ABSTRACT
Walter Leifer, Franz Übleis and Gita Dharampal have already examined the longstanding relationship between Germany and India.1 Ziegenbalg’s contributions intensify this relationship. Before his travel to Tranquebar Ziegenbalg acquired one Latin and four German books about India that were published in Europe,2 snf used tham as an important source of information. He particularly read the book entitled A true and exact description of the most celebrated East-India coast of Malabar and Coromandel (1672) by Philip Baldaeus. Baldaeus derived his information on India from two sources: he used the manuscripts written by the Portuguese missionaries serving in Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), whom the Dutch had expelled.3 He also relied heavily on the oral information from some Brahmins. Once Ziegenbalg gained access to the language and literature, he concluded that Baldaeus work contained not only orthographical errors,4 but also unreliable contents.5 However, he seems to have adapted certain things from Baldaues. For example, both Baldaeus and Ziegenbalg were absolutely convinced that no European Christian needed to prove the existence of God to the people. Baldaeus believed that all the people were aware of a Supreme Being, which was the source of all life. (Baldaeus, 1672, 429; cf. the beginning words of Ziegenbalg on L 11 r). Both Baldaeus and Ziegenbalg end their texts with a prayer that God might “help the Indians to come to the knowledge of truth, and get rid of the tricks of Satan, who has enslaved their will” (Baldaeus, 1672, 610; cf. Ziegenbalg’s prayer on L 262 v).
