Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron
First travels
First travels
-------------

After a passage of six months, Anquetil\-Duperron landed on 10 August 1755 at the French colony at [Pondicherry](/wiki/Pondicherry "Pondicherry"), on the coast in south\-eastern India. From his private correspondence it appears that he intended to become "master of the religious institutions of all Asia", which in the 18th century were still imagined to all derive from the Indian [Vedas](/wiki/Vedas "Vedas"). For that, Anquetil\-Duperron knew he would need to learn [Sanskrit](/wiki/Sanskrit "Sanskrit"). He initially studied [Persian](/wiki/Persian_language "Persian language") (the lingua franca of [Moghul India](/wiki/Moghul_empire "Moghul empire")), which Europeans in the 18th century still presumed to have descended from Sanskrit. His plan was then to visit the [Brahmins](/wiki/Brahmins "Brahmins") in [Benares](/wiki/Benares "Benares") to learn Sanskrit "at some famous pagoda".apud Half a year later, he was living on rice and vegetables and saving his money so that he might "find some Brahmin" to become the disciple of. As he also wanted to "study the Indian books", he decided to travel to the French colony at [Chandannagar](/wiki/Chandannagar "Chandannagar"), also known in French as [Chandernagor](/wiki/Chandernagor "Chandernagor"), in [Bengal](/wiki/Bengal "Bengal"), where he arrived in April 1756\. He promptly fell sick; by coincidence, he landed in the hospital of the Jesuit missionary Antoine Mozac, who some years earlier had copied the "Pondicherry Vedas". Anquetil\-Duperron remained in the hospital until September or October 1756 and began to wonder whether he should not instead become a priest as he had intended years earlier. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the [Seven Years' War](/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War "Seven Years' War") in Europe had renewed hostilities between French and British forces in India, where the conflict is known as the [Third Carnatic War](/wiki/Third_Carnatic_War "Third Carnatic War"). The [British East India Company](/wiki/British_East_India_Company "British East India Company") under [Robert Clive](/wiki/Robert_Clive "Robert Clive") and the British Navy under [Charles Watson](/wiki/Charles_Watson_%28Royal_Navy_officer%29 "Charles Watson (Royal Navy officer)") bombarded and captured Chandannagar on 23 March 1757 and Anquetil\-Duperron resolved to leave the territory. Unable to gain access to the Vedas, Anquetil\-Duperron planned to travel to Tibet and China to find the ancient Indian texts there. Discouraged by news that there were no texts to be found there, Anquetil\-Duperron returned overland to Pondicherry over the course of a hundred\-day trek. There, he found his brother Etienne Anquetil de Briancourt, who had been named consul at Surat.

As Etienne assured Abraham that the [Zoroastrian](/wiki/Zoroastrian "Zoroastrian") [priests](/wiki/Mobad "Mobad") of Surat would teach him their sacred texts as well as the languages in which they were written, he resolved to accompany his brother. Wanting to explore the country, however, he disembarked from his brother's ship at [Mahé](/wiki/Mah%C3%A9%2C_India "Mahé, India") and travelled overland the rest of the way on foot and on horseback. He arrived in Surat on 1 March 1758, at a time when the Indian Zoroastrians ([Parsis](/wiki/Parsi "Parsi")) were embroiled in a bitter dispute over the [intercalation](/wiki/Intercalation_%28timekeeping%29 "Intercalation (timekeeping)") of the [Zoroastrian calendar](/wiki/Zoroastrian_calendar "Zoroastrian calendar"), which is now called the "Kabiseh controversy". Each side cultivated ties with competing European traders. The one faction (the *shahenshahi*s, led by a certain Muncherji Seth) had ties to the [Dutch East India Company](/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company "Dutch East India Company"). The other (the *kadmi*s, led by a certain Darab Kumana) maintained ties to the [British East India Company](/wiki/British_East_India_Company "British East India Company") and to Armenian merchants. In the travelogue, Darab's co\-operation with Anquetil\-Duperron is attributed to a need for assurance of French protection. It seems that Darab (and another [priest](/wiki/Mobad "Mobad"), a certain Kaus) attempted to provide Anquetil\-Duperron with an education similar to that given to priests. His essay ** aligns itself with the texts and provides only glimpses of what the Parsis actually believed at the time. Anquetil\-Duperron complains of the priests' interest with law and ritual rather than philosophy or theology. Anquetil\-Duperron grew impatient with the methodical methods of the priests and with his inability to obtain manuscripts. According to his travelogue, the priests also had no desire to teach him Avestan and no expectations that he would master it well enough to translate their texts. Also according to Anquetil\-Duperron, the priests were committing a great sacrilege in acquainting him with the texts and lessons were conducted in Persian so that the priest's Zoroastrian servant would not be aware of what was transpiring. Kaus's anxiety increased when Anquetil\-Duperron demanded proper interpretation and not just translation. Via Persian, the two priests taught him what they knew of Avestan (which was not much) and of Zoroastrian theology (which was even less). In June 1759, 16 months after his arrival in Surat, he sent news to Paris that he had completed (in three months) a translation of the "*Vendidad*". The same June, the priest Darab arranged for Anquetil\-Duperron to attend – in disguise but armed with a sword and pistol — a ceremony in a [fire temple](/wiki/Fire_temple "Fire temple") "in exchange for a small present and the hope of promenading the city in my [palanquin](/wiki/Palanquin "Palanquin")".*apud* Anquetil\-Duperron also suggests that Darab attempted to convert him, but that he "courageously refused to waver".*apud* Two centuries later, J. J. Modi would explain Anquetil\-Duperron's invitation into a temple as only possible if the sacred fire had been temporarily removed because the temple was being renovated.*cf.* On the other hand, Anquetil\-Duperron states that he was given a *sudra* and *[kusti](/wiki/Kushti "Kushti")* and he may have been formally invested with them, which would have made him a Zoroastrian in the priest's view, and thus would have been acceptable in a functioning temple.


Are there any parallels between Anquetil-Duperron's experiences and modern-day cultural or religious exchange programs?