Indian Antiquary Vol 45

SR No.: 032537
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 380
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 211

DECEMBER, 19915)
THE HISTORY OF THE SAIK KIXEDOM OF MADURA
23
and proceeded to the north with a view to plant the seeds of his faith there. Attended by
Brahman who carried his breviary, another his umbrella, a third his tiger skin, and two othere the holy vase and water, he travelled in the guise and trim of a Sanyasin, and at length arrived at Sendamangalam. Here he had a kind and cordial reception from the local chief, who promised to give the Sanyasin a site for building a place of worship.
De Nobilis leaves Madura for Sendamangalam and Salem. De Nobilis, however, promised to take advantage of his generosity later on, and proceeled to Salem, the seat of another tributary chief. The reception which the Sanyasın" got in this place was exactly contrary to that at Sendamangalam. Refused food by rich and poor a like, he put up in an exposed building, evidently & mantapa, outside the town, and lived there for forty days. The exposure to wind and sun brought clisease, and his quiet life and suffering changed the heart of the Salem poople. They now proceeded to the other extreme. They afforded him residence in the house of one of their magnates. They listened to his teachings with attention and interest. Even the elder brother of the local chjef, hitherto a persecutor became a disciple, and entrusted the education of his four sons to the teacher. The king himself honoured him by a visit, and acknowledged, it is said, his victory in debate with the Brahmans of his court about the doctrines of Pantheism, and assigned him a house in the Brahman street. It did not take long for the Brahmans to find out who De Xobilis was. They discovereil that he was in reality a " Parangi." that he had been driven from Madura, and that he was no Sanyâsin at all. They prayed in a body to the king to expel him, but De Nobilis, persuasive tongne charmed him into friendship, and the king issued a positive order that the priest should in no way be harmed.
At Cochin and Trichinopoly. After the tirm establishment of the mission at Salem, De Xobilis was absent for a year at Cochin, whitber the father superior and archbishop had summoned him. On his return in 1625 he interfered freely in the disputes which then raged between the chiefs of Salem, Séndamangalam, Moramangalam, etc. and tried, though in vain, to make political intrigue the means of religious propaganda. Indeed he even succeeded so far as to secure for the Moramangalam chief, an enemy of Salem, a rich banner with the cross on one side and the legend, In hoc signs vinces, in Sanskrit on the other, from the father provincial. But his cause was hardly benefited by it, as even his ingenuity was not a match for the elasticity of his converts' feelings. Nevertheless be converted many men from these parts, not overlooking even the Pariahs, though among the latter he worked in secret. In 1627, De Nobilis came to Trichinopoly and for a decade worked there. He converted hundred851 to the “Christian faith," built chapels, and argued with the Pandarams. Not infrequently he had to exeuge himself from a disputation with his adversaries on the ground that he could explain dogmas only to those who came for the truth.” The father had more faith than philosophy in him, and he had at times to assume for truth what others wanted him to prove to be truth. The progress of Christianity, under such circumstances, could not naturally be smooth. By 1630 persecution began in real earnest. The neophytes, already exhausted by poverty, had to suffer persecution for their creed or rather change of creed. Opposition however increased the Christian activity; and it was in the midst of furious popular demonstrations that a prominent Pandaram with the insignia of umbrellas, servants and horses, took the city by storm by his apostasy. When he appeared before the populace, he was indeed roughly handled, but he simply asked them to strike still harder. Such examples of forbearance on the one side and cruelty on the other formed the secret of Christian success.
51 A very learurd Pariah was baptised under the name Hilary.