Which Sanskritist friend of Mendeleev was preparing a second edition of a book on Panini?

The Sanskritist friend was Otto von Böhtlingk, who was preparing a second edition of a work on Pāṇini.

Böhtlingk was a Russian-German Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, best known for major editions and translations of Sanskrit texts. His first work on Pāṇini’s grammar appeared in 1839–1840; he later returned to the subject and published a substantially revised edition, titled Panini’s Grammatik mit Übersetzung, in 1887.

The connection matters because Mendeleev used Sanskrit-derived prefixes—eka, dvi, and tri—for predicted elements. Historians have suggested that Böhtlingk’s work and discussions of Pāṇini’s systematic grammar may have helped inspire or reinforce Mendeleev’s nomenclature. The precise degree of influence is not proven, so it is safer to describe the relationship as a likely intellectual connection rather than a documented single moment of inspiration.

Böhtlingk should not be confused with Max Müller, another prominent nineteenth-century European Sanskrit scholar. The identifying figure in this episode is Böhtlingk.