Queen Victoria’s copy of the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text, the Rig-Veda, translated by Max Müller.

Max Müller (1823-1900) was a German-born Sanskritist who lived and studied in England for most of his life. Müller moved to London in his early twenties to study Sanskrit texts in the collection of the East India Company before joining the University of Oxford. He was elected to a life fellowship at All Souls' College and in 1868 became Oxford's first Professor of Comparative Philology,

The Rig-Veda is an ancient Hindu scripture, written as a collection of hymns by the 14th century Sanskrit scholar Sayanacharya. Müller’s was one of the first European publications of the text and presents a transliteration and translation of the hymns with a commentary.