ABSTRACT

The origin of the Genealogy has an interesting history. In January 1713, Ziegenbalg had completed the translation of the fifty-eight Letters into German. Then he employed (on February 7, 1713) an artist to paint images of the deities and agreed to pay him a fano for each painting.1 As this artist could not paint the images of the deities, Ziegenbalg hired another artist for this, and, two months later (on May 16, 1713), obtained from him twenty-eight paintings of the deities. By this time he also received many Letters from his correspondents, used them to compose the first three parts of the Genealogy. Only the fourth part remained to be finished (Reg. 107. Laeg. 6), and after sixty-five days of work, he finished writing the entire manuscript on May 31, 1713 (Reg. 107. Laeg. 6). He revised it for another two months and prepared a fair copy on August 26, 1713 (Reg. 107. Laeg. 6). About a week later, on September 9, he sent a copy of the manuscript along with the twenty-eight paintings of the deities to Francke requesting him to publish them in Halle.2 Two weeks later, on September 12, 1713, dedicated this manuscript to Prince Carl (1680-1729), the brother of King Friedrich IV and sent it along with a copy of the Genealogy manuscript to him in Copenhagen. On October 6, 1713, Ziegenbalg forwarded a copy of the table of contents of the Genealogy to Johann George von Holstein (1662-1730), Privy Councilor to King Friedrich IV in Copenhagen and remarked:

“We have received many letters from the people. They encouraged us to write the Genealogy of the South Indian Deities. In it, we have quoted their letters extensively. We send you the table of the contents of this book. We have sent the book along with the paintings of the deities to Halle for publication.”