[BITList] Edison, Max Muller and the Rigveda

[John Feltham]

Pages from History - Rigveda: Maiden recording by Thomas Alva Edison By Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy, former Head, Department of Ancient History and Archaeology, University of Mysore 
 
The other day myself and N. Ramanuja were sitting in our office at Bhavan's Priyamvada Birla Institute of Management, Mysore, discussing some administrative matters. In between Ramanuja was browsing through the internet and he suddenly exclaimed "Dr. Murthy, there is something exciting here about Edison, Max Muller and Rigveda." I asked him to read it for me and it was really wonderful and I thought I should share my joy with my readers with the courtesy of the interest. This incident concerns two persons — Thomas Alva Edison, Max Mullar — and the Rigvedic verse on Agni, the God of fire.  

Even a school child knows about Thomas Edison (1847-1931) of America. He was a genius and has to his credit over 2,500 scientific inventions of diverse nature. He had converted his house as his laboratory. To support his experiments, he used to sell newspapers in the train when he was just 12 years old. At 21, he got his patent for electrical vote recorder. He invented telegraph and electric bulb. Later he invented the phonograph which could record and reproduce human voice which became famous as talking machine. He also invented the cinematic cameras, wireless etc. He was drafted to the American navy where he invented many useful devices to the navy. His inventions were so rich that they gave employment to thousands of people and brought in huge investments. He was honoured with the fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences and American Congress decorated him with a gold medal in 1928. Many other countries of Europe like France, Germany, Italy etc., also honoured him. It was estimated that the total value of his inventions in 1930 was $1,200 crore! In the present context we are more concerned with his inventions of the grama-phone which could record and replay the human voice. And naturally it was an exciting invention.  

The other person in this story is Max Muller (1823-1900), the greatest western Vedic-Sanskrit scholar. Though born in Germany, he spent most of his life in Oxford. He obtained a Doctorate degree when was just 20 years old. He published Rigveda with commentary of Sayana in many volumes. His greatest contribution was the publication of the series famous as Sacred Books of the East. His another popular book “India: What can it teach us?” has seen many editions. He was invited to deliver lectures on Vedas by most of the European Universities. His students came from China, Japan, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, America, Germany, France etc. Thus he was a world-teacher. Though he worked on Indian culture all his life, he could not visit India. He was respectfully called “Moksha-mullara Acharya” by Indians. The Government of India issued a postal stamp with his portrait in his honour. Thus Max Muller was a celebrity in contemporary Europe and Asia.  

The third part in the story is the Rigveda. Vedas are considered to be the earlier literary contributions of the world. The first verse of the Rigveda is in praise of Agni, the God of fire. The verse reads Agnimele purohitam yajnasya devam ritvijam hotaram ratnadhatamam. It means 'I praise Agni, the God of fire who is most important one; he is the God for all sacrifices and he is the home for the best of gems of divinity.'  

Thomas Alva Edison invented the gramophone and wanted to record the voice of a celebrity of the first time in his machine. Politicians, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Queens, Kings and Bishops were suggested to him. But Edison ignored them all and invited Max Muller for doing the inaugural recording on his machine. Edison took a ship and came to London for this purpose. He invited many people to this inaugural recording and they all came in large numbers to see this unusual spectacle. Edison requested Max Muller to speak into the machine. Max Muller chanted the Rigveda verse Agnimeele with a short explanation in Sanskrit. The recording was over and Edison requested all the people in the audience to re-assemble in the same hall in the afternoon to hear the recorded voice being replayed.  

Edison took the machine to his laboratory and prepared a disc and brought it to the hall. The entire hall was full with eager audience. Edison played the disc and miracle happened and the recorded voice of Max Muller they had heard in the morning reverberated in the entire hall. They gave a standing ovation to Edison for recreation of the voice of Max Muller. Then Edison requested Max Muller to speak a few words. Max Muller asked the audience 'Did you understand my original voice in the morning and now the recorded voice?' The audience came to their senses. Not one of them had understood what Max Muller had spoken because it was in Sanskrit, not Greek nor German, nor Latin. In their excitement for the recording machine they did not try to know what was spoken.  
Max Muller told them about Rigveda and said when people did not even know to cover their body and lived in caves, Indians had attained high degree of civilization through the Vedas. Audience stood up and paid homage to the Vedas and to Max Muller.

Thus Rigveda has the rare distinction of being used for the maiden recording by Edison.