The cabinet of King Serfoji of Tanjore: A European collection in early nineteenth-century India

Journal of the History of Collections

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 71-93

  Peterson, Indira Viswanathan ^a  

^a MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 58149495022     PISSN: 09546650     EISSN: 14778564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jhc/11.1.71     Document Type: Review

References (41)

1. For accounts of Serfoji II, see R. Jayaraman, The Sarasvati Mahal Library: A short history and guide (Tanjore, 1981)
2. On early British initiatives in education in Calcutta, the British colonial metropolis, see David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The dynamics of Indian modernization 1773-1835 (Berkeley, 1969)
3. William Hickey, The Tanjore Mahratta Principality in South India (Madras, 1874)
4. and Mildred Archer, Christopher Rowell and Robert Skelton, Treasures front India: The Clive Collection at Powis Castle (New York, 1987), pp. 124-5 and pp. 133-4
5. On the controversy surrounding Serfoji's claim to the throne, see Jayaraman, op. cit. (note 2)
6. Hickey, op. cit. (note 4)
7. and Hugh Pearson, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of the Rev. Christian Frederick Swartz. To which is prefaced a history of Christianity in India, 3rd edn. (London, 1839, vols. 1 and 2)
8. On the history of the Danish-German Pietist mission at Tranquebar, see Arno Lehmann, Es begann in Tranquebar. Die Geschichte der ersten evangelischen Kirche in Indien (Berlin, 1956)
9. On Schwartz's role as Serfoji's teacher, beloved mentor and father-figure, see Pearson, op. cit. (note 8)
10. Hickey, op. cit. (note 4)
11. and W. Germann, Missionar Christian Friedrich Schwartz. Sein Leben und Wirken. Aus Briefen des Halleschen Missionsarchivs (Erlangen, 1870)
12. On Serfoji's pilgrimages, see Jayaraman, op. cit. (note 2). I will discuss the North Indian pilgrimage further in this essay
13. Andreas Grote (ed.), Macrocosmos in Microcosmo: Die Welt in der Stube (Opladen, 1994)
14. On these changes, see Daniel Boorstin, The Discoverers: Man's search for knowledge (New York, 1983), pp. 426 ff
15. and John Lyon and Phillip R. Sloan (eds.), From Natural History to the History of Nature: Readings from Buffon and his critics (Notre Dame and London, 1981), introduction
16. On August Hermann Francke and the Franckesche Stiftungen in Halle, see J. Ernest Stoeffler, German Pietism in the Eighteenth Century (Leiden, 1973)
17. See P. J. Thomas, 'History of education in Madras', The Madras Tercentenary Commemoration Volume (London and Madras, 1939), pp. 439-49
18. On colonialism, voyages, and European collections, see David Philip Miller and Peter Hanns Reill (eds.), Visions of Empire: Voyages, botany and representations of nature (Cambridge, 1996)
19. Mildred Archer, Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library (London, 1962), p. 1. Archer provides a comprehensive history of natural historical collection in British India
20. On the history of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, see O. P. Kejariwal, The Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Discovery of India's Past: 1784-1838 (Delhi, 1988)
21. On the exclusion of Indians from British learned societies in the colonial period, see Deepak Kumar, Science and the Raj. 1857-1905 (Delhi, 1995), pp, 55-6
22. and C. A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence gathering and social communication in India: 1780-1870 (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society 1) (Cambridge, 1996) ch. 7
23. Much has been written about the great Moghul emperors and their contact with Europeans. See, for example, Bamber Gascoigne, The Great Moghuls (New York, 1971)
24. On the Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and his interest in experimental science, see Andrew Bell, The Madras School: Or elements of tuition.... (London, 1808; reprinted 1993), pp. 234-42
25. Thomas Robinson, The Last Days of Bishop Heber (London and Madras, 1830), pp. 166-7
26. Francis Bacon, Gesta Grayorum (1688) (Oxford University Press, The Malone Society Reprints, 1914), 'The Second Councellor advising the Study of Philosophy', pp. 34-5
27. A few titles in the collection are of a later date and were probably acquired by Serfoji's son Sivaji. Blackburn, the Resident and Collector of Tanjore at the end of Serfoji's reign, donated his own books to the collection (CPC, preface)
28. Catalogue of Serfoji's Personal Collection and Other Rare Books, op. cit. (note 45), p. 94
29. Natural History Drawings. British Library (India Office Library, Add. Or. 73384)
30. and Brigid Hoppe, 'Kunstkammern der Spätrenaissance: Zwischen Kuriosität und Wissenschaft', in Grote, op. cit., (note 13), pp. 243-64, esp. pp. 254-5
31. On the Tradescant Collection, called 'The Ark', see Arthur MacGregor, 'The cabinet of curiosities in seventeenth-century Britain', in Impey and MacGregor, op. cit. (note 13), pp. 147-58, 149 ff
32. On the role of science in Francke's educational philosophy, see Peter Menck, Die Erziehung der Jugend zur Ehre Gottes und zum Nutzen des Nächsten: Begründung und Intentionen der Pädagogik August Hermann Franckes (Wuppertal and Düsseldorf, 1969)
33. and Wolf Oschlies, Die Arbeits- und Berufs-pädagogik August Hermann Franckes (13-1727): Schule und Leben in Menschenbild des Hauptvertreters des Halleschen Pietismus (Witten, 1969)
34. For a discussion of other pioneers in this context, see Thomas J. Müller, 'Der Realienunterricht in den Schulen August Hermann Franckes', Schulen machen Geschichte: 300 Jahre Erziehung in den Franckeschen Stiftungen zu Halle (Kataloge der Franckeschen Stiftungen 4) (Halle, 1997), pp. 43-65
35. Devendra Kuravañji: A drama in Marathi giving the geography of the world in songs. By Serfoji Rajah, ed. Tyagaraja Jatavallabhar (Tanjore Saraswati Mahal Series no. 18). (Madras, 1950)
36. Vedanayaka Sastri, Bethlehem Kuravanjee (Bethlehem Kuravañci.) and other works (Ñāncombining macron belowattacca nâtcombining macron belowakam and Ñāncombining macron belowavulā, Ārancombining dot belowātintam, Ñāncombining macron belowa Antāti) (Madras, 1964)
37. For the life and works of Vedanāyaka Sastri, see D. V. Devanesan, Tañcai Vēdanāyakam Cāstriyār (Madras, 1947, 2nd edn. 1956)
38. Ponnu A. Cattiyacatci, Tañcai Vētanāyakar Tamilcombining macron belowviruntu (Madras, 1975)
39. and Dayamani Manasseh, Vedanāyaka Vedasāstriyār (Madras, 1975) (all in Tamil)
40. Roger Adams and Ludwik Zeizner, Topical Essays (New York, 1978), pp. 533-633, esp. p. 533
41. Pingree, op. cit. (note 82), p. 629