
Stein first
attended schools in his home city before continuing his studies in
Dresden. He returned to Budapest for his final examinations at the
prestigious Lutheran Gymnasium. He then went on to study under leading
scholars on India and Iran in Vienna and Leipzig, and prepared his
doctoral dissertation at the Tübingen University. At the age of 21, he
acquired his doctoral degree under the guidance of Professor Rudolf von
Roth (1821-1895), a great authority in Vedic language and literature.
Between 1884 and 1886, with a grant from the Hungarian Government for
postdoctoral studies, he travelled to London, Oxford and Cambridge to
study the collections of Oriental books and coins at institutions suc as
the Ashmolean Museum, the Bodleian Library, and the British Museum. He
also studied
modern
Indian languages at the Oriental College in Woking, run by another
native of Budapest, Wilhelm Gottlieb Leitner (1840-1899). From 1885 to
1886 he interrupted his scholarship to spend a year of training as a
reserve officer at the Ludovika Military Academy
in Budapest. The
training in cartography and surveying he acquired there greatly
contributed to his achievements in mapping Central Asia, which also
secured his position in the history of geography.