Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)

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De La Tour
Excerpts from The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai
translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras
Volumes 1-3 edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George
Volumes 4-12 edited by H. Dodwell, M.A., Curator, Madras Record Office
1904-1928

Monday, [28th July 1738, or] 16th Adi of Kalayukti. — The St. Geran was got in readiness this evening, to proceed to Karikal. On board were M. Aubin, the captain of the vessel, M. de la Tour the commander of the troops, M. Roussel the Chief Major, Lieutenant Coquelin, and a party of 100 soldiers. M. Delarche and M. St. Gille — the latter being a half caste — also embarked to perform the duties of accountants at Karikal. A party of bricklayers, carpenters, and sawyers — sixty or seventy in number — was shipped in the evening, together with a supply of bricks, lime, and building tools of various kinds, such as spades and saws. The ship got under weigh, and the sails were set, but the breeze dying away, she was again brought to an anchor....

Friday, 7th October 1746, or 25th, Purattasi of Akshaya. — M. Bonneau, the Councillor at Mascareigne, who went some time ago from Pondichery to Madras, returned from the latter place, at 8 this morning. He had been imprisoned by M. de la Bourdonnais, but was released when M. d’Espremenil assumed charge. He left Madras secretly the night before last, and going to Mylapore, started thence, and arrived at Pondichery at 8, When he reached the Governor’s house, all the Councillors were summoned, and a Council was held. Just then, a letter arrived from Madras by post. A despatch for that place was sent by the post at noon, after the Council had broken up.

I asked M. de la Touche to tell me why a Council sat yesterday, from sunrise until 6 in the evening, and again until noon to-day, and why the Governor appeared depressed. He replied to me as follows: “M. de la Bourdonnais, in celebration of his Saint's day, ordered guns to be fired at Madras, at sunrise, on the 21st and 22nd Purattasi (3rd and 4th October). He then invited M. d'Espremenil, M. Dalaurens, M. de Bury, M. Paradis, M. Barthelemy, M. de la Tour, and other distinguished men, to dine with him in the fort at midday. When the guests were seated at table, M. de la Bourdonnais addressed them, and said, ‘I have received a report that English ships are approaching. You must permit me to embark all the soldiers from Pondichery on board my fleet.' ‘No, No’ cried M. de Bury, M. Paradis, and their companions. M. de la Bourdonnais frowned on them, and ordered twenty-four of his men, who were under arms, to seize M. de Bury, M. Paradis, and M. de la Tour, and to keep them in custody. He deprived M. d’Espremenil of his authority, and assumed the sole power. He next ordered that the soldiers be embarked on board his ships, and directed that the merchandise in the fort and town should be conveyed on board."

The prompt measures adopted by M. de la Bourdonnais, in disobedience of the Council's orders, lead me to think that he will restore Madras to the English, and set sail with his ships for France, carrying away with him all the merchandise which he found in Madras. His future action is uncertain. The anxiety experienced by M. Dupleix is indeed great. The desire which he cherished, for the last two years, was the capture of Madras. When M. de la Bourdonnais demurred to this, on the ground that he had no orders from the King and his Ministers, M. Dupleix overruled his objections, by giving him a written statement in which he took all the responsibility on himself. Finally, when Madras was captured, and the French flag was hoisted on its walls, M. de la Bourdonnais, setting at naught the orders of M. Dupleix, plundered the fort of all the treasures which it contained, and then restored it to the English. If M. Dupleix is to derive no advantage from the capture of Madras, if his orders are to be set aside, and the men whom he sent thither are to be imprisoned, what greater evil could befall him in this world? Hence his grief is boundless, his reputation, too, has declined much in the estimation of the outside public....

Wednesday, 12th October 1746, or 30th Purattasi of Akshaya. -- This day, M. Melville arrived from Madras, and brought news that the fort had been given back to the English, that M. de la Bourdonnais, treating with contempt the orders of the Council here, had placed in confinement those who came from Pondichery, and had subsequently set them at liberty, that M. Dulaurens, M. d’Espremenil, M. Barthelemy, M. de Bury and others, and my brother Tiruvengadam, were returning, that they had halted at Mylapore, and that they were intending to move on hither. He said, also, that M. de la Bourdonnais was making ready provisions, arms, and other supplies necessary for his ships, and was preparing to set sail.

In the letter written by my brother to me, he said that M. d’Espremenil, other Frenchmen, and he had reached Mylapore on their way to Pondichery, and that they would leave on the following day. He further requested that in the event of there being any delay in their departure I would arrange to recall him at once, as he was ill.

The trouble that the Governor took in writing despatches to be placed on board a ship bound for France, and the vexation apparent in his face, cannot be described.

At 10 this morning, a letter came by post from Madras. From this it appeared that 2 lakhs of pagodas had been buried by the English under the flagstaff, that the matter came to the knowledge of M. de la Bourdonnais, and that thereupon he said to Mr. Morse the Governor of Madras and the other Englishmen, as follows: “You have cheated me. Believing that you spoke the truth, I incurred even the displeasure of the Governor of Pondichery. I wished to give back to you your fort and town, and for that purpose I requested all his people to depart. I executed the necessary agreement, and I was preparing to leave in two or three days. But as you have deceived me in this manner, there is no knowing in how many other ways you may not mean to mislead me.” He then destroyed the agreement which he had executed in their favour, placed Mr. Morse and his companions in confinement, sent back to the ships the Englishmen whom he had brought ashore, landed the troops from Pondichery that had been embarked by him, and set French soldiers to guard all the gates of the town. Ho wrote a letter to the Governor of Pondichery stating that as the English had deceived him, he had now destroyed the treaty and remanded them all to custody, and asking that M. d’Espremenil, and others, might be sent to resume possession of the fort. Thereupon, the Governor felt relieved, and was happy. The Council met, and an order was issued to M. d Espremenil, and others, to return—wherever on their way the order might reach them—to Madras. I heard this from M. de laTouche, and others. As to the private news of the place, I know nothing. I shall inquire more particularly, and write it down by and by.

This evening, M. de la Tour, M. Bruyeres, and M. de Kerjean, arrived from Madras. The Governor started them off again, at 8, with orders to return there.

To-day the Governor posted three letters for Madras.

At daybreak tomorrow, the Dipavali festival will commence...

The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras, edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George, Volume 1, 1904

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du Laurens
Excerpts from The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai
translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras
Volumes 1-3 edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George
Volumes 4-12 edited by H. Dodwell, M.A., Curator, Madras Record Office
1904-1928

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Delarche [de Larche ] [d l'Arche]
Excerpts from The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai
translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras
Volumes 1-3 edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George
Volumes 4-12 edited by H. Dodwell, M.A., Curator, Madras Record Office
1904-1928

Select Committee, 30th May, 1762

P. 27

Letter from the Select Committee, Madras, dated 4th instant, saying that Colonel Caillaud is besieging Arni, after which the troops will go into quarters during the hot weather, that Admiral Cornish had sailed for Bombay, that a French ship, the Fidele, had visited Negapatam and had left the coast without effecting any captures, that they have embarked Captain Freake with part of his troop and 50 French prisoners for Bengal, but that the question of the cost of dieting of the former must be settled by the Court of Directors, that they disapprove of our custom of granting batta to officers whilst at sea, and have instead agreed to allow the Commanders of vessels conveying them Rs. 2 per day for the diet of each officer and 8 annas for each private, and recommend us to follow the same rule, regarding which they have also written to Bombay.

P. 29

Extract from a letter from Monsr. deLaurens at Negapatam to his uncle Monsr. de l'Arche (sic) [de Larche/Delarche] at Madras, dated 19th April, and intercepted by Mr. Turner, Chief at Cuddalore, describing the state of affairs in the French settlements.

-- An Abstract of the Early Records of the Foreign Department, Part 1, 1756-1762, by S. Charles Hill, B.A., B.Sc., Officer in Charge of the Records of the Government of India, 1901

Monday, [28th July 1738, or] 16th Adi of Kalayukti. — The St. Geran was got in readiness this evening, to proceed to Karikal. On board were M. Aubin, the captain of the vessel, M. de la Tour the commander of the troops, M. Roussel the Chief Major, Lieutenant Coquelin, and a party of 100 soldiers. M. Delarche and M. St. Gille — the latter being a half caste — also embarked to perform the duties of accountants at Karikal. A party of bricklayers, carpenters, and sawyers — sixty or seventy in number — was shipped in the evening, together with a supply of bricks, lime, and building tools of various kinds, such as spades and saws. The ship got under weigh, and the sails were set, but the breeze dying away, she was again brought to an anchor.

The news is that M. Delarche, [Son of a captain in the French service and of a Creole mother. Dupleix describes him as almost faultless save for his vanity, ‘vice ordinaire de l’enfant de l’Inde.’ (Google translate: ordinary vice of the child from India.) He knew Persian, and married an Armenian woman. Cultru, pp. 40, 50; Cj. ante ii 326.]...

Saturday, 11th September 1745, or 30th Avani of Krodhana. — At noon, the Nawab sent a message that he was coming. On this, everything was put in order in the town, all the gates of which, with the exception of the Vazhudavur, on the western side, were closed. Outside the gate, and to the south of it, but within the boundary of the ditch, a tent was pitched. M. Dupleix, the Deputy Governor, the Councillors, Kanakaraya Mudali, I, and other men of rank, started in procession from the Governor’s house. We were attended by Mahe Muhammadans * [It seems probable that these were Moplahs.] and Carnatic sepoys carrying muskets on their shoulders, and by police peons, who bore spears. Musicians with flags were mounted on the backs of elephants, camels, and horses, and they played on kettle and one-headed drums, and other instruments. The procession also included dancing-girls, with their drums and cymbals. In this order, the procession set out from the Governor’s residence at noon, and repaired to the tent erected outside the western gate. The Governor and his co-administrators entered this. The soldiers were marshalled in a line on the glacis, up to the ramparts; and everything was made ready for the arrival of the Nawab. MM. Desmarets and Le Maire, and Kanakaraya Mudali, were deputed to intimate to him that everything was prepared for his reception. Having fulfilled their mission, they returned. Information arrived at 2, that the Nawab had left his camp. Immediately afterwards, Sampati Rao and Mir Ghulam Husain arrived in a palanquin. Those who were in the tent issued forth, and having embraced the new-comers, led them in, and accommodated them with seats. Shortly after this, Karim ’Ali Khan, ’Abd-ul-jalil, and a few others arrived. They were received with the same attentions; that is, those who were in the tent came out, embraced them, brought them in, and conducted them to their seats. After this, Nawab Anwar-ud-din Khan arrived in a litter; Husain Sahib, Miyan Sahib, Fath Muhammad ... * [Blank in the original.] accompanying him in others. He was attended by musicians, who rode on elephants, and played on kettle, one-headed, and other kinds of drums. In his train came three elephants, twenty horsemen, a hundred foot, and twenty palanquins. During the time between that at which the cavalcade neared the angle of the ramparts, and that when it reached the tent where the Governor was waiting, a salute of fifty guns was fired. On its approach, the Governor, taking a few steps forward, passed through the inner door of the tent, and stationed himself beyond the outer one, to receive the Nawab. Whilst the latter was still seated in his litter, the Governor embraced him, and walked along by his side until they reached the tent. Into this the litter was conveyed, and when the Nawab alighted from it, the Governor embraced him once more. Then, all sat down, and conversed for nearly, half an Indian hour. After this, they rose together, and moved into the town. The following was the order in which they entered. The Nawab, the Governor, the Nawab’s grandson, M. Delarche — who understands Hindustani — and a Muhammadan; about four or five in all, were seated in a carriage drawn by three pairs of horses. Sampati Rao and Husain Sahib followed next, in a carriage and pair. The rest of the party got into their vehicles, or rode on their horses, and thus the entire cortege entered the town-gate. On this, the firing of a salute of fifty guns began. With great pomp, and with the roll of drums, the clang of cymbals and the sound of wind-instruments, the cavalcade moved along to the western gate, then turned due Route east, marched past Kanakaraya Mudali’s house, turned south, passed the Iswaran temple on the east, skirted the walls of the fort, entered the European street to the south of these, passed the church of the Capuchins, left the eastern side of the fort behind it, and finally drew up before the Governor’s house. During the progress of the procession, the western gate of the fort was kept closed; the eastern one alone remained open. When the Nawab arrived at the Governor’s residence, a salute was fired from the ramparts facing the sea. He then entered the tent which had been pitched for him to the south of the house. The soldiers were next paraded before him, and he watched their manoeuvres for more than an hour. He then expressed a desire to visit the fort, and was taken thither in a sedan-chair. He was accompanied by the Governor in a palanquin. When they entered the fort gate, they were received with military honours. The guards presented arms, and the drums rolled forth a welcome. They went on to the ramparts, saw the clock-tower and the fortifications, watched the firing of mortars, and returned to the Governor’s house, where a table was spread, groaning under the weight of silver plates, cups, and dishes. Refreshments, consisting of sweets and fruit, were partaken of. Whilst the Nawab was at table, his mace-bearers — five or six in number — secreted some of the silver plates and cups. The theft was discovered, the men were searched, and the stolen articles were taken from them. After the entertainment was concluded, presents were given to the Nawab. A list of these will be found at the end of this day’s narrative. After sunset, the walls of the fort, the ramparts, and the outside of the Governor’s house, were all brilliantly illuminated. There was also a display of fireworks. At 8 o’clock, the Nawab set out for his camp, when a salute of fifty guns was fired. This was repeated when he passed out of the gate of the fort. The Governor accompanied him beyond the town-gate, and having there bidden him farewell, returned to Pondichery. The Nawab went to his camp at Nainiya Pillai’s choultry. On his way back, he passed through the Madras gate. So long as he was within the town, only one of the gates was kept open, the rest being closed. The Nawab’s age is eighty or eighty-five years; Sampati Rao’s, fifty-five or sixty; Husain Sahib’s, forty-five or fifty; Karim ’Ali Khan’s, thirty-five or forty; Mir Ghulam Husain’s, forty; Bangaru Yachama Nayakkan’s, fifty-five or sixty; Tamalacheri Venkatapati Nayakkan’s, fifty-five or sixty; and the Kattu Raja’s son’s, eighteen or twenty.

The following is a list of the articles which were presented to Nawab Anwar-ud-din Khan: —

Item / Total Value Pagodas / Fanams

1 Golden fillet; 1 Sukkupachi ornament [The meaning of this word which, as it stands, is an exact transliteration of the Tamil, has not been discovered.] / 460 / 0
1 Roll, Spanish taffeta velvet of Soria, blue and gold; 3 Velvet cusions / 830 / 0 
l Box of otto of roses / 60 / 0  
1 Case, 24 boxes of pigments / 40 / 0
1 Box of candy, weight 285 lb, at 3-1/2 fanams a lb. / 38 / 0
4 Boxes of sugar, weighing 639 lb. / 59 / 0 
16 Flasks Hungary water, at 3 fanams each / 2 / 0 
12 Flasks Imperial water, [Littre (Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise) defines “Eau imperiale" as a spirit distilled from different sorts of herbs and spices.] at 8 fanams each / 4 / 0 
12 Flasks balm cordial, at 8 fanams each / 4 / 0 
13 Flasks cordial-water, at 12 fanams each / 6 / 12  
10 Flasks rose-water, at 18 fanams each / 7 / 12  
28 Beads for ear pendants / 18 / 0
1 Clock / 35 / 0
1 Roll of velvet, 26-1/4 yards, at 5 pagodas a yard / 130 / 0
1 Roll of velvet, 23 yards, at 4 pagodas a yard / 92 / 0  
Gold net, 4 marks, at 15 pagodas each / 60 / 0
1 Bale brocade containing ten rolls, length 157 yards / 235 / 12
1 Double-barrelled gun / 20 / 0
Total value in pagodas / 2,104 / 0

-- The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai, translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras, edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George, Volume 1, 1904

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Tessier [Teissier]
Excerpts from The Diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai
translated from the Tamil by Order of the Government of Madras
Volumes 1-3 edited by Sir J. Frederick Price, KCSI., Late of the Indian Civil Service, Assisted by K. Rangachari, B.A., Superintendent of Records, Government Secretariat, Fort St. George
Volumes 4-12 edited by H. Dodwell, M.A., Curator, Madras Record Office
1904-1928

The Actors

The Accused

Nayiniyappa: Chief commercial broker to the Compagnie des Indes in Pondichéry, 1708–1716

Nayiniyappa’s Family and Associates

Guruvappa: Nayiniyappa’s eldest son
The Widow Guruvappa: Guruvappa’s wife, Nayiniyappa’s daughter-in-law
Tiruvangadan: A merchant of Madras, and Nayiniyappa’s business associate and brother-in-law
Ramanada: Nayiniyappa’s business associate.
Ananda Ranga Pillai: Nayiniyappa’s nephew, Tiruvangadan’s son, and chief commercial broker to the Compagnie des Indes, 1748–1761.

French Trader-Administrators

Guillaume André Hébert: Governor of Pondichéry 1708–1713; Général de la nation, 1715–1718
Hébert fils: The governor’s son and a junior employee of the Compagnie des Indes
Pierre André Prévost de La Prévostière: Governor of Pondichéry, 1718–1721
Nicolas de La Morandière: Pondichéry councillor, author of several appeals filed by the accused Indians

The Missionaries

Guy Tachard: First superior of the Jesuit mission in Pondichéry
Jean-Venant Bouchet: Second superior of the Jesuit mission in Pondichéry
Père Esprit de Tours: Capuchin missionary and parish priest to Europeans in Pondichéry
Jean-Jacques Tessier de Queralay: Representative of the Missions étrangères de Paris.

The Interpreters

Manuel Geganis: A French-speaking Tamil Christian, son of the Jesuits’ chief catechist (religious interpreter)
Père Turpin: A Tamil-speaking Jesuit missionary
Cordier: A French man born in India to a company employee

-- A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India, by Danna Agmon

If Sylvia Murr’s claim that ‘at the beginning of the eighteenth century, all discourse on India was tributary to the ‘Relations’ supplied by the missionaries, Catholic and Protestant’,1 [‘au debut du 18e siecle, tout discours sur l’lnde etait tributaire des ‘Relations’ foumies paries missionaires, catholiques ou protestants’ Murr 1986: 303.] is somewhat overstated, it nevertheless serves to emphasise the importance of such missionary ‘relations’ prior to the arrival in India of Anquetil-Duperron, who appears to have been the first European to visit India for purely scholarly purposes. Among Protestants, Murr mentions Ziegenbalg and also Lord and Roger, although the latter were not missionaries, nor writing at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

Among Catholics, the main contributors to Indological discourse of the eighteenth century were French, in particular the Jesuits associated with the Carnatic mission, but also the Capuchins Jean-Jacques Tessier de Queralay and Thomas de Poitiers. At the end of the century another French priest, the Abbe Jean-Antoine Dubois, a secular priest of the Missions Etrangeres, was responsible for publishing as his own work one of the most significant works of the earlier generation of French missionaries.2 [Despite being ‘a respected member of the Missions Etrangeres, a body traditionally hostile to the Jesuits’, Dubois’s relations with the Jesuits were good, and he supported the return of the Jesuits to Madurai after the restoration of the Society (Ballhatchet 1998: 3).]

These writers produced a number of significant works on Indian religions, among them the Relation des erreurs qui se trouvent dans la religion des gentils malabars de la Coste Coromandelle3 [A substantial part of the text of the Relation des erreurs qui se trouvent dans la religion des gentils malabars de la Coste Coromandelle was printed in Picart’s Ceremonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde under the title: ‘Dissertation historique sur les Dieux des Indiens orientaux.’ (Picart 1723: 83-100). This is immediately followed by a ‘Lettre de P. Bouchet sur la Religion des Indiens Orientaux’ (Bouchet’s second letter to Huet, XIII: 95-225). A critical edition of the Relation des erreurs from three manuscripts, one of which attributes the work to Nobili was published by Caland (Caland 1923). Dharampal, who has used a fourth manuscript, discusses the origin of the work and its attribution to Bouchet (Dharampal 1982a: 233-239).] of Jean Venant Bouchet, the Traite de la Religion des Malabars4 [Extensive extracts from Tessier de Queralay’s manuscript were published in Bumouf and Jacquet 1835. The full text was published in Dharampal 1982a.] of Tessier de Queralay, Le Paganisme des Indiens nommes Tamouls of Thomas de Poitiers, the Moeurs et Coutumes des Indiens5 [Sylvia Murr identified a manuscript compiled in 1776-1777 by a French artillery officer Nicholas-Jacques Desvaulx as a version of Coeurdoux’s lost work, and has shown that Dubois’s celebrated work, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies (1816; Mceurs, Institutions et Ceremonies des Peuples de l’lnde, 1825) is based on Coeurdoux (Murr 1987). In his Prefatory note to Beauchamp’s 1906 edition, Friedrich Max Muller noticed that the author of the work ‘really belongs to a period previous to the revival of Sanskrit studies in India, as inaugurated by Wilkins, Sir William Jones and Colebrooke’, although he did not doubt that the author was Dubois.] of Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux, and the infamous Ezourvedam.6 [Among those to whom the Ezourvedam has been attributed are, in addition to Nobili, five French Jesuits of the eighteenth century: Bouchet (1655-1732), Pierre Martin (1665- 1716), Jean Calmette (1693-1740), Antoine Mosac (1704-C.1784), and Jean de Villette (dates uncertain). Rocher reviews the long debate over the authorship of the Ezourvedam concluding that ‘the author of the [Ezourvedam] may be one of these, but he may also be one of their many more or less well known confreres. In the present state of our knowledge we cannot go any further than that.’ (Rocher 1984: 60). If nothing else, this demonstrates the sheer number of Jesuits who had significant knowledge of Indian languages and religions. The Ezourvedam was published in 1778 as L’Ezour-Vedam, ou Ancien Commentaire du Vedam contenant I’esposition des opinions religieuses & philosophiques des Indiens, but doubts about its authenticity immediately surfaced. Pierre Sonnerat showed it to ‘a learned but fanatic Brahman’ who convinced him that ‘[ i]t is definitely not one of the four Vedams, notwithstanding its name. It is a book of controversy, written by a missionary’ (Voyage aux Indes Orientates (1782) I: 215, cited in Rocher 1984: 13).] However, only the first and the last of these were published in the eighteenth century. Of more immediate impact were the letters of the French Jesuits, published in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and elsewhere.7 [The letters were widely read, both in the Lettres edifiantes and in other publications, for example in Picart’s collection in which Bouchet’s long, undated letter concerning transmigration (XIII: 95-226) was reprinted (Picart 1723: 100-106). A brief account of the origin, editions and influence of the Lettres edifiantes is given by Retif 1951.] The Jesuit letters from India had been contributing to European knowledge of Indian religions since the sixteenth century.8 [Zachariae goes so far as to say that if Europeans at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century ‘were tolerably acquainted with ‘Hinduism’, with the religion and mythology of India ... that knowledge was attained through the letters which the Jesuit missionaries labouring in India sent to the members of their Order in Europe.’ (Zachariae 1921: 151). For earlier Jesuit ethnographic contributions see Rubies 2000.] It will be argued, however, that for a number of reasons it was the letters of the eighteenth century which were particularly important in the establishment of the concept of a pan-Indian religion, which subsequently came to be called Hinduism. Although this analysis is based primarily on the letters published in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, the other letters, both published and unpublished also played a role, and reference will be made to these and to the other mentioned works on Indian religions by French writers in this period. Among the Jesuits who served in the Madurai, Carnatic and Bengal missions and contributed to the Lettres edifiantes were Jean Venant Bouchet (1655-1732, in India from 1688), Pierre Martin (1665-1716, in India from 1694), Pierre de la Lane (1669- 1746, in India from 1704), Etienne le Gac (1671-1738, in India by 1709), Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux (1691-1779, in India from 1732), Jean Calmette (1693-1740, in India from 1725 or 1726), Jean Francois Pons (1698-C.1753, in India from 1726).

-- Hinduism in the Jesuit Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, Chapter 7 from "Mapping Hinduism 'Hinduism' and the Study of Indian Religions, 1600-1776," by Will Sweetman, 2003

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