2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Missionary Activities by Europeans and Exchange of Thoughts with Indian Philosophy in Modern India
| Project/Area Number |
13610018
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
印度哲学(含仏教学)
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| Research Institution | tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMASHITA Hiroshi Tohoku University, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Professor, 大学院・国際文化研究科, 教授 (20230427)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2003
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| Keywords | Indian Philosophy / Hinduism / Contemporary Thoughts / Christianity / Missionaries / Jesuits / de Nobili / Beschi |
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| Research Abstract |
The contact of European scholars with Tamilnadu, South India is datable to the sixteenth century itself when individual missionaries like Roberto de Nobili came to Tamil land. After the British East India Company established itself in the Tamil region, the latter received a continuous flow of missionary workers as well as officers of the services for about two centuries. Their attempts at evangelization of the local people as well as their efficient governance involved a study of Tamil and its literature, and they became innovative in this pursuit. As the result of their labours, we get numerous translations, lexicons, grammars and such like material meant primarily for a non-Tamil to learn this language and use it, incidentally it gave new insights for the natives also into their medium of communication.
Along with literary developments, many religion-based cultural changes as-the result of proselytization took place. The adoption of new religion meant an identification of that religion in terms of the familiar religious concepts and principles. This entails changes in the usage and the vocabulary of the language as new terms for objects of religious significance had to be coined, resulting in a special variety of the Tamil language.
In the present research project, special attention was paid to the collection of the primary research materials scattered over the world, as the basis of the scholastic examination. Careful scrutiny was made as regards the beginning of the literary activities done by Catholic priests from Europe, such as Henriques and de Nobili, both of whom belonged to the first phase of Madurai Mission initiated by the Jesuits. By this study, the early history of Tamil missionary literature was elucidated in addition to the initial phases of exchanges and inter-religious dialogues between Christianity and Hinduism.
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