J Eggeling (1842 – 1918 CE) was a German Indologist who assisted Max Muller in latter’s Oriental studies. He was a German by birth but his entire academic life of nearly half a century was spent in England. Born in Hecklingen, Anhalt, he studied Indology in Breslau and Berlin, and in 1867, at twenty five, went to London to work on ancient Hindu manuscripts.
For two years (1867 – 69), J Eggeling was assistant to Max Muller at Oxford University, following which he was appointed as secretary and librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society (1869-75). He became professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the University of Edinburgh in 1875 CE, a post he held till 1914 CE. When the First World War broke out in 1914 CE, being German, he had to go back to Germany.
The help that Eggeling rendered to Max Muller was very substantial and painstaking, being the compilation of an index to Max Muller’s edition of Rig Veda – Pratisakhya and then checking Index verborum of Padapatha of Rig Veda. Two works that were edited by Eggeling himself are both on vyakarana (Sanskrit Grammar), being Katantra with the commentary of Durgasimha and Ganaratna-Mahadadhi of Vardhamana with his own commentary.
The major work of Eggeling is the translation of Satapatha Brahmana, in five volumes, issued through the Sacred Books of the East Series, and the Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in the India Office Library, London, in seven parts (1887 – 96). He also produced the Catalogue of the Buddhist Manuscripts in the Royal Asiatic Society, along with E.B. Cowell.
Encyclopedia Of Hinduism Volume IV page 14 – Rupa – IHRF – 2011
German Indologists (1981) Valentina Stache-Rosen – Max Mueller Bhavan – New Delhi