Re: First Recording Ever Made-- a romantic fantasy

[navaratna rajaramnavaratna]

 

    This is a pretty story but there are reasons to doubt its authenticity. To begin with Max Muller could not pronounce Sanskrit and would not have read the Veda in public. He could neither speak Sanskrit nor understand spoken Sanskrit. This is the real reason he never visited India-- fear of exposure. Swami Dayananda Saraswati said of Max Muller: "He is like a toddler trying to walk."

 

    This is a matter of record admitted by Max Muller himself late in his life. (Please see my book The Politics of History.) He was never the Sanskrit scholar he has been made out be, but an astute politician who knew how to get patronage of the ruling powers. But he could get away with it because the standards in Europe then were quite low (still the case today). Again Dayananda said: "In a desert where no tree grows, every castor plant is an oak."

 

   Is it any wonder that Max Muller avoided visiting India and face the Swami?

 

    Second, the coarse, tobacco-chewing Edison was not as culturally sensitive as the story suggests. He was an undoubted genius with little education like Michael Faraday, but without Faraday's humility.

 

    Most seriously, it is a matter of record that the first words recorded were the poem "Mary had a little lamb..." recited by Edison himself.

 

    If HMV did publish such a pamphlet, it was pure marketing gimmick. Also, did HMV exist at that time? I thought it was a post-disc phenomenon, while Edison made and marketed 'Edison cylinders'.

 

    Hold on to your fantasy by all means, but don't call it history.

 

N.S. Rajaram
.

2010/9/30 ముక్కు శ్రీరాఘవకిరణ్ శర్మ <msrk...@gmail.com>

HMV had once published a pamphlet giving the history of gramophone record. Gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century. Edison, who had invented many other gadgets like electric light and the motion picture camera, had become a legend even in his own time. 

 

When He invented the gramophone record, which could record human voice for posterity, he wanted to record the voice of an eminent scholar on his first piece. For that he chose Prof. Max Muller of England,another great personality of the 19th century. He wrote to Max Muller saying, "I want to meet you and record your voice. When should I come?" Max Muller who had great respect for Edison asked him to come on a suitable time when most of the scholars of the Europe would be gathering in England. 

 

Accordingly Edison took a ship and went to England. He was introduced to the audience. All cheered Edison's presence. Later at the request of Edison Max Muller came on  the stage and spoke in front of the instrument. Then Edison went back to his laboratory and by afternoon came back with a disc. He played the gramophone disc from his instrument. The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller from the instrument.They were glad that voices of great persons like Max Muller could be stored for the benefit of posterity.

 

After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Alwa Edison, Max Muller came to the stage and addressed the scholars and asked them, "You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in the afternoon. Do you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard in the afternoon?". 

 

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Max Muller had spoken.It was "Greek and Latin" to them as they say. But had it been Greek or Latin, they would have definitely understood because they were from various parts of Europe. It was in a language which the European scholars had never heard. 

 

Max Muller then explained what he had spoken.He said that the language he spoke was Sanskrit and it was the first sloka of Rig Veda, which says "Agnimeele Purohitam" . This was the first recorded public version on the gramophone plate.

 

Why did Max Muller choose this? Addressing the audience he said, "Vedas are the oldest text of the human race. And Agnimeele Purohitam is the first verse of Rig Veda. In the most primordial time when the people of Europe were jumping like Chimpanzees, from tree to tree and branch to branch, when they did not know how to cover their bodies, but with fig leaves, did not know agriculture and lived by hunting and lived in caves, at that remote past, Indians had attained high civilization and they gave to the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas.

--
अथ चेत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि।
ततः स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि।।
तस्मादुत्तिष्ठ कौन्तेय युद्धाय कृतनिश्चयः।
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)

[ముక్కు శ్రీరాఘవకిరణ్ శర్మ]

namAMsi

When this message was forwarded to me, even I doubted the authenticity of this but I knew no history. Posting it here helped :)

Thank you!

rAghavaH