Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 87

APRIL, 1928)
NICOLAO MANUCHY'S WILL AND TESTAMENT
NICOLAO MANUCHY'S WILL AND TESTAMENT.1
BY MONS. SINGARAVELOU PILLAI. BEFORE publishing Nicolao Manuchy's testament, I wish to say a few words about this historical personage.
Others more competent than myself, such as (1) Mr. Henry Davidson Love, late Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Engineers, Hon.
Fellow of the University of Madras, in his work (Indian Records Series)
Vestiges of Madras, 1640-1800, in four volumes, 1913, (2) Miss L. M. Anstey in The Indian Antiquary, March 1920, under the title of " More
about Nicolao Manucci." (3) The late Mr. William Irvine, Assistant Magistrate of Saharanpur, in the intro.
duction to the translation of his book Storia do Mogor, 1653-1708 (Indian Text Series, 4 vols., 1907-1808) and lastly (4) my intimate friend Mr. Jadunath Sarkar. M.A.Professor. Patna College, in his work Studies in Mughal India,
have already related the life and work of this important personage. So, as an addendum to their publications, I wish to lay before you the results of my historical researches concerning this celebrated Venetian diplomat.
Nicolao Manuchy was born at Venice in 1639 and visited India as a traveller during the reign of Shah Jahan in 1686. His knowledge of the art of Æsculapius made him the first doctor to the sons of the Great Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. His profession retained him in the Great Mughal's Court for forty years and there he lived in close friendship with the Emperors and the viziers and he got even admittance into the seraglio, a privilege not easily bestowed. That intimacy and his sojourn in the Court for nearly half a century enabled him to complete his MS. in Portuguese with the French title of Histoire Générale de l'Empire Mogol depuis sa Fondation. It is those manuscripts that Father François Catrou of The Society of Jesus translated into French in 1705 and published in two volumes. It is also from those memoirs, that Jean de Laēt prepared his notes on the Mughals which commence Nos fragmentum e Belgico, quod e genuino illius Regni Chronico es preffum credimus libere vertimus. Manuchy has also published a book called Guerras de Golconda e Visa pour com varios succe8808 ate a era de 1700, in three volumes.
We also owe to him the fine collection of Indo-Persian paintings which he took to Europe in 1691 and which have since remained deposited in the National Library in Paris.
His honesty, his impartiality and his scholarship in Eastern languages led to his appointment by the Madras Government, as well as by that of Pondicherry, as an ambassador and extraordinary messenger to the Nawab of Arcot and other princes, to carry them presents and seek easy ways of consolidating relations with them, and in critical moments to make use of his talent to settle delicate matters of diplomacy. He fulfilled with great cleverness such missions to the Nawab of Arcot in 1687-1712 under Thomas Pitt, Francois Martin, Dumas and Hebert. In support of the above assertion I refer to the Records of Fort St. George, Diary and Consultation Book of 1701, page 3—"One Senr. Nicolas Manuchi a Venetian and an inhabitant of ours for many years, who has the reputation of an honest man, besides hee has liv'd at the King's Court upwards of thirty years and was a servant to one of the Princes, and speaks the Persian Language excellently well, for which reasons wee think (him) the proprest person to send at this time with our Chief Dubash Ramapah, and have uranimously agreed, with the advice of all that were capable of giving it, to send the following presents in order to their setting out tomorrow on their journey, and have deliver'd in our Instructions and Letters as enter'd after this Consultation."
NOTE.-This article is reprinted, with kind permission, from vol. VIII of the Proceedings of Meetings Di the Indian Historical Records Oom Nission, pp. 169-175. (Proceedings of Eighth Meeting held at Lahore, November 1925.) A fow clorical amendments bave been made.
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