Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900), a German-born philologist and Orientalist, was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Well versed in Sanskrit, the classical language of India, and many other languages, Max Müller was instrumental in translating into English some of the most revered religious and philosophical texts of Asia. Especially noteworthy is his edition of the great collection of Sanskrit hymns of the Rigveda. Intrigued by the concept of religion, Müller initiated an important discipline that he called the science of religion. He believed that a genuine study of religion required the knowledge of its origins, and recognised that religion had developed differently in different linguistic spheres. So, instead of using the prevailing ethnographic approach, he pursued the science of religion by studying words and texts. Müller was fascinated by the spiritual teachings of the Indian mystic, Ramakrishna, because, he was of the opinion that the real presence of the Divine in the human soul was nowhere felt so strongly and so universally as in India, and that the fervent love of God has nowhere found a stronger and more eloquent expression than in the utterances of Ramakrishna.
