Muir John

Muir, John, born at Glasgow in 1810, entered the Bengal Civil Service in 1828. and held various positions of importance, acting for a time as principal of the Victoria College, Benares. His most important work, however, was literary and social rather than administrative. He was one of the first practical Sanskrit scholars, and he did much to break down by means of education the barriers that separated the Hindu from the rest of mankind. On his retirement in 1853 he devoted himself to editing the Vedic texts, producing a monument of patient industry. He also founded a chair of Sanskrit in Edinburgh University before his death in 1882.