John Muir (indologist)
John Muir
Biography
Muir was born in Glasgow, the son of William Muir (1783–1820), a merchant of Kilmarnock and magistrate of Glasgow, and Helen Macfie (1784–1866). He was the elder brother of the Indian administrator and principal of the University of Edinburgh, Sir William Muir.[1]
He was educated at
He left the Indian Civil Service in 1853 and returned to Edinburgh. In 1861 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being John Hutton Balfour.[3]
In 1862 he endowed the chair of Sanskrit in the
Muir died unmarried, on 7 March 1882, at 10 Merchiston Avenue, Edinburgh.[4]
He is buried in the
Work
Muir's main work is Original Sanskrit texts on the origin and history of the people of India, their religion and institutions (1852–1870), a study of the most important source texts of Indian cultural and religious history, with English language translation. In 1858 the first volume of his Original Sanskrit Texts (2nd ed., 1868) was published; it was on the origin of
In 1839, Muir published Matapariksa: Sketch of the Argument for Christianity and against Hinduism, a work that, in contrast to the vitriolic missionary tracts prevalent at that time, presented Hinduism in empathetic tone and depicted Christianity and Hinduism as more or less compatible, although Christianity was clearly depicted as superior. However while sensitive to "Hindu genius" Muir advanced miracles, moral excellence, and universality as three basic arguments in favour of Christianity. The work was controversial in India and helped launch a counter-apologetic movement among Hindu scholars.[6]
Bibliography
- Muir, John (1861). "Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and Progress of the Religion and Institutions of India". Williams and Norgate.
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References
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19497. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ History of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University
- ^ ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- ^ Bendall 1894.
- ^ Bendall, Cecil (1894). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- JSTOR 1398604.
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Muir, John". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Bendall, Cecil (1894). "Muir, John". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Further reading
- Avril A. Powell (2010). Scottish orientalists and India: the Muir brothers, religion, education and empire. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84383-579-0.
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