Marco della Tomba and the Brahmin from Banaras: Missionaries, Orientalists, and Indian Scholars Author(s): David

N. Lorenzen Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 2006), pp. 115-143 Published by: Association for Asian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25075974 . Accessed: 19/12/2011 03:21
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Marco

d?lia Tomba

and the Brahmin

from Ba?aras:

Missionaries,

Orientalists,

and Indian Scholars

DAVID N. LORENZEN
a permanent presence FROM EUROPE established 1A.OMAN CATHOLIC missionaries in India in the year 1500, when eight Franciscans arrived in Cochin with the Por the famous English tuguese expedition of Pedro Cabrai. SirWilliam Jones (1746?94), a in 1783, almost three hundred years later. Within arrived in Calcutta Orientalist, few decades, Jones and his small band of British and Indian colleagues had transformed the content and style of European knowledge of Indian culture and history in such a that they set the basic model for most scholarship subsequently written on these way their political or religious views. subjects by both Indians and non-Indians, whatever How did the Orientalists do this in such a short span of time, while the missionaries, over a much I will begin with an longer period, did not? To answer this question, who lived in north India in the second half of the of a missionary-scholar example century. eighteenth The Italian Capuchin missionary Marco d?lia Tomba arrived in (1726?1803) in 1757 at age thirty-one.1 He lived mostly in the Bihar cities of Bettiah and Bengal in Bengal until he returned to Italy in 1773. After about Patna and in Chandernagore nine years in Italy, he returned to India in 1783 and died in Bhagalpur in 1803 at In about 1771, Marco wrote an essay entitled "A Short Description age seventy-seven. of East India or Hindustan" ("Piccola descrizione dell'India orientale, o Industan," ca. in which he describes his Indian experiences for the benefit of future mission 1771c) aries. In it he particularly the importance of learning to speak the local emphasizes
David N. Lorenzen (lorenzen@colmex.mx) is a Professor in the Center of Asian and African

Studies of El Colegio de M?xico

This article derives from

inMexico City.
earlier presented for at the annual Madison South Asia Con

papers

ference, the Bihar Social Institute

Hautes-Etudes a grant from en Sciences the Consejo Sociales. Nacional

(Patna), Jawaharlal Nehru University,

The de research Ciencia this article of was financed y Tecnolog?a the Mexican

and the ?cole des

in large part by I government.

would especially like to thank Elisabetta Corsi, Saurabh Dube, Rosane Rocher, Thomas Traut for their detailed comments on earlier drafts of the article. All mann, and Phillip Wagoner
translations ^he are my preposition own. in Marco's name is variously rendered. Marco himself often uses Marco

dalla Tomba. Marco da Tomba is also possible. In letters sent to him from Propaganda Fide in Rome, he is usually addressed asMarco d?lia Tomba. This is the form that I have used in
this article. The village region of Tomba or La Tomba, Italy. now called Castelcolonna, is near Senigallia in the Le Marche of east-central

The Journal ofAsian Studies 65, no. 1 (February 2006): 115-143. ? 2006 by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 115

116

DAVID N. LORENZEN

religion. He claims to have languages and of studying the sacred books of the Hindu with the help of his elder colleague in Bettiah, Giuseppe learned to speak Hindustani2 Maria da Gargnano but attributes his knowledge of written Hindustani (1709-61), and a little Sanskrit to the instruction of an unnamed Brahmin doctor from the University managed
In the

tells the story of how of Ba?aras. In the following passage, Marco to help him read some Hindu to persuade this Brahmin texts:
year

he

his

. . . sent it happened that Nawab Ali Khan] Casmalican [Kasim 1762, ... At to Bettiah to besiege that the city and render the raja a prisoner. troops at the end of which it was decided that for three months, the city was besieged time, an agreement and make between them. Before the raja would go out to parley going

out, the raja of Bettiah, our friend Durbsim [Dhurup Singh], fearing the betrayal that in fact befell him, sent to our house four big trunks containing all his books, asking me to please conserve them with all diligence until he had arranged his
business he went was took with out the Nawab and what to Patna, of the he [governor]. in fact feared where after . . .Once he had happened four months of his to him. consigned He was his made books to me, and prisoner The Muslims

conducted possession For that no time,

lost

he died. of captivity and of all that it contained. city palace, in my hands for three years, which the books reason, stayed during nor at least the most in translating them, any effort or expense spared of Bettiah,

to me in addition, there was given and mysterious another excellent ones; same Doctor to the king had explained who before the same books The opportunity. in Bettiah all the others and the inhab had remained under my protection (because a man was at the itants had studied had fled). This Doctor who themselves capable essential

University of Benares [Ba?aras]; he was also a good man and my friend; he had lost all his goods in the pillage of said city of Bettiah, and I found myself at that time
in the situation of being able to maintain him; thus, he stayed in our house for the

whole three years, during which he explained to me all the most difficult books, books that I by myself would not have been able to understand; I got from him translations of all these books; it should be noted that I knew the language well
enough to not be able to be deceived by him and was able to read the same books.

(1878, 63-64) In about 1774, Marco wrote a long essay attacking John Z. Holwell (1711?98) In one passage, amusing in the light of hindsight, for his favorable views on Hinduism. Marco argues that the four Vedas, the most ancient sacred texts of the Hindus, very likely never existed; he cites the authority of the same Brahmin from Ba?aras and the books left by Dhurup Singh of Bettiah as evidence:
Others agree?and these this as most is the opinion that I accept certain, reasonable, at least as real have never Books, existed, (positivi) and but

probable?that

4 Vedas

2The Tibet derived a

Maria that Giuseppe language Mission refer to as "Hindustani" and Sanskrit-derived vocabulary.

da Gargnano, Marco is a Khari Boli-based Giuseppe Maria's

d?lia 1751

language prose

and others of the Tomba, Persian with mixed text entitled (in trans

lation) A Dialogue betweena Christian and a Hindu about Religion is written

using Cassiano

in this language

as kaithi and devanagari. that combines features known of the Indian scripts script to Matthew, is made around da Macerata's translation of the Gospel 1775, according uses friars as in this the Roman the manuscript also written though script. That language,

sociated with
of the eighteenth

the kingdom of Bettiah

century was is strong

in north Bihar wrote

evidence used against the

inHindustani
recent assertion

around the middle

by Harish Trivedi sometime

"that Khari Boli became the dominant

69). Clearly Hindustani already

form of Hindi

only about a century ago" (2003, 968

lingua franca in Bettiah

as a semiofficial

before 1750.

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

117

that Books,

the Brahmins but in fact been

in order no one

to support has seen for me retired from

their them, by

assertions nor do

cite they

these know

4 Vedas where

as very sacred they are. This teacher, and holy

has opinion the Brahmin

confirmed

various

persons,

and Doctor

the University

particularly by my an ancient of Ba?aras,

city, and the only university of the Hindus

Doctors. I will of some . . . say in addition I have that I have also

(Gentili) that has the privilege of making

seen some translations that are said to be

Veda;

them from

is in agreement various Books,

to various for examination them but none of Brahmins, given that they are Vedas, but rather they say that they are a collection some of which to me. they showed

In addition, Imyself had inmy hands formany years all of Bett iah, which he entrusted with me in an attack of war and which then remained in my house when this king died care of his affairs. Now this king of Bettiah was of Brahmin
respected the great Books were with prove of doctors the in the kingdom, of the nation. and dedicated country, this the for to whence

the library of the King by Nawab Casmalican without having taken ancestry, old, and well

In fact, this

and he always was accompanied reading, by it can be supposed that he had the best it was. is how But the 4 above-mentioned Vedas mentioned are taken what above. from Some papers but were these found do not

missing, various the

reasons said, but

sentences of

existence

that, they the 4 Vedas,

the Vedas, said.

rather

I have

(ca. 1774, 8-9) Marco's comments offer a fascinating look at the sincere efforts and limited success to gain access to the mysteries texts and Hindu of a missionary-scholar of Hindu in a period just a few years before the rapid professionalizing of Western religion about Hindu culture by British Orientalist administrators led by Jones knowledge in Bengal and about two decades later by Francis and Henry Colebrooke (1765-1837) inMadras. and Colin Mackenzie (1777-1819) (1753-1821) to solve the The early scholar-administrators of the East India Company managed of the four Vedas thanks largely to the efforts of the French adventurer problem Antoine Polier de Bottens Polier arrived in Bengal in 1758 and had a (1741-95). colorful career first as an officer in the Company then as an engineer for the army, same Company, and finally as the chief engineer for the Nawab of Avadh. He returned to Europe in 1787. In a letter written in 1789 to an official of the British Museum, to get amanuscript he tells how he had earlier managed copy of the four Vedas from some Brahmins with the help of Pratap Singh, the Raja of Jaipur. He then sent the to Jones. In his 1789 letter, Polier announces that he is donating the manuscript Ellis In this letter, he notes that the of the Vedas to the British Museum. of Lucknow refused to believe that these Vedas existed: "The prejudice Europeans against their existence was so firmly established among the Europeans who were found at Lukhnow, because of the unsuccessful efforts that had been made to obtain them, so that when I received them, I had to fight against their incredulity and, even after they saw the manuscripts, they seemed to doubt that they were the Vedas" (Deleury 1991, 726). Marco d?lia Tomba was not the only European of his time to doubt that the Vedas really existed. had been active By 1775 a substantial number of Roman Catholic missionaries in the Deccan and far south, for 275 years. Almost all the in South Asia, particularly were fully literate, and most had learned to at least speak local languages. missionaries a serious study of Hindu understood the importance of undertaking Many religious beliefs and practices, and a few of them actually embarked on the study and translation texts with the help of Indian scholars. Some missionaries of Hindu compiled diction aries or wrote grammars of both Sanskrit and vernacular languages. Some translated manuscript

118

DAVID N. LORENZEN

Christian into local languages and catechisms, prayers, and New Testament Gospels even composed original texts about Christianity in these languages. 1500 and 1775, missionary-scholars Nonetheless, during the 275 years between were largely unable to initiate the tradition of what we today would call the modern Halbfass has commented: "Yet, for a study of Indian history and culture. Wilhelm did not in variety of reasons these remarkable efforts [by early missionary-scholars] the tradition of modern research as such" (1988, 46). But what augurate Indological were these reasons? Why was it that the missionary Marco d?lia Tomba was, in 1770, still debating whether the four Vedas existed? Historical questions about why something did not happen always run the risk of such as the old saw about the length joining essentially useless "what if speculations the obvious contrast of the slow growth of scholarly of Cleopatra's nose. Nonetheless, over the about literate Hindu culture among European missionary-scholars knowledge from about 1500 to 1775 with the exponential growth of such knowledge long period in about 1775 and especially after the founding among British Orientalists?starting call for some explanation. the Asiatic Society in 1784?does of to accomplish, I will did manage After looking at what the missionary-scholars was due to two factors. The first was that the greater success of the Orientalists argue their greater access to financial resources, both their own and those of the Company. s it easier for them to This allowed them to employ Indian scholars and also made the results of their research. The second was the generally open and publish as compared to the more worldviews of the Orientalists Enlightenment-influenced closed and conservative worldview of the missionaries. in Since my current research has concentrated on a mission of Italian Capuchins Bihar (officially called the Tibet Mission) during the second half of the eighteenth the texts written by these missionaries, century, I will emphasize especially Marco, and assume some familiarity with studies by and about earlier missionary-scholars? Bartholomaeus (1577-1656), (1683?1719), particularly Roberto Nobili Ziegenbalg and Gaston-Laurent those by and about eighteenth Coeurdoux (1691?1779)?and in Bengal such as Jones and Colebrooke.3 century British Orientalists Finally, I will success of both some possible explanations for the limited scholarly briefly suggest in Italy and France during the same who worked mainly priestly and lay Orientalists
late eighteenthand early nineteenth-century period.

The

Study

of Indian Languages

by Missionaries

and the colonial administrators had imperative reasons to Both the missionaries study South Asian languages and cultures. Both shared the practical need for a good of South of the languages of the country and for some general knowledge knowledge amastery of the local languages and at least some knowledge Asian culture. Without of the religion and everyday customs of the Indians, both religious conversion (the aim of the missionaries) and optimally profitable trade, tax collection, and principal
3On all these see Schwab Halbfass 1988. On schol

scholars,

1990;

pre-eighteenth-century

ars, especially missionaries, see Lach and Van Kley 1993; Rubies 2002. On the eighteenth century Tibet Mission, see Lorenzen 2003; Petech 1952-56; Lupi 2003; Vannini 1981. On Nobili, see Zupanov 1999; Rajamanickam 1995. On Ziegenbalg, see Singh 1999. On Coeur
doux, see Murr 1983, 1987, 1988. On the early British administrator-scholars, see Cannon

1964, 1990; Cohn 1990; Kejariwal

Trautmann 1997.

1988; Majeed

1992; Mukherjee

1968; R. Rocher

1983;

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

119

effective

administrative

control

(the principal

aims of the administrators)

were

obvi

ously impossible. was founded in 1703 under the auspices of the missionary The Tibet Mission of Propaganda agency of the Roman Catholic Church called the Sacred Congregation Fide (usually simply "Propaganda Fide") in Rome. In 1745 the mission was expelled in Bihar. The missionaries from Tibet and after this date was active mostly of the like their colleagues in other missions Tibet Mission, throughout the world, repeatedly stressed the need to learn the local languages and study the religious beliefs and practices of the native inhabitants of the lands where they worked.4 In a plan for the ar in 1778, he makes that Marco d?lia Tomba wrote the following Tibet Mission
gument: One should consider that a new even one talent and

always

Missionary, well to be

of good

spirit,

can bring very little fruit to the Mission

year but sional, their to learn the language is scarcely enough to get oneself in a state in order then to the pulpit, and to the circles to their

before four or five years have elapsed. One

to make oneself understood, enough to the confes able to expose oneself to talk to them about in order people are all written this certainly their maxims

of those

understand their books that arguments, religion, respond in an uncommon all in verse, full of parables and allegories, language, cannot and practice with be done until after a long study of the language and customs.

(1778, fols. 736b-37a; The

emphasis in original)

to the of Marco's Tibet Mission of the missionaries scholarly contributions are few in number, but they are important. The of the Hindustani study language earliest known dictionary of the Hindustani language is the Thesaurus of the Indian in Hindustani, {Thesaurus Linguae Indianae, ca. 1700), written French, and Language a French Cap Latin. It was originally prepared by the founder of the Tibet Mission, uchin named Francesco Maria da Tours (d. 1709).5 He was in India from about 1680 to 1701 and spent most of his time in Surat in Gujarat. He most likely prepared this there during this period.6 The French Orientalist and traveler Abraham dictionary said that he had seen what was apparently (1731-1805) Hyacinthe Anquetil Duperron a smaller version of this dictionary a in Surat in 1758. Francesco Maria presented in 1704. In 1773 Fide library in Rome of it to the Propaganda copy manuscript to and managed learned about the Propaganda Fide manuscript Anquetil Duperron have it sent to Paris in 1783, where he wrote out by hand his own copy of the whole
the same sorts of appeals for instance, for the missionaries the early years of the missions. In America, however, during were of the pagan the public Amerindians often religious practices quickly suppressed, by reasons treatment than studied. rather The for the different of native in Asia force, religions to recover and America several attempts friars inMexico so, there were vary. Even by Christian 4In what Latin to learn local languages America, were made is now

detailed knowledge of indigenous religions, most notably by Bernadino de Sahag?n. Although

the use of native missionaries possible. not be could languages to try to in America tended suppressed replace these as easily as languages Catholic religious practices, as as with Spanish quickly

5Because of his association with the Italian Tibet Mission,

of his name 6The seems rather Frenchman than the French, Fran?ois Abraham Hyacinthe since most sources Marie Anquetil state that de Tours. Duperron Francesco

I have used the Italian rendering

claims Maria had that Francesco Maria

composed his dictionary

highly in 1701. The unlikely,

in Surat in 1703 (1786,

197; see also Orsatti

in India, however,

1996, 18). This date

returned since it must to Europe have

required

was almost dictionary certainly composed the help of one or more Indian scholars.

120

DAVID N. LORENZEN

to Rome. Both Anquetil (some 420 pages) and returned the original are now in the Biblioteque copy and Francesco Maria's original manuscript Duperron's de France under the catalog numbers Indien 839 and 840, respectively.7 The National later came back to France, probably when Napoleon included it original manuscript in a shipment of appropriated documents (Orsatti 1996, 176). Another is said to have been prepared by Giuseppe early Hindustani dictionary Maria da Gargnano of the same mission. Giuseppe Maria was Marco's teacher and manuscript in a long letter dated in Bettiah. This dictionary was first mentioned predecessor the Tibet Mission friar Santi da Lizzano (d. 1780), who claims January 25, 1763, by in three languages: Indian (In "a big Dictionary that Giuseppe Maria had produced and Italian for the instruction of the missionaries" (Cassiano da Macerata diana), Latin, in two letters by the This same text is also mentioned 1767, 223-29, esp. 226). in India, Giuseppe da Rovato (d. 1786), in which the Indian prefect of the mission is identified as Hindustani.8 language There is some confusion about what South Asian languages Giuseppe Maria knew texts now is the original translator of several Hindustani and whether he or Marco in the Vatican Library. In the biography of Giuseppe Maria by his com preserved a text published in 1767, Cassiano writes Cassiano da Macerata (1708?91), panion in of the four Vedas and notes that these texts are written about the importance not be communicated to anyone who does not belong Sanskrit, "a language that should to the chief clans of the Brahmins"
We had found out and that in the second

(1767,
and not

87). Cassiano
third

then adds:
Codices discussion [i.e., of

of the above-mentioned they include a worthy

the Sama-veda

the Yajur-vedd],

only

do

the Unity
false sible they these spirits for us

of God but they also disown and energetically

condemn the cult of the

it was impos since them, some texts of

not without efforts (because Moreover, great (falsi Numi). to get to understand the originals or, having them, gotten are written we in the Sanskrit in obtaining succeeded language)

these Codices
texts

by means

of some trusted (sperimentati) friends. We

in order to prove the truth that we teach.

faithfully cited

in our Dialogue

(88; emphasis in original) text written in 1751, mostly here is a long Hindustani The Dialogue mentioned by Giuseppe Maria, entitled A Dialogue between a Christian and a Hindu about Religion (Jababasval aik kristian aur aik hindu ke bic mo im?n ke upar). In the two existing of this Dialogue, however, none of the four Vedas are quoted, though a manuscripts
few paraphrased statements attributed to various Puranas?namely, the Bhagavata,

Brahma, Linga, Bhugola like the rest of Dialogue,

7The Duperron's

(Bhogala), and Adi-parba?appear are written in Hindustani. Later

in it.9 These statements, in the biography, Cassiano

The story of Anquetil in a letter in is found

claims that 840 is the catalog wrongly to acquire and copy Francesco efforts

copy, not the original. Maria's manuscript

cluded in these two manuscripts. Anquetil Duperron retells the story in a book published in 1786 (197-98). Paola Orsatti notes that four letters from Anquetil Duperron to Stefano Borgia
this matter are also found in the Vatican Library (under the catalog numbers Borg. Lat.

about

283, fols. 144, 199, 133; Borg. Lat. 285, fol. 91) (1996, 17-20). 8These two letters, dated November 5, 1765, and October 30, 1770, have been published
in Gottardo da Como 1954, 73-75, 105-10. Neither of these letters mentions the use of Latin.

Bhugola-purana is not easily identified. The Adi-parba is probably the so-named (Adi parvan) first book of the Mahabharata. I hope to eventually publish a full English translation of Giuseppe Maria's Dialogue. A much-modified (and de-Urduized) version of Giuseppe Maria's work was published in Bettiah in 1907. The Jesuits at the Bihar Social Institute in Patna kindly made me a copy (see also Lorenzen 2003, 3, 10-13). ^he

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

121

again notes that Giuseppe Maria was unable to gain access to "the four chief Codices which they called Bed or Mystery" and could find no one to teach him Sanskrit (1767, 239).10 Cassiano does say that Giuseppe Maria had a "language teacher {Maestro del la (238). This language teacher was Lingua)" who helped him prepare his translations the same Brahmin from Ba?aras who worked with Marco d?lia Tomba. quite likely There Maria Maria that this language teacher ever taught Giuseppe is no suggestion, however, that Giuseppe da Rovato, for his part, also mentions Sanskrit. Giuseppe any "had become very expert" in the Hindustani language {lingua indostana) but

says nothing about Sanskrit (Gottardo da Como 1954, 73). In his biography of Giuseppe Maria, however, Cassiano describes a number of texts that Giuseppe Maria translated into Italian, some of which were apparently texts in Sanskrit. Cassiano notes that "seeing that he was unable to achieve his aim" written of reading the Vedas in Sanskrit, Giuseppe Maria "decided on a Translation of the Codex Adi Adrna Ramahen [Adhyatma-ramayana j, namely, the principal spirit of the Ramahen" (1767, 239). Cassiano then sets out a several-page summary of this Ramay ana. The well-known in Sanskrit, not in Hindi. Cas is written Adhyatma-ramayana siano then adds that Giuseppe Maria also translated into Italian the Lhalecc, a text the Krishna avatar; the Vishnu-purana {Visen? & text associated with the "idolater" named Sagher), is of course books.11 Of these texts, the Vishnu-purana is not easily identified. The Gyan sagar, an important about Hindi.12 Purana); Kabir; written Kabir the Gyan sagar {Ghian and several other small in Sanskrit. The Lhalecc Panthi text, iswritten in

premodern that Marco d?lia Tomba Here, however, we have the additional complication or Hindi texts into Italian, including claims to have translated a number of Hindustani parts of the Ramayana {Ramaen), most notably its sixth book {Lanka-kand), and several Kabir Panthi works, most notably the Gyan sagar. These translations are evidently the products of Marco's collaboration with the Brahmin from Ba?aras. The original are now in the texts and Italian translations, manuscript copies, with both Hindi inMarco's own collection of the Vatican Library. The translations are written Borgia
hand.13

are we to make of all this? Did Giuseppe Maria know Sanskrit or not? What What of the texts that he translated? Did Marco take happened to the manuscripts over Giuseppe Maria's translations, most notably that of the Gyan sagar, and finish them? Or did Marco make his own translations? The case of the Adhyatma-ramayana is said to have translated is particularly that Giuseppe Maria know confusing. We
ved or veda meant

10The mological In one

assumption meaning passage

that

the word or

is "wisdom" (1774, or

interesting (division,

also "knowledge") 9), Marco attempts In modern

the correct (whereas ety "mystery" inMarco della Tomba's appears writings. to illustrate the equivalence o? veda and Hindi, the phrase should be cor

"mystery" by citing aHindustani

and bhed secret,

phrase inwhich he apparently confuses the words W(Veda)

standard

mystery).

rected to read as follows: Is kam mem bar? bhed hai (There is something very mysterious
business). 11A similar list of Giuseppe Maria's translations can be found in the two

in this

above-mentioned

letters written by Giuseppe da Rovato (see Gottardo da Como 1954, 73-75, 105-10). The 1763 letter of Santi da Lizzano also mentions that Giuseppe Maria had translated "not a few fat volumes of the Hindus (Gentili)" (Cassiano da Macerata 1767, 226).
12For a discussion 13Some de Gubernatis of them nor of are this text as translated (without the by Marco della published scholars accompanying the source see Lorenzen Tomba, texts of Hindustani of the Lanka-kand 2002. the man translation

uscripts) in Angelo
as the Ramcaritmanas.

de Gubernatis's
later

1878 edition of some of Marco's works, although neither

identified

correctly

122

DAVID N. LORENZEN

translation of parts of the text that he calls from the existing manuscript of Marco's the Ramaen, a translation accompanied that by the original text in kaithi-devanagari, in the Avadhi this Ramaen is none other than Tulsi Das's Ramcaritmanas, written But can we be sure that dialect of Hindi, and not the Sanskrit Adhyatma-ramayana. text was in fact this Sanskrit text and not that of Tulsi Das? We Giuseppe Maria's as one of his principal sources. know that Tulsi Das did use the Adhyatma-ramayana text given by Cassiano in his biography the summary of Giuseppe Maria's Although it is closer to of Giuseppe Maria does not exactly follow either text (1767, 239-44), in the Sanskrit Adhyatma-ramayana than it is to Tulsi the version of the story found Das's Ramcaritmanas. Apparently, then, the texts of Marco and Giuseppe Maria are not the same. But on what basis did Cassiano make this summary of Giuseppe Maria's translation? Did he have a copy of the translation? Did he have a letter from Giuseppe in about 1766. He left Maria setting out the summary? Cassiano wrote his biography India for Italy in 1754, and Giuseppe Maria died in India in 1761. There does not
seem to be any easy way to answer these questions.

say about Giuseppe Maria's lost translation of the Vishnu Similarly, The Vishnu-purana is, of course, a Sanskrit text, as are the Puranas cited (in puranat in Giuseppe Maria's surviving Hindustani Hindi) Dialogue of 1751, namely, the Bha and Adi-parba Puranas. Evidently Giuseppe Maria did gavata, Brahma, Linga, Bhogala, have access, either direct or indirect, to some Sanskrit sources. Perhaps he could actually read and translate them. Perhaps he "read" them through spoken Hindustani translations or paraphrases provided by his "language teacher." If forced to choose, I would opt for the latter possibility. also translated European texts into vernacular languages Several early missionaries or wrote their own texts in these languages. One of the earliest and most important in Konkani-Marathi compositions was the Christian Purana written missionary by the Giuseppe Maria da Garg English Jesuit Thomas Stephens. I have already mentioned nano's Hindustani composition, Dialogue between a Christian anda Hindu about Religion. Maria is also said to have translated or written of several other expositions Giuseppe but these texts are all now lost.14 Giuseppe Maria's Christian doctrine in Hindustani, (ca. 1775a), translated the Gospel colleague and biographer, Cassiano da Macerata a manuscript to Matthew into Hindustani; of this text also survives. according the study of vernacular languages was important for obvious practical Although
reasons, some missionary-scholars and most administrator-scholars tended to favor the

what

can we

tradition, study of Sanskrit. Sanskrit was of course the authoritative language of Hindu influenced the and the Brahmins' own esteem for this ancient language undoubtedly Jones who, in a 1786 address European scholars. As is well known, it was SirWilliam to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, first clearly and prominently noted the similarity their common descent from of Sanskrit to various European languages and postulated an earlier but now lost language.15 14These works
gosthi), written

include another dialogue,

an "exposition of the

entitled
faith"

the Ghiangostin or Giangastin

a catechism) by J.-B. Bossuet;

(Gyan
and

in 1752;

(i.e.,

the "Life of our Lord Jesus Christ" (see Cassiano da Macerata 1954, 73, 107).
15The larity

1767, 248; Gottardo

da Como

since and "prominently," the simi here has to be on the words "clearly" emphasis to Latin, and other of north Indian Greek, Sanskrit, European languages, particularly as as the sixteenth mis had been noted scholars, century mostly by various early languages comment source" the "common also anticipated about A few scholars sionaries. (now Jones's called of these (1970b). Indo-European) early On of Sanskrit were see speculations this subject, none and Greek. and other such as Latin Virtually languages comments until after the 1788 publication of Jones's published account of studies the marvelously detailed of early European

Sanskrit by Rosane Rocher (2000).

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

123

it was the missionaries who pioneered the early European study of Nonetheless, in Roth who worked Sanskrit grammar.16 A Jesuit named Heinrich (1620?68), territory, was the first European to write a Sanskrit grammar. This was not Mughal in about 1733 by published until 1988. Another early Sanskrit grammar was written a French Jesuit named J. F. Pons (1698?1753), who lived in south India. This gram mar has not yet been published* though a detailed essay by Pons on Sanskrit literature was published in 1743. The an Austrian (or Croatian) by 1806) and printed in Rome which was never published, in Europe was prepared first Sanskrit grammar published Carmelite friar named Paulinus ? S. Bartholomaeo (1748? in 1790.17 This grammar was based on an earlier grammar, studies of Sanskrit Roberto Nobili's none of them had twentieth century "translation" of a reputed San

by the Jesuit Johann Ernst Hanxleden. In contrast, early missionaries made few translations or detailed texts, and almost none of this work was ever published. The Jesuit studies of Sanskrit and Tamil texts are well known, but pioneering in the been published until a few were edited by S. Rajamanickam

1988, 38-43). One French (Zupanov 1999; Halbfass skrit text that the missionaries did know was the famous Ezourvedam that Voltaire used as one of his primary sources for his positive evaluation of Indian religion. This pseudo-Veda was in fact a forgery either perpetrated by the Jesuits themselves or on them by others. The 46, 467; L. Rocher existed, is lost. in Europe in 1778 translation was first published 1984; Hawley 1974, 144-45).18 The Sanskrit (Halbfass 1988, text, if it ever

Studies
Both

of Hindu

Culture

and Religion

by Missionaries

also had an obvious interest not only texts but also in studying Hindu in learning local languages and translating Hindu culture and religious traditions. For the missionaries, of Hindu ideas and knowledge to Christian for their attempts to convert the population practices was a prerequisite the missionaries and the administrators of the traditional relations between state in knowledge legal institutions?and stitutions?particularly religious traditions was essential for successful governance and trade. A full understanding of Hindu beliefs and practices of the religious literature composed in both Sanskrit required considerable knowledge and vernacular languages and also direct observation of popular religious practices in and customs. For reasons that I will discuss shortly, the administrator-Orientalists even more so the nineteenth-century in Europe?tended to India?and Orientalists ity. For the administrators,
concentrate on the study of Sanskrit. Although some missionary-scholars?most no

J. F. Pons, and Paulinus tably Roberto Nobili, Sanskrit texts, the majority paid more attention
tices.

? S. Bartholomaeo?also worked on to vernacular texts and popular prac

undertook studies of vernacular literature, mainly religious European missionaries scholars did the same. In the south, for instance, literature, long before Orientalist and Bartholomaeus Nobili Ziegenbalg wrote important studies on various Hindu texts l6This paragraph relies largely on R. Rocher 2000, but see also Halbfass 2002. 17Thisgrammar has been republished and translated by Ludo Rocher (Paulinus 1977) (see also Orsatti 1996, 25; Halbfass 1988, 467). 18Ludo Rocher's (1984) long discussion of the authorship of this text tentatively concludes
that the original was written in French and that probably no Sanskrit version ever existed.

1988 and Rubies

124

DAVID N. LORENZEN

studies of Hindu culture include texts by early missionary de Azevedo (1603), Antonio Rubino (1612), Jacom? F?nico (1609), Gon Agostinho (1651) (Rubies 2002, 309 ?alo Fernandes Trancoso (1616), and Abraham Rogerius composed in Tamil. Other 18). Besides his translations of parts of Tulsi Das's Ramcaritmanas and several Kabir Panthi several essays about Hindu texts, Marco d?lia Tomba also wrote religious his "Short Description beliefs and customs. I have already mentioned of East India or Hindustan" (ca. 1771c) and his polemic against the views of John Hoi well. Also to the Voyage to India" ("Introduzione al viaggio per is his "Introduction interesting 1'India," ca. 1771a) and his lengthy Book inWhich theDiverse Systems of the Religion of Hindustan and the Surrounding Kingdoms Are Described (Libro in cui si descrivono diversi sistemi del la religione dell'Indostano e regni circonvicini, ca. 1771b). The 1878 published edited by Angelo de Gubernatis collection of some of Marco's writing (1840?1913) contains most of his surviving translations (minus the Hindustani texts) and parts of several of his essays. Most of Marco's writings, however, including almost all his
letters, remain unpublished.19

Cassiano da Macerata's already-mentioned biography of Giuseppe Maria da Garg nano was published in Verona in 1767. Cassiano is also the probable author of a book in Rome in 1771 and another, about the Hindustani alphabet and language published in Rome in 1773. similar book about the Tibetan alphabet and language published in editing and writing a collection He may also have collaborated with Antonio Giorgi of texts about Tibetan religion (Giorgi 1759). Cassiano's (ca. 1760) lengthy journal and back to Italy survives in a manuscript about his travels to India, Tibet, India, that is apparently twentieth century duism
survives.

text was twice published in the but this surviving incomplete, Cassiano also wrote a big book about Hin (see Magnaghi 1902). still (ca. 1775b), but this has never been published, though the manuscript

texts by Giuseppe Maria, Marco, and Cassiano All the published and unpublished of all three friars suffer from the defects of deserve to be better studied. The writings a limited and narrow scholarly education as well as from the typical contemporary (Lor prejudices associated with their Christian vocation and conservative worldview wrote over a hundred years after Nobili enzen 2003). Although and at least fifty they their writings years after Ziegenbalg, represent some of the first serious efforts by scholars to understand and describe the beliefs and practices of the Hindu European as far as the subsequent history of European studies of Hin religion. Unfortunately, duism is concerned, like those of other early missionaries, had little these works, near the dates of because few of them were ever published anytime impact, largely their original composition.

The British

Orientalists

like their missionary Some of the early administrator-Orientalists, predecessors, cen also produced Sanskrit grammars, but this was not until the early nineteenth The Orientalists excelled as the first scholars to translate and publish various tury.20 Sanskrit literary and legal texts into a European language, namely, English. These
19Most of Marco's letters are found in the archives of Propaganda Fide.

surviving

20The earliest Orientalist grammars are those by Henry Colebrooke Wilkins (1808) (see R. Rocher 2000).

(1805) and Charles

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

125

translations are well known and need not be described in detail. Suffice it to mention translations of the Bhagavad Gita (Bhagvat-geeta, 1785) and Hito Charles Wilkins's (1787) and SirWilliam Jones's translations of Sakuntala (1789) and Manusmrti padesa are found (1796). A number of scholarly essays based on studies of Sanskrit materials in the early volumes of Asiatick Researches, the journal of Jones's Asiatic Society. Sheldon Pollock has called the European scholarly fascination with Sanskrit and to which the classical urtexts of Indian tradition "the ideology of antiquity?according
the more archaic a text, the purer it was thought to be, and the more recent, the more

notes that this ideology "ruled out study of the and even mongrel"?and of South Asian literature, in particular vernacular literature" (2003, 4). greater part The discovery of the historical link of Sanskrit with Greek and Latin gave European Orientalists further confirmation of its importance, even for their own cultural history. Jones, in his famous comments on the relation of Sanskrit to other languages, called derivative "more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more ex quisitely refined than either" (1970b, 252). One curious incident that reveals the antivernacular side to Jones's preference for in a 1785 address by Jones to the Asiatic Society. In it Jones Sanskrit is described that he had the previous year with none other than tells the story of a discussion Marco della Tomba about ancient historical contacts between India and Egypt. Jones comments: "Father Marco, a Roman missionary, who, though not a scholar of the first rate, is incapable, I am persuaded, of deliberate falsehood, lent me the last book of a Sanskrit into his native language, and Ramayan, which he had translated through the Hindi it a short vocabulary with and historical names; which had been of mythological to him by the Pandits of Betiya [Bettiah}, where he had long resided" explained (1970a, 239?40). Jones, the great scholar of Sanskrit, obviously had little use for Tulsi Das's mere Hindi Ramayana and blithely ignores a translation that isMarco's greatest
claim to fame as a scholar.21

A few high officials of the Company, most notably Warren Hastings (governor of Bengal and governor-general, 1772-85), were important patrons of Sanskrit studies. Hastings was especially interested, for obvious reasons, in the indigenous legal system and Sanskrit legal texts, but he also claimed that the study of religious and literary texts could also yield practical benefits. In an oft-cited 1784 letter about Charles Wilkins's translation of the Bhagavad Gita that Hastings addressed to the chairman and especially such of the Company, he writes: of knowledge, "Every accumulation as is obtained by social communication with people over whom we exercise a dominion in founded on the right of conquest, is useful to the state: it is the gain of humanity: the specific instance which I have stated, it attracts and conciliates distant affections; it lessens the weight of the chain by which the natives are held in subjection; and it the sense and obligation of benevolence" imprints on the hearts of our own countrymen (Marshall 1970, 189). From texts such as these, it is easy to make a claim that both officials shared strictly utilitarian motives for studying Company nacular languages of the indigenous cultures but also their written in an essay written many years ago I myself made this argument missionaries and not only the ver texts in Sanskrit.

(Lorenzen 1982). and fact-filled essay originally published in 1985 Bernard Cohn's (1990) entertaining on language study by British Orientalists in the period from 1770 to 1820 offers a thesis. Utilitarian motives do undoubt version of this utilitarian Foucault-influenced
21Some of this as has noted was in the

translation,

been

above,

published

1878

edition

of

Marco's

selected

writings.

126

DAVID N. LORENZEN

to give modest edly explain why the Company and the Catholic Church were willing financial support for such scholarly studies. Nonetheless, do power and knowledge not always go hand in hand in this fashion. Curiosity and aesthetic enjoyment, love, and even hate can also be important motives for scholarship. How else can we explain to the study of South Asian texts by early Company the time and effort dedicated and Henry Cole officials such as SirWilliam (1749-1836), Jones, Charles Wilkins such as Roberto Nobili, Bartholomaeus Gaston brooke or by missionaries Ziegenbalg, Laurent Coeurdoux, and even Marco d?lia Tomba?22 Curiosity can of course be influ enced by political and economic factors, but as Amartya Sen has aptly remarked, "[a]n as entirely congruent with that sees the pursuit of knowledge epistemic methodology the search for power is a great deal more cunning than wise" (1997, 6). As Pollock's comments about the ideology of antiquity imply, the scholarly fas in European uni cination with Sanskrit and the ideology of antiquity was dominant versities well into the twentieth and is not completely dead even today. In century nor colonial administrators South Asia, however, neither European missionaries could to totally already discussed afford
administrator-scholars.

I have in vernacular ignore the study of texts written languages. some of the grammatical texts written both missionaries and by
Nonetheless, when it comes to studies of religious and secular

we find that these were very literature in vernacular languages by secular Orientalists, the earliest of such few in number until well into the nineteenth century. Among and literature and by George Grierson studies are those by C. P. Brown on Telugu the Frenchman M. Garcin de Tassy on north Indian vernacular literature.

Missionary

and Orientalist

Ideologies

Before the twentieth century, missionary-scholars generally had to be circumspect in expressing admiration Hindu and Muslim for religions and religious texts. The in their motive for studying such texts was to help these missionaries only approved Before at least the mid-nineteenth efforts to convert the native peoples to Christianity. century, the Catholic Church was still under the sway of the conservative ethos of the and still largely hostile to the ideas about religious Catholic or Counter-Reformation the Enlightenment. tolerance fostered by intellectuals associated with Protestant
Evangelicals were often even more conservative. Some missionaries regarded Hindu

texts as inspired by the devil, and some of them likely were afraid to express any sympathy for Hindu or Muslim religious beliefs or practices lest they be accused of heresy. to non-Christian who were more sympathetic Those missionaries beliefs and prac and Muslim them tices had access to three intellectual escape routes or loopholes that permitted to hold partly positive opinions about heathen beliefs and practices. In the first in stance, many of these beliefs and practices could be classified simply as the products of secular social tradition rather than as things integral to the non-Christian religion in south India to put on a per se. This was the approach that led Roberto Nobili the thread was, he claimed, simply a sacred thread like the Brahmins wore. Wearing not a religious practice. This scandalized Nobili's social custom, opponents among the Christian missionaries and led to the famous Malabar Rites controversy, which in Rome for many years. The second escape route occupied bishops and theologians was to regard heathen beliefs and practices as the degenerated and half-forgotten
22For a similar see R. Rocher 1994.

argument,

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

127

products of God's revelation to the Jews. Since only a few thousand years had elapsed since the great flood in which only Noah and his family survived, or so the Christians the idea that many Jewish beliefs and practices survived throughout still believed, the pagan world seemed quite plausible. A third escape route was to regard non Christian beliefs and practices as the imperfect and incomplete products of natural reason and man's innate moral sense. From this perspective, pagan beliefs and practices still needed to be criticized, but they could nonetheless be granted at least some small share of divine inspiration. One example of a limited approval of Hindu is in Marco beliefs and practices della Tomba's presentation of a famous apocryphal letter from the Indian sage Didame to Alexander the Great explaining the nature of Hindu (more commonly, Dindimus) religious beliefs and practices (ca. 1771c, 77-81). Various versions of this letter cir culated in eighteenth-century Europe (see Upright Lives 1981). All versions of the letter praise the moderation and simplicity of the life led by the Brahmins. InMarco's source I have not managed to Italian version of the story and letter?one whose ismade the "chief of the Brahmins of the Uni Brahmin sage Didame identify?the to which Marco's Brahmin friend belonged. of Benares," the same institution versity A short extract from Didame's letter should suffice to illustrate its argument:
"The life of the Brahmins that confounds as is as pure men. most Our our take food it is simple. It is reason mouths and know but Thus, never In them that there guides is none our of that

always

concupiscence submissive are things. We its name. from

alone utter

to circumstances. indifferent about we and

earth except dent. not

produces by the This

In our meals, care without lamentations from

nothing cultivation. The

nothing the herbs we are not

complaints, of voluptuousness and vegetables familiar with us all

desires, nor worse apart that the diseases indepen do We

of others. our midst we

equality

among

us makes

removes any tribunals

have

because

and quarrels. ambition, envy, jealousy, do not do anything that needs correction."

(ca. 1771c, 78) Unlike Voltaire, Marco had no intention of using this praise of Brahmin beliefs and practices to criticize Christian beliefs and practices. Nonetheless, his own writings sometimes do attribute to the Indians a certain degree of "reasonableness" and "do to Christianity. for conversion In his cility" as indications of their high potential request to the cardinals of "plan" of 1778, for instance, Marco makes the following Propaganda Fide:
May Your Eminences . . . give some remedies [to the problems of the mission for]

the benefit of those poor souls whom I still regard asmy children. The Tibet Mission to the Hindus (Gentili) of East India is situated among a people who are docile, who
easily latitude, discursive, they if their because admit which their own errors. that It is located between are not errors, The how 24 uncouth, also have times and 28 but suggests to sustain the people their own falsity. oh, to be of northern degrees rather educated and

pledged become convinced lives they are lack

but

of their And,

people many

perfidious. light

to confess them when quick a great fear of becoming lost seen them I myself have cry

enough

transformed.

(1778, fol. 736a) The tone of this passage hardly needs comment. The remarks blatantly patronizing about the "natives" by other members of the Mission tend to be even worse. Marco has at least some sympathy for the Hindus and Hindu culture. Even so, it is easy to see the impediments that his own Christian beliefs and practices must have set in the path of an objective evaluation of Hindu religion and culture.

128

DAVID N. LORENZEN

Orientalists

educational and the Company of the European missionaries backgrounds were perhaps not as different from each other as one might imagine. we need to know much more about the education of both the missionaries Although it is clear that they both knew the Latin language and had read and the Orientalists, some of the Latin classics, especially Cicero. In addition, both the missionaries and the Orientalists of usually had read and studied the Christian Bible and the writings some of the church fathers such as Augustine and Jerome. At least a few scholars in In and Plato, often in Latin translation. both groups had also read texts of Aristotle scholars in both groups often had at least some training in scientific and addition, geographical subjects. Marco (ca. 1771a), for instance, claims to have constructed an armillary sphere and a terrestrial globe for the edification of his Brahmin neighbors in Bettiah (see Lorenzen 2003, 10). There were also several important
a start, the native languages of most of

The

differences
the missionaries

in the education
were Portuguese

of each group.
and Italian?

For

among the Jesuits, French and German were also well repre though, particularly was English. Vir the native language of the Company Orientalists sented?whereas were members or other Protestant all the Company Orientalists of the Anglican tually as Nathaniel churches. Several of the most Halhed (1751? important of them?such Sir William Charles Wilkins, and Henry Colebrooke?were 1830), Jones, strongly Most of the influenced by the secular and cosmopolitan spirit of the Enlightenment. were Roman Catholic missionary-scholars important ex (Ziegenbalg being the most century) and were influenced by the conservative Chris ception before the nineteenth tian spirit of the Catholic Reformation, those Jesuits such as Nobili, who including to Hindu customs. advocated a policy of limited accommodation was shared by the Catholic training of the missionaries Accordingly, theological in En and the Orientalists' of secular literature, mostly few Orientalists, knowledge glish or French, was shared by very few missionaries. Most important, the missionaries such as John Locke, usually avoided reading writers of the European Enlightenment
Montesquieu, Voltaire, and David Hume. When the missionaries do mention these

it is usually to attack their ideas about the virtues of secularism, deism, and Coeurdoux, religious tolerance. One exception is the Jesuit missionary Gaston-Laurent who used Enlightenment discourse to defend his faith (Murr 1988, 147-51). More in his long attack on the eccentric defense of typical is Marco d?lia Tomba, who, also takes a conservative Hinduism swipe or two at Voltaire, who by John Holwell, to attack the Jesuits. In other texts, Marco expresses outrage at the had used Holwell in Calcutta, whom he regarded as among brazen public displays of the Freemasons writers, the worst proponents of Enlightenment in his life, Marco himself was accused his clerical opponents. ideas (Lorenzen 2003, 24-27). Ironically, late of being a Freemason (most likely untrue) by

Missionary

and Orientalist

Finances

The more open, secularist Enlightenment attitudes of many Company Orientalists of finding worthwhile undoubtedly helped them accept the possibility religious ideas is not sufficient to and literary virtues in Sanskrit texts. This advantage, however, to preside over a veritable explosion of European explain how the Orientalists managed about India, while almost three hundred years of missionary scholarly knowledge never managed to build adequately on past achievements and produced scholarship little of lasting value. At least as important for the success of the comparatively

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

129

I think, are the concrete prac and the failure of the missionary-scholars, Orientalists of each group. tical advantages and disadvantages most basic problem was their lack of money and manpower. The missionaries' were always few in number and were in constant need of cash. Going The missionaries da Rovato da Como (see Gottardo through the more than fifty letters of Giuseppe from 1769 to 1786, for 1954), the prefect of Marco della Tomba's Tibet Mission instance, we find that in almost every letter Giuseppe makes an impassioned plea for more missionaries and more money. Marco ismore coy about demanding money but As it gradually became evident similarly pleads again and again for more missionaries. to the officials of Propaganda Fide in Rome that the Tibet Mission was never going to win large numbers of converts and hence would never become self-sustaining, much

the clerical bureaucrats in less give a good financial return on the initial investment, Fide lost interest in sending more money and more friars to India. The Propaganda annual monetary subsidy that was supposed to be sent from Mexico via the Philippines was simply stopped altogether from 1760 on (Gottardo da Como 1954, 159). None theless, Propaganda Fide did decide from time to time to send a few more friars and a little more money to avoid a definitive and the return to collapse of the mission of its few remaining friars. Europe In the Deccan and the far south, most of the Roman Catholic missions were crown through the institu financed not by Propaganda Fide, but by the Portuguese this system seems to have tional arrangement known as the padroado. On the whole, than that obtained from Propaganda Fide. offered the missionaries better financing In both cases, however, the money available was never enough to provide for the As a result, of more than a relatively small number of missionaries. adequate funding most of the missionaries who did reach India had little or no time for the scholarly texts. In his "plan" of 1778, Marco comments: study of Hindu or Muslim
And our greatest a little of the we have is that already when learned difficulty barely even to begin to take care in our first year, we have perhaps immediately to many In this work, of the local Christians. the Missionary is exposed for which

even his is not enough. and For such study previous learning in order to be able to discover is needed, the habitual experience especially are based]. in the problems The Missionary is necessarily [on which superstitions continual conflict with the Hindus and heretics of all Muslims, schismatics, (gentili), sorts who are found in the country. And oh! How in the first years! blunders many error or unconvincing to the Missionary's harm little every Truly, reply does great cases, long reputation situations] colleagues? and if he to our Religion to is unable this lesson itself. remain well How under when can the Missionary the I visited tutelage other of learn other, [to handle more such

language, of a parish situations

qualified

I learned

Missions.

(1778, fol. 737a) Like the missionaries, officials expected the Company in Company employees India to learn the spoken languages of the country, though no formal training was of Fort William in 1800. provided by the Company until the establishment College New writers (clerks) of the Company generally arrived in India at the young age of fourteen or fifteen (an important linguistic advantage that the older missionaries did set about learning the local language with the not have). The new writers generally tutors. For those in Bengal, this meant learning Bengali and/or Persian. help of Indian One of the earliest scholarly publications sponsored by the Company was Nathaniel Halhed's Grammar of the Bengal Language of 1778. In 1790, the Company authorized an extra payment of thirty rupees amonth for Company writers to employ tutors for the study of Persian (Kopf 1969, 18).

130

DAVID N. LORENZEN

After the founding of Fort William this institution began teaching sev College, eral Indian languages and other subjects to new Company writers. The college also several grammars and collections of vernacular literature for use as text published books. Nonetheless, these works do not seem to have attracted much attention from or other European in English Orientalist scholars writing languages. As Frances has noted, "[t]he fact that Fort William College commissioned, prepared, so many ground-breaking, and published books does not mean that precedent-setting in people paid much attention to them, or that those who did read them?especially the early decades of the century?found them to be anything more than curiosities" (2003, 880-81). The most that the administrator-Orientalists of important scholarly advantage was their the late eighteenth had over earlier (and contemporary) missionaries century greatly superior financial ability to employ Indian scholars as tutors and assistants. the starting salaries of the Company writers were quite low, the writers Although were allowed to supplement this income with earnings from private trade; this soon court judges, such as Sir William made many of them handsomely wealthy. High Jones, who were appointed directly by the British crown, as well as higher Company received quite generous salaries and/or incomes. This officials, supplementary the influence that the judges and officials could wield in obtaining money?and and maulavis salaried posts for pandits in the courts and in (Muslim scholars) facilitated their recruitment of leading scholarly projects?greatly Company-financed as private tutors. In 1788 Jones claims to have been spending Indian intellectuals more than five hundred rupees a month for Sanskrit and Persian tutors (R. Rocher 1995, 61). were able to get Company In a few cases, the British Orientalists support for intellectual endeavors. In his term as governor-general (1774-85), Warren large-scale secured Company financing of several scholarly projects, including Halhed's Hastings Code of Gentoo Laws (1776) and the publication of Wilkins's (1785). Bhagvat-geeta Company financing was also essential for Jones's big project to prepare digests of law. By the end of the eighteenth Muslim and Hindu had century, the Company to establish educational the College of Arabic institutions, (Madrasa) namely, begun Studies in Calcutta (1781); the Benares Sanskrit College (1794); and, by far the most in Calcutta 1800 the expenses of (1800). After important, Fort William College Fort William became a major item in the Company's annual bud operating College All these projects required paying salaries not only to the British scholars who get.23 organized them but also to the Indian scholars who often did most of the work. even the Company and its officials were not consistently Nonetheless, generous patrons. After the founding of the Asiatic Society in 1784, for instance, Jones could not find anyone to finance the publication of the collected papers of the society. When in 1789, however, much the first volume of Asiatick Researches finally was published to Jones's surprise it soon became a best seller in Europe and was reprinted several (Kejariwal 1988, 54). research remains to be done on the intellectual and ideological contribu Much tions to the Orientalist project made by the Indian scholars who served as tutors for or who worked in the larger-scale projects sponsored by the the British Orientalists 23Some of the financial details of the college expenses are found scattered inDavid Kopfs
useful to two in 1801 For instance, the study. while hundred rupees per month, Indian teachers were the European salaries paid were teachers paid from forty ranging from five hundred

Pritchett

times

to twenty-six hundred rupees per month

(1969, 51, 62, 77, 113).

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

131

in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but important recent Company studies have been published by Rosane Rocher (esp. 1995, 1989) on the scholars who worked with Jones and by Phillip Wagoner (2003) on those who worked with Colin
Mackenzie in Madras.24

a scholar who a short summary of the career of Radhakanta Tarkavagisa, worked with Jones, will have to suffice as an example. Radhakanta was a Brahmin pandit from Bengal.25 His first association with a British official was with John Shore, a friend of Jones's and governor-general from 1793 to 1798. In about 1783, Radhak anta prepared a collection of texts of passages from the Puranas, the Puranarthaprakasa, Here at the request ofWarren Hastings. Radhakanta met Jones in 1787. Jones was highly with Radhakanta's Purana collection and relied on it to prepare his own impressed In 1788 Jones also secured of the Hindus." famous 1788 essay, "On the Chronology and Hindu law and official approval for his project to prepare digests of Muslim hired Radhakanta for the Hindu former teacher, digest. Radhakanta's immediately was eventually appointed as chief pandit and the nominal Jagannatha Tarkapancanana, to have is said, however, the Vivadabhangarnava\ Radhakanta author of the digest, translation of this Hindu digest done most of the work involved. Henry Colebrooke's was eventually published after Jones's death. Conversations with Radhakanta in 1787 to Kalidasa's theater and particularly play Sakuntala. of this play in 1789, and this translation soon had a Jones published in Europe. strong impact on intellectuals missionaries In sharp contrast to the Orientalists, rarely had direct and prolonged access to Indian scholars. In part, of course, this was their own fault. Learned Brahmins were the natural rivals of the missionaries, and both sides soon became aware of this for their part, had a long tradition of not associating with for fact. The Brahmins, of Sanskrit and sacred Sanskrit texts, par eigners and not sharing direct knowledge the Vedas, with anyone else, least of all with foreigners who wanted to convert ticularly the people to a different religion. The missionaries, for their part, often regarded the introduced Jones to Sanskrit a translation Brahmins as cynical and greedy deceivers of the general populace or even as agents of and Marco knew missionaries such as Roberto Nobili Satan. The less-narrow-minded in establishing fruitful intellectual contacts with but even they had difficulty better, Brahmin scholars. Nobili apparently obtained his contacts by sheer hard work. That Marco ended up confined to his hospice in Bettiah for three years accompanied by a can only be learned Brahmin from Ba?aras and a trunk full of Hindu manuscripts chalked up to incredible good luck or maybe even divine Providence. need to learn about Hindu tradition from learned Brahmins The missionaries' had in finding Brahmin converts the great interest that the missionaries helps explain to Christianity. Marco's unfulfilled hope that his Brahmin friend would be baptized success as a scholar of Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures can is typical.26 Part of Nobili's to make at least a few Brahmin converts be attributed to the fact that he had managed who and collaborators. Less is known about the Brahmin col such as Ziegenbalg and Coeurdoux, and this is leagues of other missionary-scholars that needs further investigation. something became his informants

24Lessuseful but interesting is the work of Kate Teltscher on Jones and the pandits (1997, 192-228). 25This paragraph ismostly based on works by Rosane Rocher (1995, 1989). 26According toMarco, before the Brahmin could be baptized, he was killed on the way
to visit his family in Ba?aras. Marco concludes: "God will have accorded him, as I hope, the

baptism of desire" (1878, 65).

132

DAVID N. LORENZEN

and the lack of it, also greatly helps explain the success of the Orientalists Money, in getting their research and translations published and the missionaries' correspond failure to get many of their own scholarly works published. The Jesuits did publish ing several different collections of letters that contain the observations of Jesuit mission aries on the cultures of Asia. These publications, the thirty-four volumes particularly of the series known in its original French as the Lettres ?difiantes et curieuses (Edifying and Curious Letters, 1702?77), were a great success in Europe (Murr 1983). It is that Voltaire used the views of John Holwell, found in the same text that interesting in Marco della Tomba attacked, to challenge the views about Hinduism propounded these same Lettres ?difiantes et curieuses. The Jesuit letters, however, were intended in
large part to educate and entertain European general readers, somewhat like the

of the equally popular lay travelers' accounts of curious foreign lands. The publication letters was also intended to encourage financial support for the missions. Most of the more scholarly researches on Hindu religion and textual tradition by missionary such as Nobili, and Marco remained unpublished scholars Coeurdoux, Ziegenbalg, Even until long after their deaths. Many of these texts still have not been published. in manuscript A few of Ziegen form, they rarely circulated among the missionaries. in the eighteenth century (Singh 1999,164? balg's less-scholarly texts were published was a Protestant, few if any Catholic missionary 75). Since Ziegenbalg however, and of Nobili scholars were likely to have read them. The scholarly writings Coeurdoux were barely noted or remembered until they were rescued from oblivion academic scholars, S. Rajamanickam and Sylvia (forNobili) by two twentieth-century in A collection Murr of some of Marco's writings was published (for Coeurdoux). Italian in 1878, but nothing has appeared since then. Given this failure to publish studies of Hindu tradition, it is not surprising that almost three hundred missionary increase in knowledge. little accumulative IfMarco, for in years of labor produced had been given at least some access to the four Vedas stance, had known that Nobili more than one hundred years earlier, then Marco could never have questioned their existence (Rubies 2002, 338).

Priestly

Scholars

and Secular Orientalists

in Europe

not and the eighteenth century, just the European Orientalists During a strong in Europe manifested in India but also many intellectuals missionary-scholars interest in and often a positive appreciation of Indian history and culture. Thomas Trautmann has called this phenomenon "Indomania" (1997, chap. 3). As has been in recent years about the studies of Indian history noted, several scholars have written in India, both missionaries and secular Orientalists, and by Europeans also about the reception and elaboration of these studies by European secular scholars in Europe during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.27 Less well stud ied are the relations in Europe between various Catholic clergy, mainly residing in to study Indian lan Rome, and several European lay scholars who were attempting and culture
guages, history, and cultures.

In terms of infrastructure, Rome was undoubtedly still remaining Asian languages and cultures, while 27See the works mentioned
For the contributions of Italian

an ideal city in which to study in Europe. A large network of 1974 and Kieffer 1983.
are discussed here,

in n3 above as well as those by Hawley

scholars to Indian studies, some

of which

see also D'Arelli

1998; Gallotta

and Marazzi

1989; Nardella

1989; Orsatti

1996.

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

133

missions throughout Asia was constantly the progress of the missions; the political

sending back to Rome long letters about situations of the countries; and discussions

In addition, of the customs, several religions, and languages of the Asian peoples. and gram such as Marco della Tomba, were sending back dictionaries missionaries, mars of native languages as well as manuscript in copies of religious texts written in Italian or Latin. these languages, often accompanied by interlinear translations Rome had at this time an extremely active and sophisticated intellectual life. state ambassadors, and scholars Rome was a place where church officials, theologians, from all over Europe assembled to conduct official business or take up residence. Also returned directly from Asia and young Asian men who were present were missionaries in the Collegio Urbano of Propaganda Fide. With the studying for the priesthood visitors and ambassadors came the culture of intellectual salons and academic European societies of various sorts. The result was a city imbued with a spirit of universalistic Giovanni Pizzorusso notes that "from the sixteenth century on, the cosmopolitanism. idea of Rome as the communis patria in contrast to individual national realities gained . . .The to both lay and ecclesiastic in strength. city exhibited a real cosmopolitanism observers who could encounter there diverse peoples and diverse ethnic groups" (2000, 487). As Pizzorusso also shows, by the early nineteenth century, this Roman cosmo as embodied in the mentality of the functionaries of Propaganda Fide, politanism, "a strongly Eurocentric and doctrinally character" that contrasted with acquired rigid the cosmopolitanism of Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers:
This value [Roman mentality] cosmopolitan of Enlightenment but imprint, omnes This was rather not had based on an abstract the and universal truth.

as its foundation

revealed

The church considered itself to be the trustee of this truth with a duty to spread it
"to all peoples" (ad gentes). and attitude was made concrete, within a provi

dentialistic
evaluated

design, by the attention paid to all the peoples of the world, who were
through common uniform Eurocentric parameters according to their

specific levels of civilization

cism. Catholic also found Thus, faith

(civilta) and their availability for conversion to Catholi

was to adapt left for missionaries the the point of view of politics, the missions the protection under of the European colonial

little for maneuver very space to the local cultures. From in fact placed

themselves

powers.

(2000, 514-15) As far as Asian studies were concerned, the key church official in Rome during the late eighteenth century was Stefano Borgia (1731?1804), the scion of an important near Rome. Borgia was from 1770 to 1789 secretary of centered in Vellatri family Propaganda Fide. He was later named a cardinal and held several other important Fide (1802-4).28 Paola posts in Rome, ending his career as prefect of Propaganda Orsatti summarizes his character and career as follows: learning
in and man of the and

A man of great culture, he had a special interest in historical and philological

and terests aged. time. collected were He To was some materials as vast for the size with as the Italian of numerous cities. history which of his collections, he himself the the best-known task of Italian and the European collections His studied

scientific

in contact he

scholars of objects

entrusted

describing

28Borgia still lacks a good book-length biography. The best source is probably Orsatti 1996 1?43, especially 4n9, the biographical bibliography (see also Enzensberger 1970, s.v.
"Stefano Borgia").

134

DAVID N. LORENZEN

to enrich his family museum: the Museo of Vel that he used Borgiano manuscripts . . .The in of Stefano of the figure is not merely latri. however, Borgia, importance in the ecclesiastical and had a the cultural held field. He posts hierarchy important

notable political
Papal State.

role in the years of the Revolution

and the French occupation of the (1996, 1-2)

of Borgia's family museum the objects and manuscripts Among to him by Marco della Tomba. These of texts and manuscripts given of Giuseppe da Gargnano's 1751 Hindustani Dialogue and virtually all own translations and essays that still survive. Most of of Marco's that Stefano Borgia collected is now in the Vatican Library. material the person Propaganda
these archives.

were

a number included a copy the manuscripts

to whom Marco

addressed most of his surviving letters Fide archives). A few of Borgia's own replies to Marco

the manuscript Borgia was also (now kept in the also survive in

exact nature of the relation between the two men is difficult to judge. Marco and evidently hoped that Borgia would be impressed with his scholarly achievements the mission?especially after the would side with him in the personal quarrels within da Rovato in 1786?but death of the mission prefect Giuseppe Borgia seems to have to talk with the Marco at a safe distance. When Marco came to the Vatican kept The in 1777, for instance, he found officials of Propaganda Fide about the Tibet Mission to enter the city and was left standing outside the gates that he had no permission (1778, fol. 736a). Marco suggests that an unnamed secretary of the procurator (of the to help Marco. order) was to blame, but apparently Borgia did nothing Capuchin Marco appeared to be a little too enthusiastic; perhaps his classical and theo Perhaps was too logical learning was seen to be deficient; perhaps his family background
modest. There is no way to know.

For present
rope, including

purposes,
several

Borgia's

relations with
is particularly

secular Orientalist
noteworthy. One of

scholars
these

in Eu
was the

Protestants,

French scholar Abraham Hyacinthe well-known Anquetil Duperron. Anquetil Du into is famous for his pioneering work on the Avesta and for his translation perron This Latin of Dara Shikoh's Persian translation of some of the Sanskrit Upanishads. In spite in 1801?2. latter work, entitled the Oupnek'hat (Upanishad), was published one of the of its linguistic circuitousness, Anquetil Duperron's Oupnek'hat represents of mod of scholars based in Europe to the development first significant contributions comments: ern Indological Halbfass studies. Wilhelm proper "[Anquetil Duperron's] was place is more in the prehistory of Indology, yet at the same time, his influence His Oupnek'hat is an anachronism; felt until well into the nineteenth yet it century. and made a greater interest in Indian philosophy did more to awaken the modern to the philosophical debate about India than Jones' works. The fact that name remains known and the is chiefly due to [Arthur] Schopenhauer Anquetil's reaction with which he greeted the Oupnek'hat" (1988, 64). enthusiastic also had a strong interest in the Thesaurus As has been noted, Anquetil Duperron Francesco Maria da Indianae prepared by the founder of the Tibet Mission, Linguae to him in convinced Stefano Borgia to send the dictionary Tours. Anquetil Duperron contribution "a curious Paris. Borgia also sent him several other Oriental manuscripts, including a work composed in 1770 by Father Marco dalla Tomba, Capu Italian manuscript, of Tibet" (Anquetil Duperron (This latter manu 1786, 195?96). chin, missionary was none other than Marco della Tomba's polemical essay against John Holwell, script text in his own Historical and Geographical since Anquetil Duperron quotes Marco's

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

135

in 1786 Research on India [Recherches historiques et e?ographiques sur l'Inde], first published also Orsatti Other European scholars with whom Borgia corresponded [see 1996,19].) or had direct personal contact include the Danish researcher Jakob Georg Christian Baron Abraham who worked on Arabic Isaac Silvestre de Sacy, Adler, inscriptions; the Polish count Jan Potocki, who worked on the chro who worked on the Druses; nology
Pand?ro.

of the ancient world;

and the ex-Jesuit

Spanish

polymath

Lorenzo Herv?s

a missionary In Rome the Austrian Carmelite friar Paulinus ? S. Bartholomaeo, inMalabar from 1776 to 1789, helped Stefano Borgia catalog the Indian manuscripts in the family museum. This catalog and another that Paulinus made of the Indian in Rome in the Propaganda Fide library were published in 1793 and manuscripts I have already mentioned Paulinus as the author of the first Sanskrit 1792, respectively. in Rome another, larger Sanskrit in Europe. He also published grammar published several works on Indian language and religion, and an early biog grammar (1804), raphy of Borgia (Orsatti 1996, 11-26, esp. 25-26; R. Rocher 2000, 1161-62). Many in the collection S. Maria della Scala of the of Paulinus's papers are now preserved National of Rome. Library Another of Stefano Borgia was fomenting the activity of important contribution in 1626 to supply of Propaganda the Tipograf?a Poliglotta Fide, a press founded missions in or about native languages.29 Starting in 1771, this Tipograf?a a series of books about the alphabets and languages of Asia, Poliglotta published in the original Asian scripts. As has been noted above, which include texts written da Macerata prepared two books? Cassiano Alphabetum Brammhanicum sev Indostanum or Hindustan Universitatis Kasi (The Brahmanic of the University of Kasi, Alphabet with books and Alphabetum Tangutanum sive Tibetanum (The Tangut or Tibetan Alphabet, were published in this series. Other titles about South Asian languages 1773)?which seu Samscrudonicum (Malabarian or San published by the press include Malabaricum, 1791). skrit, 1772) and Indica alphabeta quattuor (Four Indian Alphabets, In spite of all the intellectual that Rome offered, in spite of the infrastructure of Tipograf?a Poliglotta, and in spite of all the personal contacts and publications connections with scholars in other parts of Europe, the efforts of Borgia, Paulinus, 1771)
and others were not enough to transform Rome into an important center of modern

of the religious intellectual Perhaps the pervasive conservatism such studies; perhaps the lack of a direct imperial or colonial discouraged connection made such studies largely irrelevant to the Papal State; perhaps the failure to win massive converts led to a loss of of the various Indian and Chinese missions Indological environment
interest; perhaps curiosity alone was not enough.

studies.

in France before 1800, the same can be said of the situation things changed soon after this date. As has been noted, eighteenth-century studies were particularly associated with Jesuit missionaries Indological Roughly Gaston-Laurent written popular

though French such as

Coeurdoux and J. F. Pons. Various Indological letters, really essays, in France in the them and other French Jesuits in India were published by Lettres ?difiantes et curieuses volumes.30 Coeurdoux also wrote a longer manu

29On this press, see Henkel 1971, 1973; Orsatti 1996, 8-10; Moroni 1842, 14:237-42. 30In the thirty-four volumes published between 1702 and 1777 are sixty-three letters that have to do with India. Letters by Coeurdoux appear in volumes 26 (1743), 27 (1749), and 34 (1776). A letter by Pons appears in volume 26 (1743). The original volumes and their early reprints and translations are difficult to find, but a recent published collection of some of the letters from India is available (see Vissi?re and Vissi?re 2000).

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DAVID N. LORENZEN

script which was recovered and published together with a detailed study of it by Sylvia Murr in 1987 (2 vols.). Pons also sent back to Paris a number of mostly Sanskrit as well as amanuscript copy of his own Sanskrit grammar. Rosane Rocher manuscripts two published grammars with being "the first credits Pons's grammar and Paulinus's means by which Sanskrit could be learned in Europe" (2000, 1162). The English victories over the French in India in the 1750s and 1760s and later the papal sup pression of the Jesuits in 1773 put a severe damper on French Indological projects, after however, and most French Indological scholarship stopped almost completely came to power After Napoleon 1789 during the upheaval of the French Revolution. in 1799, French Orientalists in France renewed work on Sanskrit and Indian topics but also directed their attention to Egypt and the Middle East, where the French had
more imperative national interests.

Conclusions
The principal aim of this article has been to explain why the Christian missionaries in India up to about 1800 were largely unable to assemble or construct who worked a solid and accurate body of European knowledge about Hindu religion, culture, and history, in spite of three hundred years of experience in the country, whereas the more associated with the Com secular Orientalists, most notably the scholar-administrators were able to do just this in the space of only a few decades starting in about pany, 1775. I have argued that one basic difference between the secular Orientalists and the was the Orientalists' missionaries financial resources, which gave them easier greater access to a working collaboration with Indian scholars, most of whom were Brahmin either paid the scholars directly from pandits or Muslim maulavis. The Orientalists
their own pockets or enlisted the Company to finance research projects such as the

preparation and translation of were in India to stay and that source of patronage for Indian their part, generally led a busy,

legal texts. By about 1775, it was clear that the British the colonial administration had become an important as well as British intellectuals. The missionaries, for hand-to-mouth existence and had little time or money

to pay for the help of Indian scholars. The missionary-scholars also rarely had sufficient or sufficient time to publish in the results of their research. Their works money were rarely read by either other missionary-scholars or Orientalists. form manuscript success failure and the Orientalists' important factor in the missionaries' culture by the Orientalists, less critical appreciation of Hindu open, most of whom were strongly influenced by the secular spirit of the European Enlight on the other hand, were often intellectually enment. The missionaries, hobbled by the more closed and conservative attitudes associated with their Christian beliefs. This was A second the more true of the Catholic missionaries imbued with the spirit of the Catholic an influence that lasted to at least the end of the eighteenth Reformation, century. who became important especially toward the The Protestant Evangelical missionaries and narrow-minded. end of the same century were often even more xenophobic is particularly After the first decades of the nineteenth century, a blind arrogance created by the success of the British, economic, scientific, and military coupled with the animad had greatly weakened the influence of the British versions of the Evangelicals, on the public policies of the colonial government; administrator-Orientalists by then, the foundations of Orientalist had already been laid. Even in the however, knowledge

MARCO DELLA TOMBA AND THE BRAHMIN

FROM BA?ARAS

137

more

century, Orientalist aggressive colonial regime of the nineteenth knowledge was to indulge their cu scholars continued still useful to the state, and new Orientalist riosity about South Asian religions, culture, and history. By the 1830s, Orientalist in continental Europe, especially in scholarship had also spread to various universities and France. But this is another story. Germany India emphasize the dramatic impact of colonialism Some historians of modern to such an extent that they tend to discount the importance of the survival of pre and culture into colonial and postcolonial India. Even if one colonial institutions and Enlight rejects such views, there is little doubt that the empirical methodology enment orientations of the early Orientalists, such as SirWilliam did represent Jones, a sharp epistemological break with both traditional Indian scholarship and most mis soon. Already in the first decade sionary scholarship. The effects were felt astonishingly in Bengali prose three historical works had been published of the nineteenth century, (a new departure) by Bengalis associated with the new Fort William College. Ranajit Guha has shown how these three historical works, though they are still based in large part on a Puranic model, became "the site of a contest between very different, indeed

the past" (1988, 32). Partha Chatterjee, antagonistic ways of interpreting mutually on the other hand, has claimed that in the case of the most important of these three "his historiographie historians, Mrituyunjay Vidyalankar, allegiances are entirely pre is correct, both scholars agree that colonial" (1994, 8). Even if Chatterjee, not Guha, "rational historiography" very soon replaced the Puranic model even European-style in their own languages. Indian historians writing among In spite of this epistemological break, there is little doubt that the Indian tutors to and assistants of the European scholars made their own important contributions the new European scholarship about India, not only in terms of the supply of empirical information but also in terms of the ideological constructs in which the information was located. Their contributions are hidden from view, however, in large part by the fact that their European collaborators rarely gave them the credit that they deserved. Even the names of many of these Indian scholars are lost, such as that of Marco della Tomba's
of

it is only after Eu Brahmin friend and teacher from Ba?aras. Nonetheless, scholars working with Indian scholars in India had transmitted the knowledge ropean
Sanskrit to Europe, together with large quantities of Sanskrit manuscripts, that

European sufficient

to be intellectually scholars in Europe could imagine themselves self and arrogate to themselves a new, "modern" science of Sanskrit studies and

Indology. search for knowledge was If, as I have argued in this article, the Orientalists' based not only on the practical interests of the colonial regime but also on their own personal curiosity and their collaboration with Indian scholars, then Edward Said's that the production of colonial knowledge about colonized societies (1979) hypothesis or even exclusively as a mode of creating and exercising has functioned principally colonial power needs to be seriously questioned. No one now doubts that the colonial administrations supported research on the history and culture of the colonized societies in large part because such knowledge was useful for colonial governance, but this is half of the story.31 only

state was not the cohesive, that the colonial also suggests institution integrated that views the ubiquitous of knowledge and power such as those of Said together glue by to be a state, at least have some to make should autonomy imply. A state, practical important decisions about and foreign that directly the domestic the territory affect under its policies an a control. there is simply controlled administration Otherwise, occupied territory by foreign 31This held

138

DAVID N. LORENZEN

It is evident, then, that Orientalism?even in Said's negative but at least partly true sense of an intellectual discourse used to denigrate and dominate the Oriental? was originally a collaboration constructed of missionaries, administrator through and traditional Indian scholars and reflects the prejudices and ideologies Orientalists, of all three groups. One has only to consider nineteenthand even twentieth-century of the roles of Sanskrit, Brahmins, Hinduism, and castes in European evaluations Indian society and culture to see the imprint of Hindu and ideologies on so concepts called Western Louis Dumont's scholarship (see Lorenzen 1999, 636-46). famously view of Indian society, which makes Brahmanical the Brahmins and their dharma absolutely superior to all other social classes and dharmas, is only one obvious example among many. As Mohammad (1996) has aptly noted, the tendency Tavakoli-Targhi to forget the contribution of Asians to the construction of European views about the
East is truly "Orientalism's genesis amnesia."

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