original
meaning even of words the signification of which may have been
long since lost; and that social history and history of religion can be
unveiled through the study of such words. While studying at
Tuebingen University he made his first attempts to learn the Sanskrit
language, using the grammar of Franz Bopp which had been
