Moriz Winternitz was a scholar from Austria who began his Indology contributions working with Max Müller at the Oxford University. An eminent Sanskrit scholar, he worked as a professor in Prague in the German part of Charles-Ferdinand University after 1902, for nearly thirty years. His Geschichte der indischen Literatur, published 1908–1922, offered a comprehensive literary history of Sanskrit texts. The contributions on a wide range of Sanskrit texts by Winternitz have been an influential resource for modern era studies on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Charles University, also known as Charles University in Prague or historically as the University of Prague, is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic, the second university established in the Holy Roman Empire after Bologna. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the first university north of the Alps and east of Paris. Today, the university consists of 17 faculties located in Prague, Hradec Králové, and Plzeň. Charles University is in the top three universities in Central and Eastern Europe. The institution has been ranked 200–300 in the world as one of the best universities.