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Europe's India
About This Book
When Portuguese explorers first rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived in the subcontinent in the late fifteenth century, Europeans had little direct knowledge of India. The maritime passage opened new opportunities for exchange of goods as well as ideas. Traders were joined by ambassadors, missionaries, soldiers, and scholars from Portugal, England, Holland, France, Italy, and Germany, all hoping to learn about India for reasons as varied as their particular nationalities and professions. In the following centuries they produced a body of knowledge about India that significantly shaped European thought. Europe's India tracks Europeans' changing ideas of India over the entire early modern period. Sanjay Subrahmanyam brings his expertise and erudition to bear in exploring the connection between European representations of India and the fascination with collecting Indian texts and objects that took root in the sixteenth century. European notions of India's history, geography, politics, and religion were strongly shaped by the manuscripts, paintings, and artifactsâboth precious and prosaicâthat found their way into Western hands.Subrahmanyam rejects the opposition between "true" knowledge of India and the self-serving fantasies of European Orientalists. Instead, he shows how knowledge must always be understood in relation to the concrete circumstances of its production. Europe's India is as much about how the East came to be understood by the West as it is about how India shaped Europe's ideas concerning art, language, religion, and commerce.
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ON THE INDO-PORTUGUESE MOMENT
Introduction
To the most high and powerful lord [blank space] Governor of India, under the high power of the very illustrious, invincible and most victorious King of Portugal.Thirty-six poor, miserable, Christians of the nation of France, held in captivity and servitude in the mountain of Chanpaner, in the hands of the great dog [grant chien] Bahador,1 supplicate the very high and powerful lord [blank space] Governor of India, under the high power of the most illustrious and invincible King of Portugal. We supplicate your high and noble lordship, that it may please you to take pity, compassion and have mercy and grace on [this] desolate company, who have been brought and conducted to these parts from over there in a ship [nef] called La Marie de Bon Secours, also termed Le Grant Engloys, belonging to the merchants of Rouen; under the charge and direction of a Portuguese who called himself Estiene Dies [EstĂȘvĂŁo Dias], who was the captain, pilot, merchant, organizer and entrepreneur of the said voyage, under the permission of the King and of Monseigneur de Bryon, Grand Admiral of France. Which crew was misled and seduced by the said captain and merchants of the said ship, and by the master named Jehan Breulhy de Funag, who gave them to understand that the said ship was only going to the island of Sainct Thome or to the Magnicongue, and that if the said captain could not find a lading in the said places, to go to the land of Brazil in order to find a lading for the said ship, as is stated in the certificate and contract of the said captain. Even the contract of the companions and mariners with the master of the said ship which was passed before the registry of Honfleur states the same.2
Which crew, in all good faith, undertook the said voyage, and they navigated so far that on the 20th day of November of 1527, we arrived at the port and haven of Quiloa [Kilwa, in East Africa], in which place we wintered, remaining there until the fifth day of the following April, while awaiting favourable weather; for our said captain gave us to understand that he would never take us to a place where the Portuguese had dominion or trade, while telling us that he wished to go to Dieu [Diu], a port of Canbaye [Cambay, or Gujarat]; and we had neither acquaintance nor knowledge of these places, for none of us had even heard of them. We raised anchor, and went to sea, and navigated so far that on the 25th of May we arrived before the city of Dieu.Then, having anchored in the said place at the roadstead, the said captain made it known to some foists [small galleys] that came to speak to us that we were merchants, and that they should give us an assurance to trade with them, which was granted to us; but after the assurance had been given, they held back our said captain on land and took the said ship and merchandise, and even our own bodies were taken, and held, and placed in perpetual captivity and servitude.
And therefore, noble Sire, we are miserable, and have no hope save in God and in your noble lordship, for if your noble will so desires, your great power can act, for if Your Highness does not see to it, we are on the route to perdition, for our said captain [Dias] is negotiating hard with the King to have his own liberty, and in fact the King has granted it to him and he goes about everywhere with the King, and it is clear that he does not wish ever to go to [Portuguese] India or negotiate to take us with him, and if your noble lordship does not remedy this, we shall be the children of perdition. But whatever happens to us, or is done to us, we will live and die in the Holy Catholic Faith of Jesus Christ: for we have been interrogated many times on which skills and things we know how to practice, for our said captain has entertained the King and the lords who have said that they will do us many favours and our captain has communicated this to us, to which we, and especially our bombardiers, have responded that in this land with this rabble [avec ceste quenaille], we have no desire to be any greater than we [already] are, for we would prefer to live in poverty with our Christian brothers rather than to be great lords with the enemies of the Faith.May it please Your Highness to turn your sweet countenance and survey with your pitying and merciful eye these poor Christians, who ask you for your pardon, and that your noble lordship might be enriched by the gift of pity for, excellent Sire, it is a virtue that is more divine than human to pardon, for it is the nature of God the Creator to pardon poor sinners when they ask him for pardon and mercy, and you should not permit that so many souls be lost and spent in the hands of these damned dogs. And therefore, noble Sire, may you be turned towards mercy and pity towards these poor Christians rather than to the rigour and severity of justice! By doing so, you will merit the grace of God, to whom we pray that He grants you a good and long life, with perpetual triumph and glory.
On the 2nd day of November we sailed from Calcoen 60 miles to a kingdom called CusschaĂŻn [Cochin]; and between these two towns is a Christian kingdom called Granor [Cranganor, Kerala], and there are many good Christians; and in this kingdom live many Jews, and they have a prince there. You understand that all the Jews of the country are also subjects of the same prince. And the Christians have nothing to do with anybody, and they are good Christians. They neither sell nor buy anything during the consecrated days, and they neither eat nor drink with anybody but Christians. They willingly came to our ships with fowls and sheep, and caused us to make good cheer. They had just sent priests to the pope at Rome to know the true faith.
The people of this country have black teeth, because they eat the leaves of the trees and a white thing like chalk actually with the leaves, and it comes from it that the teeth become black, and that is called tombour [Arabic tanbul, betel] and they carry it always with them wherever they go or are traveling. The pepper grows as the vine does in our country. There are in the country cats as big as our foxes, and it is from them that the musk comes, and it is very dear, for a cat is worth 100 ducats, and the musk grows between his legs, under his tail. Ginger grows as a reed, and cinnamon as a willow; and every year they strip the cinnamon from its bark, however thin it is, and the youngest is the better. The true summer is in December and January.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Before and Beyond âOrientalismâ
- 1. On the Indo-Portuguese Moment
- 2. The Question of âIndian Religionâ
- 3. Of Coproduction: The Case of James Fraser, 1730â1750
- 4. The Transition to Colonial Knowledge
- By Way of Conclusion: On Indiaâs Europe
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index