Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760-1842)

[KALKI]

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (October 25, 1760, Arbergen – March 6, 1842, Göttingen) was a German historian.


Biography

He was born at Arbergen, near Bremen. He studied philosophy, theology and history at the University of Göttingen, and then travelled in France, Italy and the Netherlands. In 1787 he was appointed, a professor of philosophy, and then of history, at Göttingen and he afterwards was chosen Aulic Councillor, privy councillor, etc., the usual rewards of successful German scholars.

Heeren's chief merit as an historian was that he looked at the ancient world from a fresh point of view. Instead of merely narrating their political events, he examined their economics, their constitutions and their financial systems, and thus was able to throw new light on the development of the Old World. He possessed vast and varied learning, perfect calmness and impartiality, and great power of historical insight, and is now looked back to as the pioneer in the movement for the economic interpretation of history.

In 1822, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.



Works

Heeren's chief works are:
Ideen über Politik, den Verkehr, und den Handel der vornehmsten Völker der alten Welt (2 vols., Göttingen, 1793–1796; 4th ed., 6 vols., 1824–1826; Eng. trans., Oxford, 1833)
Geschichte des Studiums der klasszschen Litteratur seit dem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften (2 vols., Göttingen, 1797–1802)
Geschichte der Staaten des Altertums (Göttingen, 1799)
Geschichte des europäischen Staatensystems (Göttingen, 1800)
Versuch einer Entwickelung der Folgen der Kreuzzüge für Europa (Göttingen, 1808; French trans., Paris, 1808), a prize essay of the Institute of France.

Besides these, Heeren wrote brief biographical sketches of Johannes von Müller (Leipzig, 1809); Ludwig Timotheus Spittler (Berlin, 1812); and Christian Gottlob Heine (Göttingen, 1813). With Friedrich August Ukert (1780–1851) he founded the famous historical collection, Geschichte der europäischen Staaten (Gotha, 1819 seq.), and contributed many papers to learned periodicals.

A collection of his historical works, with autobiographical notice, was published in 15 volumes (Göttingen, 1821–1830).

[KALKI]

Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760-1842) an Egyptologist has observed:

"India is the source from which not only the rest of Asia but the whole Western World derived their knowledge and their religion."

"The literature of the Sanskrit literature incontestably belongs to a highly cultivated people, whom we may with great reason consider to have been the most informed of all the East. It is, at the same time, a scientific and poetic literature.

(source: Historical researches into the politics, intercourse, and trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians - By A. H. Heeren Vol. II p. 201).

"India is the source from which not only the rest of Asia but the whole western world derived their knowledge and religion."

(source: Yoga: A Vision of its Future - By Gopi Krishna p. 119).

"The literature of the Hindus is rich in epic poetry." "It will scarcely be possible to deny the Mahabharata to be one of the richest compositions in Epic poetry that was ever produced." “The Hindu lyric surpassed that of the Greeks in admitting both the rhyme and blank verse."

(source: Historical researches into the politics, intercourse, and trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians - By A. H. Heeren p. 45).

"If we compare the mythology of the Hindus with that of the Greeks, it will have nothing to apprehend on the score of intrinsic copiousness. In point of aesthetic value, it is sometimes superior, at others, inferior to Greek: while in luxuriance and splendor it has the decided advantage. Olympus, with all its family of gods and goddesses, must yield in pomp and majesty to the palaces of Vishnu and Indra." The Hindu Mythology like the sublime compositions of Milton and Klopstock, extends its poetic flight far into the regions of unlimited space."

(source: Hindu Superiority - Har Bilas Sarda p. 244).