Philippus Baldaeus

View of Masulipatnam in 1676. From Philippus Baldaeus, A True and Exact Description of the most Celebrated East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel

A 17th-century painting depicting Hanuman worshiping Rama and his wife Sita. Smithsonian Institution collection

Father Philippus Baldaeus, Baelde or Philip Balde (October 1632, Delft – 1672, Geervliet) was a Dutch minister. He went to Jaffna, Ceylon with an invading Dutch force during 17th Century. As the first European he documented the life, language and culture of Tamil people, living in the north of the island. It is a great historical record, similar to Mahawamsa, and it was immediately published in Dutch and German (with several beautiful pictures).

Birth: Oct. 24, 1632 Delft Zuid-Holland, Netherlands Death: Apr., 1671 Geervliet Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Dutch Minister, Author of Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc. Author of the first European document about the life, language and culture of the Tamil people in northern Ceylon. Son of Jan Baldaeus and Maria Junis. Parents died when he was four years of age. Studied Oriental languages in Groningen in 1649 and theology at Leiden, decided to preach in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Went with Dutch army to Ceylon and went to Northern Ceylon where the Tamil people lived. Learned the Tamil language and documented their life and culture. Made drawings and paintings of life in Ahmedabad, a busy trade city at the time. He was the first European to document the life of the Tamil people and it became a great historical record and still is. It was publlished immediately in Dutch and German, and is now published in most languages around the world. He wrote much about the religious, civil and and domestic conditions of the places he visited and introduced his account of the Hindu mythology. He translated the Lord's Prayer of the Tamil language, and although it had mistakes, it was remarkable as the first treatie, printed in Europe of any Indian language. Went back to Holland and preached until he died while still a young man. The family name is spelled in several ways. Baldaeus, Baelde, Balde. His brother was also famous.

Missionary and ethnologist in South India and Sri Lanka

Baldaeus had to serve in Ceylon, both the Dutch Reformed Church as well as the native, formerly Catholic Christians, whom he had almost put the new faith. In the ranks of soldiers in the service of the VOC, there were also many Lutherans, especially German, considered by the pastors as a rival faith and were often sharply attacked in sermons, etc. Johann Jacob Saar, for this group, he was responsible pastoral care. As a preacher, he accompanied the Dutch General Rijklof van Goens in his campaign against the Portuguese (1658), the taking of Jaffna and Mannar in Sri Lanka, and [ [Thoothukudi | Tuticorin]] and Nagapattinam ended in South India. The mountainous country of Sri Lanka with the Tamil-Buddhist Kingdom Kandy however remained independent until the British conquest in 1796, was cut off from the sea and completely isolated.

The Quirlung the milk sea by gods and the Asuras in Baldaeus' "Abgotterey"

Baldaeus' parish encompassed the entire coastal area of ​​Sri Lanka, together with the islands and the Tamil southern tip of India, a territory that had been divided by the Portuguese in the 32 parishes, each with a church and a school and cared for by many monks and a Jesuit colleges. Alone in the withdrawal of the Portuguese from Jaffna still were despite previous losses 40 to 50 clergymen among the survivors. For only four preachers, this was a Herculean task, while the Catholic Jesuit Mission in Madura was able to draw on the Indian mainland to live long active monks (Francisco de Xavier, Roberto de Nobili, Joseph Constant Beschi, John de Britto), who had no family to take into consideration and the Baldaeus because of their commitment and their knowledge - rare in this time on hiding and harboring a Catholic priest stood for locals then the death penalty, highly valued and their writings and methods studied, he had to travel alone from church to church and the local Catholics alone in 1663 these were 12,387 people. The training was important to him, because to his chagrin, he found the religious education of the locals very superficial. Many were mere "name" or so-called "rice Christians" (according to the quantity of rice, which they received for their conversion).

Baldaeus was the understanding of the culture and religion of the Sinhalese and South Indian Although primarily interested to proselytize can, but also strove for a better education for the locals, on his departure, there were 18,000 school children. With his zeal, however, he came into conflict with the company, the additional expense spared and the ecclesiastical education of locals faced indifferent. In their territory they claimed anyway the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters ("confusion breeds over godsvrucht", "greed over fear of God") also had the hope that by the VOC furnished in Leiden' particularly Collegium indicum voluntary service missionaries would grow, deceived, "with these young Fanten we have more annoyance than with other ministers and subordinates," complained a Governor-General. The preacher had to turn on all sorts of ills - alcoholism, corruption, lax morals, slave trade and husbandry, abuse, etc. - Ignore and were also dependent on their ecclesiastical superiors in Batavia, they were able to put in complaints to the authorities at any time.

Counterpart of his pastoral work was then classified for a long time as a model in Ceylon.

Life

Baldaeus had a Flemish origin. His ancestors had left Ypres in 1584. Baldaeus lost both his parents, when he was four years old. His uncle Robertus Junius was a missionary on Dutch Formosa. After studying Oriental languages in Groningen (1649) and theology in Leiden (1650), and discussions with Arnoldus Montanus, he preached from 1655 at Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Jaffanapatnam and Point de Galle, either in Dutch or Portuguese (language). From 1657 he served under Rijklof van Goens, occupying the Coromandel and Negapatnam in 1658. Cornelis Speelman became its first governor. By 1660 the Dutch controlled the whole island except the kingdom of Kandy. When the Dutch occupied the coast of Malabar in 1661, Baldaeus took part. Around 1662 he returned to Ceylon and Baldaeus learned Sanskrit and studied Hinduism.

Dutch Colombo, based on an engraving of circa 1680

The company objected to Baldaeus' suggestions for improving religious education and converting the natives, and ruled that funds should be raised from fines levied in the enforcements of school rules. Philippus Baldaeus refused to conform and was nearly accused by the Governor of dishonest financial dealings. He could not continue his linguistic studies because the Church, bound by the state, thought it a waste of time.

In 1666 he returned to the Dutch Republic and preached in Geervliet from 1669 until his death at the age of 39 or 40. He left behind a full and faithful account of the civil, religious, and domestic condition of the countries through which he travelled. In this, he introduced also an interesting account of the Hindu mythology, and some specimens of the Tamil language, including the translation of the Lord's Prayer: defective enough it is true, but remarkable as the first treatise, printed in Europe, on any Indian language. The title of the whole work is Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc. (in Dutch, 1671) The book is dedicated to the bailiff Cornelis de Witt.

Legacy

Jaffna islands

The Tamils and the Kandyan Kingdom collaborated and conspired with the Dutch rulers of Batavia (today's Jakarta in Indonesia). The Dutch invasion brought religious freedom for Tamils and Muslims.

The Dutch colonised Jaffna from 1656 until 1796. The Jaffna Tamil has several Portuguese and Dutch words still in usage.

The islands between India and Sri Lanka in the Palk Straits were named after Dutch cities such as Leiden, Kayts and Delft. Under a big tamarind tree in the middle of the Point Pedro Market Square stands a white limestone inscription which marks the place where Rev. Baldeus has regularly preached Christianity to the Tamils. This tamarind tree was uprooted during the cyclone of 1963.

An ethnological, historical, geographical and theological viewpoints Baldaeus recorded everything himself or of informants (eg, a baptized Brahmin), interpreters, from the collections of the Jesuit libraries in Ceylon and South India and later from the accessible in the Netherlands literature about this part south Asia s was able to find. In addition, he quoted in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, French and Italian; | [Portuguese] [Portuguese language] in good stead his knowledge of Sanskrit. His depiction of the Tamil language was groundbreaking at all defects if it had only basic knowledge and in his own words ("He probably did not know much more than the alphabet".

He was not good as Jesuit preists in his knowledge of Tamil. Jesuits even shamed the Brahmins in language competitions with their language skills, for example Beschi who stunned the Brahmins of Sangam Academy with his knowledge of classical Tamil.

Baldaeus' book created the long held belief that origin of European civilization started in India with Hindu and Buddhist origins. He was the first who told the wider European audience about Krishna mythology and the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

External links

Rose, Hugh James (1857). A New General Biographical Dictionary. London: B. Fellowes et al.

• Short bio (Dutch)
• A true and exact description of the most celebrated East-India coasts of ...[2]
• http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=bald003
• IIAS.nl
• http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/amh/detail.aspx?page=dafb&lang=en&id=5393
• http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/amh/detail.aspx?page=dbron&lang=en&id=440