Philippus Baldaeus

Philips Baelde or Father Philippus Baldaeus, (baptized on 24 October 1632, Delft – 1671, Geervliet) was a Dutch minister. He went to Jaffna during the Dutch period in Ceylon with an invading Dutch force. As the second European after Abraham Rogerius he documented the life, language and culture of Tamil people, living in the north of the island. It is a great historical record, and it was immediately published in Dutch and German (with several beautiful pictures). English translation was published by Ceylon Government Railway (1960).
Dutch Minister, Author of Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc.
Author of the first European document about the life, language and culture of the Tamil people in northern Ceylon.
He wrote much about the religious, civil and domestic conditions of the places he visited and introduced his account of the Hindu mythology. He translated the Lord's Prayer of the Tamil language, and although it had mistakes, it was remarkable as the first treatise, printed in Europe of any Indian language. Baldaeus went back to Holland and preached until he died while still a young man.

The Baelde family lived on Voldersgracht, where also Johannes Vermeer, born in the same year, grew up

Philips was the son of Jan Baelde (1610-1636) and Maria de Jonge (Junius). His father had a Flemish origin. His great-grandfather had left Ypres in 1584 after Alexander Farnese had occupied the city. His parents married in 1629. His father was a merchant and lived on Voldersgracht. His mother was the daughter of a local minister Isaac Junius. In 1630 his brother Jacob was born, who probably died in June 1636. In September and October his grandparents Junius died. His sister Maria was baptized on 16 November 1636. On the next day the mother died. Four days later his father was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk (Delft). So, when he was four years old Philips became an orphan.

Schools and universities

After all these losses, some because of the plague occurring in Delft in that year, it is supposed he was then raised by his grandfather Michiel in Delft. After attending Latin school he followed the footsteps of his maternal uncle, Robert Junius, the "Reformer of Dutch Formosa". By January 1645 Junius had returned to Delft, married and wrote a detailed report about his experiences in the East.

For a year and a half Philips studied philosophy, logic and oriental languages in Groningen (1649) and then theology in Leiden (1650-1654). In 1654 he married Maria van Castel (-1655), his cousin. After discussions with Arnoldus Montanus, he went into the service of the Dutch East India Company. Baldaeus left in October 1654 together with his wife. He lived from July 1655 at Batavia, Dutch East Indies, went to Makassar, Malacca and remarried Elisabeth Tribolet on board of a ship and on his way to Ceylon. After Gerard Pietersz. Hulft had occupied Ceylon he served from 1657 under Rijklof van Goens, who had occupied the Coromandel and Negapatnam in 1658.

Baldaeus served in Jaffanapatnam and Point de Galle, and preached either in Dutch or the Portuguese (language).

The Dutch campaign against the Portuguese began in Jaffna, passing Mannar, Tuticorin and Nagapattinam and ended in South India. These were populated by Tamil Catholics who were converted Hindus. By 1660 the Dutch controlled the whole island except the kingdom of Kandy. (Cornelis Speelman became its first governor.) When the Dutch occupied the coast of Malabar in 1661, Baldaeus took part. Around 1662 he returned to Ceylon and Baldaeus learned Sanskrit and studied Hinduism.

Baldeaus settled in the Northern Ceylon where the Tamil people lived. He learned the Tamil language and documented their life and culture. He was one of the first Europeans to publish at length about the region. He also made drawings and paintings of life in Ahmedabad, a busy trade city in Gujarat, a city he never actually visited.

Missionary and ethnologist in South India and Sri Lanka

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

2A 17th-century painting depicting Hanuman worshiping Rama and his wife Sita. Smithsonian Institution collection

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

Baldaeus had to serve in Ceylon, both the Dutch Reformed Church as well as the native, formerly Catholic Christians, whom he had almost put the new faith. In the ranks of soldiers in the service of the VOC, there were also many Lutherans, especially German, considered by the pastors as a rival faith and were often sharply attacked in sermons, etc. Johann Jacob Saar, for this group, he was responsible pastoral care. The mountainous country of Sri Lanka with the Buddhist Kingdom of Kandy however remained independent until the British conquest in 1796, was cut off from the sea and completely isolated.

Baldaeus' parish encompassed the entire coastal area of Sri Lanka, together with the islands and the Tamil southern tip of India, a territory that had been divided by the Portuguese in the 32 parishes, each with a church and a school and cared for by many monks and a Jesuit colleges. The aftermath of the Portuguese defeat and surrender at Jaffna created a vacuum for Christian preaching. Since the war was brutal with most of the Catholic slain and only 40 to 50 clergymen were among the survivors.

For only four Calvinist preachers, this was a Herculean task as they were numerically few. The Catholic Jesuit Mission in Coromandel Coast Madura was able to draw good support from general public. The Catholic priests were famous, e.g. Francisco de Xavier, Roberto de Nobili, Joseph Constant Beschi, John de Britto and were single men with no family to support.

Catholic priests were committed preachers and their knowledge was highly valued. Baldeus studied their writings and methods. He followed their model and travelled alone from church to church and he served the local ex-Catholics. The ex-Catholics numbering about 12,387 were converted to Calvinism. Their religious training was important to him, because to his chagrin, he found the religious education of the locals was very superficial. Tamils were "nominal Christians" or so-called "rice Christians" (according to the quantity of rice, which they received for their conversion).

Baldaeus had a good understanding of the culture and religion of the Tamils, and Sinhalese. Although primarily interested in proselytizing the Hindus and Catholics, he also strove for a better education for the natives, and as a result at the time of his departure, there were 18,000 school children whom he was responsible for as a religious teacher.

With his zeal, however, he came into conflict with the profit motivated Dutch East India company a.k.a. VOC. VOC did not want to spend money on Christianity or education of the natives. VOC was greedy and overruled the Calvinistic preachers on ecclesiastical matters ("confusion breeds over godsvrucht", "greed over fear of God"). VOC furnished financial aid for Collegium Indicum in Leiden. VOC expected that the voluntary service missionaries would grow. A governor-general complained that VOC was deceived, "with these young Fanten we have more annoyance than with other ministers and subordinates,". The preacher had to turn on all sorts of ills - alcoholism, corruption, lax morals, slave trade and husbandry, abuse, etc. Preachers were also dependent on their ecclesiastical superiors in Batavia and they were able to put in complaints to the authorities at any time.

Baldeus was exemplary and his pastoral work was then classified for a long time as a model in Ceylon.

Dutch Colombo, based on an engraving of circa 1680

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

In 1666 he returned to the Dutch Republic and preached in Geervliet from 1669 until his death at the age of 39 or 40. He probably died in 1671, as the widow remarried in June 1672 with Pieter Baelde. He left behind a full and faithful account of the civil, religious, and domestic condition of the countries through which he travelled. In this, he introduced also an interesting account of the Hindu mythology, and some specimens of the Tamil language, including the translation of the Lord's Prayer: defective enough it is true, but remarkable as the first treatise, printed in Europe, on any Indian language. The title of the whole work is Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc. (in Dutch, 1671) The book is dedicated to the bailiff Cornelis de Witt.

During 1665-1666 Baldaeus travelled via the Cape of Good Hope and returned to the Netherlands. Apparently he had committed in 1654 for ten years foreign service (Jong, S. Afgoderey) In 1667, He wrote a detailed petition to the Dutch government, complaining about the greed of Dutch East India Company and also about how badly it affected the ecclesiastical affairs in Ceylon. He was not offered a place at the Collegium Indicum as contrary to his expectations. By 1669, he had to settle as a preacher in the small community Geervliet south of Rotterdam. Here he completed his Description of the East India, Malabar and Coromandel coasts (Amsterdam 1672). When he died he was young and was only 39 years old.

Jaffna islands

At present in Trincomalee there is a Baldeus Theological College training preachers for working as Calvinists in Asia.

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

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

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

Baldaeus recorded everything of value with ethnological, historical, geographical and theological viewpoints from himself or of informants (e.g., a baptized pundit), interpreters, or from the collections of the Jesuit libraries in Ceylon and South India. His records are still accessible in the Netherlands literature about south Asia and its detailed records. In addition, he quoted in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Sanskrit. His depiction of the Tamil language was groundbreaking. He had rudimentary knowledge in his own words. He probably did not know much more than the alphabet.

The book is divided into the following sections:

• "Detailed description of the East Indian coast or of Lagoon areas of Malabar and Coromandel" (includes: "short guide to the time sophisticated language arts")
• "Description of the great and famous island Ceylon"
• "Abgotterey of the East Indian heathen. A truthful and detailed description of the worship of the Hindus and Hindu idols."

With an ethnological, historical, geographical and theological point of view, Baldaeus recorded everything that he himself or from the knowledge of high caste learned people (pundits). in addition he gathered material brought by interpreters from the holdings of the Jesuit libraries in Ceylon and southern India and also later in the Netherlands from all the accessible literature about this part of South Asia. Thus, his knowledge of Sanskrit, as well as of the Portuguese as a lingua franca was widely used by him; In addition, he cited in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, French and Italian. His portrayal of Tamil language was groundbreaking although he admitted that he had only basic skills ("he knew probably not much more than the alphabet”). He was quite different from the Jesuits who learned Tamil so well that they confound even the Tamil pundits in language competitions with their language proficiency. He was not comparable to the Jesuit priests in his knowledge of Tamil as they were better scholars of Tamil. Jesuits even shamed the Tamil pundits in language competitions with their language skills. The Jesuit priest, Veeramamunivar Constanzo Beschi who stunned the Tamil pundits of Sangam Academy with his knowledge of classical Tamil even wrote his classical work in Tamil called Thembavani.

Baldaeus' book created the long held belief that origin of European civilization started in India with Hindu and Buddhist origins. He was the first who told the wider European audience about Krishna mythology and the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. German philosophers continued his task and analyzed all the Oriental religions as a philosophy.