Chaitanya

An unnamed Brahmin in Agra spent six years teaching Sanskrit to a German priest. The grammar that followed remained unpublished for 300+ years. This is the story of Heinrich Roth. He reached Agra in 1654. In Athanasius Kircher's account, a Brahmin who became Roth's close friend guided him through the language, literature and philosophy over 6 years. Kircher does not record the teacher's name. By around 1660, Roth had completed a Sanskrit grammar in Latin, using Devanagari letters. It followed the Sarasvata tradition, an existing Indian school of grammar. This was the first Sanskrit grammar written by a European. Roth took his manuscript to Europe. In Vienna, Emperor Leopold I promised funds to print it. But objections from Giovanni Paolo Oliva, the head of Roth's own Jesuit order, stopped the printing. Roth was sent back towards India with instructions to establish a mission in Nepal. He returned to Agra in 1666 and died there in 1668. Some of his material did reach print. Kircher's China Illustrata, published in 1667, reproduced his Devanagari alphabet and Latin prayers written in Devanagari letters. The full grammar survived in a library in Rome. It finally appeared in a facsimile edition in 1988. P.S. The prayer page pictured below is Latin written in Devanagari, not a Sanskrit translation. Sources: Claus Vogel, "Roth, Heinrich", Neue Deutsche Biographie 22 (2005), pp. 106-107; Athanasius Kircher, China Illustrata (1667); Arnulf Camps and Jean-Claude Muller, The Sanskrit Grammar and Manuscripts of Father Heinrich Roth S.J. (1988). Photo 1: Roth's Devanagari alphabet material, printed in Kircher's China Illustrata (1667). This reproduces the historical plate. Photo 2: The passage about his Brahmin teacher and six years of study. Highlighted in Van Tuyl's modern English translation, not a 1667 English original.