'Malabarian' dialogues: The encounter between German pietists and the tamilian populace during the early eighteenth century

Medieval History Journal

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 333-346

  Juneja, Monica ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61149701208     PISSN: 09719458     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/097194580200500208     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Pietism, associated with the names of Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) and his follower August Hermann Francke (1663-1737), was a reformist current within Protestant Christianity in Germany. Its popularity rested on its efforts to bring back an element of personal devotion and emotional sensibility in what Pietists regarded as the overly rigid formalism of the Protestant Church. An important tenet of German Pietist thought was its belief in education as a channel for faith, which found expression in the highly developed pedagogical programmes and institutions under the aegis of Francke, centred around the Franckean Foundation at Halle. On the history of Pietism, Erich Beyreuther, August Hermann Francke und die Anfänge der ökumenischen Bewegung, Berlin, 1958;
2. Carl Hinrichs, Preußentum und Pietismus. Der Pietismus in Brandenburg-Preußen als religiös-soziale Reformbewegung, Göttingen, 1971;
3. Erich Beyreuther, Geschichte des Pietismus, Stuttgart, 1978;
4. Martin Gierl, Pietismus und Aufklärung: Theologische Polemik und die Kommunikations reform der Wissenschaft am Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts, Göttingen, 1997.
5. Useful biographies of Ziegenbalg are Erich Beyreuther, Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg. Aus dem Leben des ersten deutschen Missionars, Berlin, 1953;
6. and more recently, Brijraj Singh, The First Protestant Missionary to India. Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg 1683-1719, New Delhi, 1999, though it is based primarily on English language sources.
7. On the Tranquebar mission: Hartmut Lehmann, Es begann in Tranquebar, Berlin, 1956;
8. Daniel Jeyraj, Inkulturation in Tranquebar. Der Beitrag der frühen dänisch-halleschen Mission zum Werden einer indisch einheimischen Kirche (1706-1730), Erlangen, 1996;
9. Michael Bergunder (ed.), Missionsberichte aus Indien im 18 Jahrhundert, Halle/Saale, 1999;
10. Dennis Hudson, Protestant Origins in India. Tamil Evangelical Christians 1706-1835, Richmond, 2000.
11. See Stephan Diller, Tranquebar-die Stadt an der Brandung. Dänischer Handelsstützpunkt, Kronkolonie und europäischer Freihandelsplatz (1620-1845), Bamberg, 1993:
12. Ole Feldbaek, 'The Development of an Indo-European Town in Mughal India. Tranquebar in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', in Kenneth Ballhatchet and David Taylor (eds), Changing South Asia. City and Culture, London, 1984: 11-20.
13. Anders Norgaard, Mission und Obrigkeit. Die Dänisch-Hallesche Mission in Tranquebar 1706-1845, Gütersloh, 1988.
14. The role of indigenous pastors and catechists has been discussed extensively by Jeyraj, Inkulturation: 288ff.;
15. also Heike Liebau, 'Tamilische Christen im 18. Jahrhundert als Mitgestalter sozialer Veränderungen. Motivationen, Möglichkeiten und Resultate ihres Wirkens', in Petra Heidrich and Heike Liebau (eds), Akteure des Wandels. Lebensläufe und Gruppenbilder an Schnittstellen von Kulturen, Berlin, 2001: 19-44.
16. For a description of this source material, Heike Liebau, Die Quellen der DänischHalleschen Mission in Tranquebar in deutschen Archiven-Ihre Bedeutung für die Indienforschung, Berlin, 1993;
17. also the meticulously detailed bibliography provided by Jeyraj, Inkulturation. 318-63.
18. Der königlichen Dänischen Missionarien aus Ost-Indien eingesandte Ausführliche Berichte, Halle, 1710-69, generally referred to as the Hallesche Berichte (henceforth HB, followed by the number of the Continuation). The conversations here are recorded in the HB, Continuations 8, 9, 15, 16 and 17.
19. Conferences between the Danish Christian Missionaries, Resident at Tranquebar and the Heathen Natives of Hindoostan. Now first rendered into English from the Original Manuscript, by an Officer in the Service of the Honourable East India Company, London, 1812, British Library OIOC, T 8803;
20. also Hugald Grafe, 'Hindu Apologetics at the Beginning of the Protestant Mission Era in India', in Bergunder (ed.), Missionsberichte. 70, who refers to a 1719 edition of the conferences.
21. A selection of 44 of these letters has been recently reprinted, Kurt Liebau (ed.), Die Malabarische Korrespondenz. Tamilische Briefe an deutsche Missionare Eine Auswahl, Sigmaringen, 1998.
22. Letter of 19 September 1707, reprinted in Arno Lehmann (ed.), Alte Briefe aus Indien. Unveröffentlichte Briefe von Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg 1706-19, Berlin, 1957: 52-58;
23. also Grafe, Hindu Apologetics': 73.
24. HB, 25th Continuation, 1729: 148.
25. HB, 6th Continuation, 1713: 315;
26. Liebau (ed.), Malabarische Korrespondenz: 22-24
27. Grafe, 'Hindu Apologetics': 74.
28. HB, 7th Continuation, 1714: Letter 2, repr. in Liebau (ed.), Malabarische Korrespondenz: 68.
29. The term 'Malabarian' was used throughout the writings of the Halle Mission to designate the Tamil region and its inhabitants, and does not refer to the Malabar coast.
30. Sie reinigen die Zähne nicht. Sie waschen sich nicht wenn sie auf dem Abtritt gewesen. Sie reinigen sich nicht in heiligen Teichen. Die Weiber halten nach ihrer. Zeit keine Reinigung . . . wenn sie Leute von verachtetem Geschlecht anrühren, reinigen sie sich nicht wieder . . . Sie martern die lebendige Creaturen und gebrauchen sie zu ihrer Speise . . . .' 'They do not clean their teeth. They do not wash after having eased themselves. They do not cleanse themselves in holy waters. Women do not clean themselves after their monthly periods . . . nor do they purify themselves after having come into bodily contact with persons of a lowly caste .... They kill living animals and consume them as food . . . .' HB, 11th Continuation, 1717: 902-3
31. and HB, 7th Continuation, 1714: 457 (my translation).
32. HB, 11th Continuation, 1717: 903.
33. HB, 7th Continuation, 1714: Letter 13
34. This appears to be a widespread view; see, for instance, Daniel Jeyraj, 'Hallesche Berichte. Quellen zur Südindienkunde', in Bergunder (ed.), Missionsberichte. 94-110;
35. Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions. The Wonder of the New World, Oxford, 1991: 120.
36. For an extensive discussion of this phenomenon, with further references, Michael Giesecke, Der Buchdruck in der Frühen Neuzeit. Eine historische Fallstudie über die Durchsetzung neuer Informations - und Kommunikationstechnologien. Frankfurt/Main, 1991;
37. also Rudolf Schlögl, 'Von der gesellschaftlichen Dimension religiösen Erlebens', in Paul Munch (ed.), 'Erfahrung' als Kategorie der Frühneuzeitgeschichte, Munich, 2001: 271-80.
38. Alois Hahn, 'Glaube und Schrift. Anmerkungen zu einigen Selbstthematisierungsformen von Hochreligionen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Christentums', in Hartmann Tyrell, Volkhard Krech and Hubert Knoblauch (eds), Religion als Kommunikation, Würzburg, 1998: 323-56;
39. Thomas Kaufmann, 'Erfahrungsmuster in der frühen Reformation', in Munch (ed.), 'Erfahrung als Kategorie: 281-306.
40. See articles in David Shulman (ed.), Syllables of Sky. Studies in South Indian Civilization in Honour of Velcheru Narayana Rao, New Delhi, 1995.
41. HB, 7th Continuation, 1714: 428-29, 465-66.
42. For example, Letter 37 in HB, 7th Continuation, 1714: 475.
43. HB, 11th Continuation, 1717: 957-59.
44. HB, 8th Continuation, 1715: 527-31.
45. This perspective has also been articulated by Richard Eaton, 'Comparative' History as World History. Religious Conversion in Modern India', in his Essays on Islam and Indian History, New Delhi, 2000: 45ff.
46. During his lifetime Ziegenbalg authored several treatises that explored dimensions of the Hindu socio-religious order, indigenous languages, medicine etc. Many of these were published as integral texts only in the twentieth century. Of special interest are, Malabarisches Heidenthum, Willem Caland (ed.), Amsterdam, 1926;
47. Kleinere Schriften, Willem Caland (ed.), Amsterdam, 1930;
48. Genealogie der Malabarischen Götter, Madras, 1867.
49. Lehmann cites August Hermann Francke as reprimanding Ziegenbalg for spreading heathen nonsense' in Europe instead of committing himself to the uprooting of heathenism, for which purpose the missionaries had been sent to India, Es begann: 56.
50. For the Indian context, the research of Joan-Pau Rubies offers many rich insights into these genres of writing, Joan-Pau Rubies, Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India through European Eyes, 1250-1625, Cambridge, 2000.
51. Bernard de Fontenelle, La pluralité des mondes habités, Paris, 1686
52. These issues have been discussed extensively in Rubiés, Travel and Ethnology, as well as in Jürgen Osterhammel, Die Entzäuberung Asiens. Europa und die asiatischen Reiche im 18. Jahrhundert, Munich, 1998.
53. Lehmann, Es begann: 54.
54. On the designation of the civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome as 'heathen', M.T. Ryan, 'Assimilating New Worlds in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 23, 1981: 135;
55. also Jan Assmann, 'Heiden: der religiöse Unterschied', Merkur, vol. 49 (9-10), 1995: 957-62;
56. and a more extensive discussion in Reinhart Koselleck, 'Zur historisch-politischen Semantik asymmetrischer Gegenbegrigffe', in Vergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten, Frankfurt/M, 1984: 211-59.
57. See especially, Conferences between the Danish Missionaries.