In one of his major prose works, Die Wibelungen, published in 1848, Wagner states that the entire European race, including that of the Nibelungs, originates from India..writes Dilip Roy FRAS
One of the lesser-known sources of Richard Wagner’s aesthetic and philosophical ideas was his interest in ancient India. Among his many accomplishments, he was undeniably an Indologist—that is, a student of ancient Indian texts, literature, and philosophy.
German Indology has a distinct history and tradition that sets it apart from other forms of research into India. In Germany, the term Indology (Indologie) has been used to identify a subfield of the “Oriental Sciences,” specifically that part concerned with the study of ancient India. Richard Wagner and German thinkers of the early 19th century strongly believed that their cultural origins stemmed from India, and that their language and mythology were one and the same. Nineteenth-century German Indologists such as Humboldt, Novalis, Schelling, and Friedrich Schlegel believed that Germany’s cultural origins stemmed from India.
The surge of Indology in the late 18th century took Germany by storm, and the romance with Indian literature and philosophy blossomed. By the end of the 19th century, Germany had produced more Sanskrit scholars than the rest of Europe combined. One of the leading authorities on Sanskrit at Leipzig University was Professor Hermann Brockhaus (1806–1877), who happened to be a brother-in-law of Richard Wagner. The two would occasionally meet to discuss various aspects of Indian philosophy.
By 1903, Germany had forty full-time professors of Aryan studies, the major component being Indology—the study of ancient Indian texts, literature, and philosophy. During this period, Wagner came across German translations of the Indian epic Mahabharata and the Panchatantra (Indian folk tales). According to Wagner, the Mahabharata was—and remains—the greatest poem ever composed.
In one of his major prose works, Die Wibelungen, published in 1848, Wagner states that the entire European race, including that of the Nibelungs, originates from India. According to Wagner, the Bhagavad Gita contains the most advanced philosophy, in contrast to the Greeks, who he believed saw things materialistically. In many of his prose works, Wagner cites India as the cradle of civilization, the origin of the Nibelungs, and the mother of all languages. He even attributes Greek and Roman origins to India. Wagner also claimed that Indian Kshatriyas were actually ancient Germans (Cosima Wagner Diaries, Volume One). In a letter to his friend August Röckel, published in 1897, Wagner stated that Christianity has its origins in India.
In his epic The Ring Cycle, Wagner makes use of the Hindu aesthetic concept of Rasa, derived from the Natyashastra, a Sanskrit treatise on dance, drama, and music (2nd century BCE), which outlines eight primary emotions. Wagner used these effectively in The Ring Cycle, and the concept also inspired his writings on Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art). Wagner incorporated many Hindu concepts in his operas, such as Lohengrin and Tristan und Isolde, particularly the philosophy of the Upanishads (c. 1500 BCE). This philosophy had been translated into Latin by the French Indologist Anquetil Duperron in 1801–02 and formed the basis of Schopenhauer’s knowledge of Indian thought—which in turn deeply influenced Richard Wagner.
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