Moriz Winternitz (1863 - 1937)

A professor of Indian philology and ethnology at the German University, Prague, Moriz Winternitz was an authority on ancient and medieval Indian Literature. 

Rabindranath met Winternitz in 1920 on a visit to Prague. On the invitation of the Poet, Winternitz came to Santiniketan as Visiting Professor in February 1923 and stayed till September 1924. Besides his regular classes, he would often give lectures on the history of Sanskrit literature. During his stay he started a project to collect various versions of the Mahabharata and edit them for publication.

Mention should be made of his magnum opus, A History of Indian Literature. He also wrote a monograph in German on Rabindranath : Rabindranath Tagore - Religion and Weltanschaung des Dichters in 1936