Page "Franz Bopp" Paragraph 7

After a brief sojourn in Germany, Bopp travelled to London where he made the acquaintance of Sir Charles Wilkins and H. T. Colebrooke.

He also became friends with Wilhelm von Humboldt, then Prussian ambassador at the Court of St. James's, to whom he taught Sanskrit.

He brought out, in the Annals of Oriental Literature ( London, 1820 ), an essay entitled, " Analytical Comparison of the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Teutonic Languages ", in which he extended to all parts of the grammar what he had done in his first book for the verb alone.

He had previously published a critical edition, with a Latin translation and notes, of the story of Nala and Damayanti ( London, 1819 ), the most beautiful episode of the Mahabharata.

Other episodes of the Mahabharata – Indralokâgama, and three others ( Berlin, 1824 ); Diluvium, and three others ( Berlin, 1829 ); a new edition of Nala ( Berlin, 1832 ) – followed in due course, all of which, with A. W. Schlegel's edition of the Bhagavad Gita ( 1823 ), proved excellent aids in initiating the early student into the reading of Sanskrit texts.

On the publication, in Calcutta, of the whole Mahabharata, Bopp discontinued editing Sanskrit texts and confined himself thenceforth exclusively to grammatical investigations.