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JULY, 1916)
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA
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known, his fall was sudden, and the bold and cunning experiment of which he was the author remained little more than an experiment. Religion is inconsistent with ambiguity of ethics and De Nobilis was a failure on acoount of his failure to understand this fundamental fact.
Its failure and its lessons. The great experiment of De Nobilis thus ended in failure ; but, none the less, his career deserves a fairly detailed narration, for the methods which he adopted were not only bold, original, and admirably ingenious, but they taught, both by their merits and demerits, valuable lessons to future workers in the field of Christianity in India. His career remains a shining example, an eternal reminder of what ought to be done, of the necessary measures to be taken to attract and captivate the Hindu mind, and of the pitfalls to be carefully avoided. Both by his successes and failures, he thus stands as the teacher of the missionaries. To the over-zealous and over-ingenious, he stands as a wholesome check, a necessary reminder of the helplessness of genius, if it is unaccompanied by plainness. To the timid and weak, at the same time, he is an object of imitation, an encouraging teacher. He taught that genius was independent of circumstance, that it was possible to out-Brahman even the most orthodox Brahman, if only there was energy, industry, and perseverance, in the realm of knowledge and of philosophy. Protestants and Catholics, Anglicans and Jesuits, Wesleyans and Lutherans-in fact every school of missionarios that have come to India, have learnt from him, and while carefully trying to avoid his mistakes, have closely adhered to his praiseworthy methods.
De Nobilis at Madura. It was in the year 1606 that De Nobilis came to Madura. From the first moment of his arrival, he adopted the method which he had chalked out for himself, the method of becoming Indian for the sake of making the Indian a Christian. With the approval of his superior and the archbishop of Cranganur, he introduced himself to the Brahmans as a Romanco Brahman" of a higher order than any in the east," who had renounced the world and taken to the hard life of a Sanyasin. His fair complexion, his fine figure and his deportment necessarily made people think that he was a European, a 'Parangi'; but he denied that he was a Parangi.' Consistent with his pretence, he adopted the dress and habits of the Sanyasin. A long linen salmon-coloured robe, with a surplice of the same colour, covered his imposing and majestic frame. A white or red sash went over his shoulders, and a turban round his head, while his feet rested on wooden sandals. Sacred threads, in the form of the Brahmanical yajñopavita, crossed his body; only in the place of the three cords, he had five, three of gold to represent the Trinity and two of silver, to represent, as he said, the body and soul of man. As a Sanyasin he had also medals, images and beads, eschowed the society of Fernandez and his converte, employed Brahman servants alone, and lived on a pure vegetarian diet, rice and herbs.
Bis Brahmanical life. The adoption of a Brahmanical life made the Brahmans think that De Nobilis was a Brahman. They therefore welcomed him, Saint as he was, and gave him a residence and a plot of ground in their own street, wherein he was able to establish a church and presbytery. The ingenious tenacity of De Nobilis, his complete separation from the lower classes and the Parangi missionaries, and above all his remarkable scholarship in the sacred lore of the Brahmans blinded the latter as to his real nationality, his desires and his am bi
19 Hough, II, 221.
