Rabinadranath and Winternitz

Moriz Winternitz (1863 - 1937)

A professor of Indian philology and ethnology at the German University, Prague, Moriz Winternitz was an authority on ancient and medieval Indian Literature. Rabindranath met Winternitz in 1920 on a visit to Prague. On the invitation of the Poet, Winternitz came to Santiniketan as Visiting Professor in February 1923 and stayed till September 1924. Besides his regular classes, he would often give lectures on the history of Sanskrit literature. During his stay he started a project to collect various versions of the Mahabharata and edit them for publication. Mention should be made of his magnum opus, A History of Indian Literature. He also wrote a monograph in German on Rabindranath : Rabindranath Tagore - Religion and Weltanschaung des Dichters in 1936 The time of farewell of M. Winternitz was near at hand. He began a research work with the students of Viswabharati to prepare a comparative study of Mahabharat . He went to Poona in Bhandarkar Institute . To proceed with the work in his absence he wrote to Rabindranath on 5th Sept. 1923, informing him him that he is going to recommend one of his student namely Dr. Otto Stein to do the rest of his work. But he could not be appointes since he did not get leave from his University where he was working.