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130
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[AUGUST, 1916
THE HISTORY OF THE NAIK KINGDOM OF MADURA.
BY V. RANGACHARI, M.A., L.T., MADRAS.
(Continued from p. 224.)
Discovery and persecution.
The success of De Nobilis brought persecution in its train. A few men called him a sage superior to ordinary men, and therefore the enemy of ordinary idol worship. But the large majority, especially the priesthood, looked on his teachings with alarm. They found out that, Sanyasin though he posed himself to be, he was not a friend of their creed. They therefore set up a tremendous agitation against him. In their hatred they imputed every misfortune of their country to his pernicious teachings. They said that the gods were unwilling to shower rain in a place where his vile feet trod. They said that he was magician who had the devil for his servant, that he was a wizard who bewitched people by the ashes of children, whom he was supposed to kill and burn. The priests and pandarams of the temple, as well as the scholars and leaders of the lay society, blew up the popular discontent into a furious mutiny, and concluded in an assembly that, unless De Nobilis was banished, rain would not come. They then approached the Karta and pointed out how De Nobilis was an atheist, who denied the Hindu Trinity, who depreciated the god Chokkanâtha, who condemned everything good and wholesome in the religious life of the people, and concluded that he was in reality a Turk, who was audacious enough to call himself a Râja, to dress in the salmon colour, to have Brahman servants, and above all, to study the Vêdâs and other sacred literature. We do not know what Krishnappa did in response to the popular appeal. We have no materials which illustrate his attitude in the matter. Evidently he did not engage in any persecution. But he could not prevent popular indignation, or perhaps official sympathy with it. The Brahman servants of the preacher were seized, their top-knots were cut, their sacred cords removed, and their eyes plucked out. De Nobilis himself was in danger, and the whole "Christian" world prayed in despair. But De Nobilis was not wanting in friends who could save him. A prominent chieftain of the day, whom the Jesuits call Erumaikatti, was, though not as yet a convert, a greater friend than the most bigoted convert.
Reaction in his favour.
He exerted his influence to soothe the popular ferment and persuaded the Brahmans of the harmlessness of his friend. His generosity went further, and procured for him a site, strangely enough from the temple grounds, for the building of a more spacious place of worship for himself and his disciples. The progress of the edifice was a little delayed by the indignant accusation of the priest of the Chokkanatha temple that De Nobilis was a Parangi, as he heard that he ate with Fernandez. But De Nobilis had the duplicity to reply that," if his adversary proved him to be a Parangi, he was prepared to lose his eyes, an assurance which satisfied the priest and facilitated the building of the church. By the end of 1610 it was half finished. Built of brick with flat roof and including three
52 It was on this occasion, evidently, that De Nobilis produced "an old dirty parchment, in which he had forged, in the ancient Indian characters, a deed shewing that the Brahmans of Rome were of a much older date than those of India, and that the Jesuits of Rome descended in a direct line from the God Brahma." Hough, II, p. 231.
