Pilgrimage and Narrative in the French Renaissance: The Undiscovered Country. Wes Williams
Of the three treatises here, one is translated from Latin and is aimed at other Christians who might curtail Nobili's labors because of certain views about Indian Brahmins. Highly argumentative and peppered with quotations from Christian and Indian religious texts, Nobili's "Customs of the Indian Nation," held that most Brahmins were not priests, that the so-called "sacred thread" worn by them was a mark of social status and not superstitious religious practice, and that the practice of shaving the head to a hair tuft and utilizing sandal paste on the forehead were also not religious in nature. Nobili sorted out those in the Brahmin caste, locating those most likely to be open to conversion to Christianity because of views of the deity closest to his own. These Brahmins, or wise men, then became the focus of his efforts at the salvation of the Indian nation; thus the title of the book, Preaching Wisdom to the Wise. In order not to be classified as a beef-eating foreigner ordinarily grouped with the untouchables, Nobili temporarily cut off open contact with almost all Europeans, changed his diet, and assumed the guise of a holy man beyond caste. Achieving some success in this effort, he made the first converts from among the upper castes, including Brahmins in south India in the seventeenth century. He hoped that by converting upper caste Indians he would then be able to convert large numbers of those from the lower castes. To make a long and fascinating story short, he had some limited success, but after his death most conversions were from the lower and untouchable castes, and the Christian salvation of India was not achieved. The other two treatises, "The Dialogue on Eternal Life," and "Inquiry into the Meaning of 'God'," are translated from Tamil and were addressed to potential Indian converts. The first is more dense and theological, the second direct and simple. Both required the potential convert to follow Nobili in utilizing his reason and then take a leap of faith to reach Christian liberation and salvation. As the editors, especially Anand Amaladass, make clear, Nobili, for all his subtle understanding of Indian society, retained his antagonism to Hinduism, even as he saw that some of its "wise men" shared the views of the deity that he and his mentor, Aquinas, held. LEONARD A. GORDON Brooklyn College, The City University of New York