Moriz Winternitz was an outstanding scholar who wrote on religion, folklore, the epics and Sanskrit literature. He is best remembered for his "History of Indian Literature,“ a work in three volumes, which is considered indispensable for teachers and students alike. Winternitz was also one of the co-sponsors of a critical edition of the Mahabharata, a project that held his attention throughout his life.
The second guest lecturer from abroad after Sylvain Levi was Moriz Winternitz who came to Santiniketan. . He was an orientalist.Rabindranath met him in Europe and invited him to come to India. Responding at this call he came to India and reached Bombay at the end of Nov. He visited Poona at the invitation of Bhandarkar Institute. Both of them saw each other in Bombay when Rabindranath went to attend his lecture delivered in Bombay.The Bombay Chronicle wrote on 30th Nov;
" Prof. Dr. Winternitz of the PragueUniversity on Tuesday [28th Nov] evening delivered a lecture on the
" Ethics of Zoroastrianism from a comparative point of view" at the Hall of the K.R.Cama Oriental Institute, Hornby Road . Justice Dinshaw F. Mulla presided. There was a large gathering including Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, present on the occasion,"
Rabinmdranath explained his experiences of attending a low-voice lecture to Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis on 30th Nov.;
"In the meantime Winternitz will be reaching Calcutta on 5th Dec . Take care of him at "Viswabharati Sammilani". If Rathi was not present take him to your place.The Pandits of Poona received him cordially.The man is very simple and less-spoken with his low voice. But Knowledge is vast but polite."
Prasanta Chandra arranged his stay in Alipore Govt. Observatory. He was greeted at the viswabharati Sammilani..
Rabindranath left Bombay on 7th Dec along with Winternitz for Banaras.and reached there on 9th Dec. They came to Santiniketan on 12/13 Dec.
