Jean-Antoine Dubois
Abbé J. A. Dubois or Jean-Antoine Dubois (January 1765 – 17 February 1848) was a French Catholic
Dubois is remembered in India for having adopted the way of life, clothing,
Early life
Dubois was baptized on 10 January 1766 at
Career
In India
In India, Dubois was at first attached to the
He abjured European society, adopted the native style of clothing, and made himself in habit and costume as much like a
He was credited with the founding of agricultural colonies and the introduction of vaccination as a preventive of smallpox.[1] He also caused a church to be built in Srirangapatna, known in his honour as the "Abbe Dubois Chapel."
He was known as Dodda Swami-avaru in the Mysore region.[2]
Rev.
Later career
Dubois left India in January 1823, with a special pension conferred on him by the East India Company. On reaching Paris, he was appointed director of the
Writings on Indology
Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies
His most notable work was Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. Although Dubois disclaimed the title of author, his collections were not so much drawn from the Hindu sacred books as from his own careful and vivid observations, and it is this, united to a remarkable prescience, that makes his work so valuable. The book contains three parts:
- a general view of society in India, and especially of the caste system
- the four states of Brahminical life
- religious practices — festivals, feasts, temples, objects of worship[1]
Sylvie Murr has claimed that Dubois' Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies derived from Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux's original manuscript, Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens, now lost.[4]
Other writings
Of much interest was his Letters on the State of Christianity in India, published in London in 1823, in which he asserted his opinion that under existing circumstances, there was no possibility of "overcoming the invincible barrier of
"Should the intercourse between individuals of both nations, by becoming more intimate and more friendly, produce a change in the religion and usages of the country, it will not be to turn Christians that they will forsake their own religion, but rather ... to become mere atheists."
Abbe Dubois Chapel, Srirangapatna
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Abbe Dubois Chapel, Srirangapatna
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Memorial Plaque
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Bell Tower
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Church Bell
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dubois, Jean Antoine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 624. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ D'Souza 2004, p. 60
- ^ Hoole, Elijah (1844). Madras, Mysore, and the South of India: or, A personal narrative of a mission to those countries, from 1820 to 1828 (PDF) (Second ed.). London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. pp. 155–157. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
- ^ See Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Un inédit du Père G.-L. Cœurdoux, SJ, dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx. Vol. 1. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. L'Indologie du Père Cœurdoux. Vol. 2. Éd. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. See also Richard De Smet, Review of the two volumes of Murr, Indian Theological Studies 27 (1990) 371-373.
References
Primary
- Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India, and of their Institutions, religious and civil. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1816. Derived, as Sylvie Murr shows, from G.-L. Cœurdoux's original manuscript, Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens, now lost. See De Smet, Review of the two volumes of Murr, Indian Theological Studies 27 (1990) 371–373.
- Letters on the state of Christianity in India, in Which The Conversion On The Hindoos Is Considered As Impracticable. To which is added a vindication of the Hindus, male and female, in answer to a severe attack made upon both by the Reverend ****. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1823. Reprinted by Asian Educational Services [?].
- Hough, James. A Reply to the Letters of the Abbé Dubois on the State of Christianity in India. London: L.B. Seeley & Son, 1824.
- Townley, H. An Answer to the Abbé Dubois in which the various wrong principles, misrepresentations and contradictions, contained in his work, entitled "Letters on the State of Christianity in India" are pointed out; and the Evangelization of India is, both on sound principle and on solid fact, demonstrated to be practicable. London, 1824.
- [Refutation of the letters of Abbe Dubois]. The Friend of India (Calcutta) (1825).
- Mœurs, institutions, et cérémonies des peuples de l'Inde. Enlarged edition of the 1816 work. Paris, 1825, 2 vols.
- Exposé de quelques-uns des principaux articles de la théogonie des Brahmes. Paris, 1825.
- [Reply to criticisms.] Bulletin des Sciences (May 1825).
- Le Pantcha-tantra ou les cinq ruses, fables du Brahme Vichnou-Sarma. Paris, 1826.
- The Exploits of the Guru Paramarta.
- [Reply to criticisms.] Asiatic Journal vol. 1 (1841).
- Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899.
- Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies: The Classic First-Hand Account of India in the Early Nineteenth Century. Ed. Henry K. Beauchamp. Courier Dover, 2002.
Secondary
- Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Un inédit du Père G.-L. Cœurdoux, SJ, dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx. Vol. 1. Éd. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. Pp. 247.
- L'Indologie du Père Cœurdoux. Vol. 2. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. Pp. 250.
- De Smet, Richard. Review of Sylvie Murr, Vol. 1: Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777): Un inédit du Père G.-L. Cœurdoux, S.J. dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx. Vol. II: L’Indologie du Père Cœurdoux (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1987). Indian Theological Studies 27 (1990) 371–373.
- D'Souza, Edwin J. F. (2004), V.J.P. Saldanha (Makers of Indian literature), Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 978-81-260-2028-7.