Abraham Rogerius
{{Short description|Dutch clergyman/translator}}
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Abraham Rogerius or Abraham Roger (1609 – 1649, in Gouda) was a Dutch clergyman/translator working for the Dutch East India Company, and one of the first Europeans who wrote about Indian culture.
Life
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It is possible Abraham was born in Haarlem, like his brother Jacobus, also a chaplain, who went to the Indies.{{cite web|url=https://www.openarch.nl/show.php?archive=elo&identifier=244695dc-8910-1161-2820-a0c2d5b1dc99&lang=en |title=Marriage Jacobus Rogerius & Trijntgen Pietersdr on February 6, 1641 in Leiden (Netherlands) » Open Archives |publisher=Openarch.nl |date= |access-date=2015-06-02}} The Calvinist Rogerius (anglicized as Roger), studied in Leiden under Antonius Walaeus. His first trip was to Batavia (1631) and then Surat (1632). From 1633 he worked as a chaplain in Pulicat, the capital of Dutch Coromandel.{{cite web |url=http://dutchstudies-satsea.nl/auteur/158/Abraham-Rogerius.html |title=Auteur - Bibliography of Dutch Studies on South Asia, Tibet and Indianized South East Asia |publisher=Dutchstudies-satsea.nl |access-date=2015-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212108/http://dutchstudies-satsea.nl/auteur/158/Abraham-Rogerius.html |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead }} He studied Hinduism in southern India and learned Portuguese. Rogerius authored Open Door to the Secrets of Heathendom, which begins with ten years of ministry among the Tamil people in the Dutch colony of Pulicat near Madras, India.Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 277 His knowledge came from three Brahmins whom he met regularly. In 1642 he went back to Batavia and became the manager of an orphanage/school and promoted the use of Portuguese during church services. In 1647 he returned to the Dutch Republic.
"De Open-Deure tot het verborgen Heydendom ofte Waerachtigh vertoogh van het leven ende zeden, mitsgaders de Religie ende Gotsdienst der Bramines op de Cust Chormandel ende der landen daar ontrent ("The open door to the hidden paganism or truthful account of life and customs, as well as religion and worship of the Brahmins at Coromandel Coast and surrounding countries "), was published in Leiden in 1651 and since translated into German (1663), French (1670).{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UDfJ3V707XMC&q=Abraham+Rogerius&pg=PA1 |title=Le Théâtre de l'idolâtrie...service divin des Bramines...sur les costes du ... - Abraham Rogerius, La Grue |access-date=2015-06-02|last1=Rogerius |first1=Abraham |year=1670 }}{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0OtCAAAAcAAJ&q=Abraham+Rogerius&pg=PP5 |title=La Porte ouverte pour parvenir à la connaissance du Paganisme caché - Abraham Rogerius |access-date=2015-06-02|last1=Rogerius |first1=Abraham |year=1670 }} This book was one of the first European books describing hinduism. The book has two parts. The first deals with the Brahmins life and customs, while the other describes their faith and worship.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c0wABAAAQBAJ&q=Abraham+Rogerius&pg=PA325 |title=The Battle of the Gods and Giants: The Legacies of Descartes and Gassendi ... - Thomas M. Lennon |date=2014-07-14 |isbn=9781400863396 |access-date=2015-06-02|last1=Lennon |first1=Thomas M. }}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/musicorientalism0000unse |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/musicorientalism0000unse/page/54 54] |quote=Abraham Rogerius. |title=Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s: Portrayal of the East |year=2007 |via=Internet Archive |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |access-date=2015-06-02}} Rogerius seems to have been the first to publish a translation of aphorisms in Sanskrit by Bhartṛhari, (Hundred aphorisms on the path to heaven by the heathen Bhartṛhari, famous amongst the Brahmins on the Coromandel coast) which forms the third part of the book.{{cite web |url=http://dutchstudies-satsea.nl/explorers.html |title=Explorers - Bibliography of Dutch Studies on South Asia, Tibet and Indianized South East Asia |publisher=Dutchstudies-satsea.nl |access-date=2015-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401011621/http://dutchstudies-satsea.nl/explorers.html |archive-date=2015-04-01 |url-status=dead }}
Works
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=3YlwpwAACAAJ&q=Abraham+Rogerius Breviario de religiāo christāo, em maneira de dialogo (1689)]
- [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/556430933 De open-deure tot het verborgen heydendom]
Literature
- Biographies in Dutch {{cite web|url=http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/persoon/40435727 |title=Rogerius, Abraham |publisher=Biografischportaal.nl |date= |access-date=2015-06-02}}
- Windisch, Ernst: Geschichte der Sanskrit Philologie und Indische Altertumskunde. Bd. 1. Strassburg, 1917.
References
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Category:17th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers
Category:17th-century Dutch explorers
Category:Dutch Protestant missionaries
Category:Dutch expatriates in India
Category:Hindu studies scholars
Category:Leiden University alumni
Category:Protestant missionaries in India