1 The standard works on Company history of this period are: Arasaratnam, S., Merchants, Companies, and Commerce on the Coromandel Coast, 1650–1740 (Delhi 1986)Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, S., Dutch power in Ceylon, 1658–1687 (Amsterdam 1958)Google Scholar; Raychaudhuri, T., Jan Company in Coromandel 1605–1690: A Study on the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies (The Hague 1962).Google Scholar Apart from the various district gazetteers, the classical accounts on the Indian side are: Aiyar, R. Sathyanatha, History of the Nayakas of Madura (Madras 1924); V. Rangachari, ‘The History of the Naik Kingdom of Madura’, Indian Antiquary 43–46 (1914–1917) passim.Google Scholar

2 This historian is, of course, Sinappah Arasaratnam. His numerous articles have been conveniently published recently in: Arasaratnam, S., Ceylon and the Dutch, 1600–1800: External Influences and Internal Change in Early Modem Sri Lanka (Brookfield 1996)Google Scholar; and Arasaratnam, S., Maritime Trade, Society and European Influence in Southern Asia, 1600–1800 (Brookfield 1995).Google Scholar

3 See for example the various articles and monographs by Arjan Appadurai, Susan Bayly, Carol Breckenridge, Nicholas B. Dirks, Christopher Fuller, Velcheru Narayana Rao, Marie Louise Reiniche, David Shulman, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and Philip Wagoner.

4 The history of the actual contacts and their cultural and material parameters is the topic of my dissertation ‘Encounters on the Opposite Coast: Cross-cultural Contacts between the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka state of Madurai in the 17th century’, University of Minnesota 1997 (forthcoming).

5 These stereotypes were to a large extent in accordance with the perceptions of contemporaries. According to Dutch sources, for example, the Indian landscape was ‘onedimensional’ and filled with flat characters, either ‘great men’ (the ‘valiant’ Krishnappa Nayaka, the ‘effiminate’ Nayaka of Tanjavur, etc.) or groups with collective personalities (the ‘cunning’ Moors, the ‘superstitious Paravas’, etc.). For a recent attempt to paint ‘collective portraits’ of the regent, merchant, sailor, minister, soldier, and so forth in seventeenth-century Holland: Belien, H.M., van Deursen, A.Th., and van Setten, G.J. eds, Gestalten van de Couden Eeuw: Een Hollands Groepsportret (Amsterdam 1995).Google Scholar

6 For recent discussions of these issues: Schwartz, Stuart B. ed., Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting and Reflecting on the Encounters between Europeans and other Peoples in the Early Modern Era (New York 1994)Google Scholar; Breckenridge, C.A. and P., van der Veer eds, Orientalism and the Post-Colonial Predicament: Perspectives on South Asia (Philadelphia 1993).Google Scholar

7 This is not to deny the fact that there were no ethnic or religious conflicts at all. Ethnoreligious (and socio-political) tensions between the Telugu Nayaka dynasty and Tamil, locally dominant, Ambalakkarar Kallar people during the reign of Tirumala Nayaka (r. 1623–1659), for instance, manifested itself in the defective unity of the Cittirai Festival of Madurai. See: Hudson, Dennis, ‘Śiva, Mīnāksi, Visnu - Reflections on a Popular Myth in Madurai’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 14/1 (1977) 107–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The repeated conflicts between the Madurai central authorities and the (Tamil) Marava rulers of Ramanadiapuram during this period are another case in point, while the opposition of a Telugu-speaking faction at the Madurai court against the ‘upstart’ Dalavay Narasappa Aya in 1693 also seemed to have socio-political and ethnic roots. General State Archive The Hague (ARA), VOC 1525, OBP 1694, fl. 1183v, Kort relaas der voornaamste zaken voorgevallen ter kuste Madura, 30–11–1693.

8 ARA, VOC 1469, OBP 1691, fl. 413r, Memorie Comps. dienaren te Tuticorin, 31–12–1690; VOC 1543, OBP 1696, fls. 616v and 628v-629r, Rapp. ond.k. Welter aan Bergaigne, opp.k. en opperh. van Madura, 2–10–1694; VOC 11297, Bijlagen tot de consideratiën [van Gouverneur Van Imhoff] over de handel op de Madurese kust, 1738.

9 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fls. 1187r-1189r, Rapport kapt. Van Reede aan Van Goens, 2–7–1668; VOC 1270, OBP 1670, fl. 314v, Miss. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan H. XVII, 9–1–1670.

10 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fls. 1160r, 1170v, and 1187r-l 189r, Rapp. Van Reede, 2–7–1658.

11 ARA, VOC 1446, OBP 1689, fl. 397r, Miss, opp.h. Van Vliet en raad van Tuticurin to gouvr. Pijl, 11–12–1688.

12 ARA, VOC 1282, OBP 1672, fls. 1070r-1070v, Seer. miss. Pijl aan gouvr. Van Goens, 14–7–1671; C.R. de Silva, ‘Beyond the Cape: The Portuguese Encounter with the Peoples of South Asia’ in: Schwartz ed., Implicit Understandings, 295–296 and 321–322. For a comparison with the reception of Europeans in Southeast Asia: Anthony Reid, ‘Early Southeast Asian Categorizations of Europeans’ in: Schwartz ed., Implicit Understandings, esp. 268–270.

13 From Arab: kaba, ‘vestment’ or muslin surcoat.

14 J. Bertrand, La mission du Maduré d'après des documents inédits II (Paris 1847–1854) 155–157; de Queyroz, Fernāo, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon I (Colombo 1930) 67.Google Scholar

15 Bertrand, La mission du Maduré ll, 2 and 298; Queyroz, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon I, 81. See also the experiences of the Company Surgeons Johann Jakob Merklein and Wouter Schouten at Pulicat in May 1649 and near Sadraspatnam in October 1661, respectively: Naber, S.P. L'Honoré ed., Reisebeschreibungen von Deutschen Beambten und Kriegsleuten im Dienst der Niederländischen West-und Ost-Indischen Kompagnien 1602–1797 III (The Hague 1930) 54Google Scholar; Schouten, Wouter, Oostindische Voyagie lll (Amsterdam 1676) 64–65.Google Scholar

16 ARA, VOC 1187, OBP 1652, fls. 524r–524v, Extract dagreg. De Vogel gedurende de exp. van Tuticurin, 31–1–1649 – 1–3–1649; VOC 1282, OBP 1672, fl. 1071r, Seer. miss. Pijl aan gouvr. Van Goens, 14–7–1671; VOC 1479. OBP 1691, fls. 395v-396r, Transl. ola Naik van Madure aan koopm. Babba Porboe, Aug. 1690; VOC 1478, OBP 1691, fls. 544–545, Miss, comms. Van Rheede te Jaffna aan Batavia, 23–9–1690.

17 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fls. 1167r-1167v, Rapp. Van Reede aan Van Goens, 2–7–1668. For a similar argument relating to Timmarasa Aya: VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fl. 162r, Resol. gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon, 31–3–1684.

18 Apart from being dedicated to different types of deities, each category of temples is also distinguished by its temple priests, its size and architecture, and the spatial organization of the temple enclosure. Compare Reiniche, M.L., Les dieux el les hommes: Études des cultes d'un village du Tirunelveli Inde du Sud (Paris/The Hague 1979) 19–21.Google Scholar Other prominent Saivite temples in Madurai are the Sri jambukesvaram temple at Tiruchirappalli, the Sri Nellaiyappa temple at Tirunelveli, and the Sri Ramanathasvami temple at Ramesvaram. Important Vaisnavite temples are those of Sri Kallagar at Alagarkoil, Sri Andal at Srivilliputtur, and Sri Adinatar at Alvar Tirunagari.

19 For some of the criticism of the Orientalist and Indian nationalist contructions, perpetuated by anthropologists and indologists such as Louis Dumont and Madeleine Biardeau, see among others: Inden, Ronald, Imagining India (Cambridge, Mass. 1990)Google Scholar; Thanar, Romila, ‘Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity’, Modern Asian Studies 23/2 (1989) 209–231Google Scholar; Dirks, Nicholas B. ed., Colonialism and Culture (Ann Arbor 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dirks, Nicholas B., The Hollow Crown: Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom (Ann Arbor 1993) xxii–xxviiiCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dirks, Nicholas B., ‘Castes of Mind’, Representations 37 (1992) 56–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fuller, C.J., ‘Hinduism and Hierarchy’, Man (ns) 26 (1991) 549–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Appadurai, A., Worship and Conflict under Colonial Rule: A South Indian Case (New York 1981) 63–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sastri, K.A. Nilakanta, Development of Religion in South India (Madras 1963) passimGoogle Scholar; Bayly, Susan, Saints, Goddesses, and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700–1900 (New York 1989) 19–70.Google Scholar

21 Not all temple priests in Madurai were Tamils. After 1680, for instance, the descendants of the Maratha priestly family of Sri Sankara Gurukkal were made ‘first gurukkal’ and given specified ‘first honours’ at the Sri Ramanatasvami temple on the island-shrine of Ramesvaram by Raghunatha Setupati, the ruler of Ramanathapuram. During the reign of Martanda Varma of Travancore (r. 1729–1758) potris (title of an Ambalavasi or temple servant) of the Madhva Advaita sect drafted from Nambuthiri Brahmans from southern Kanara replaced the Tamil Sivacaryas or Gurukkals in the performance of pucai at the main shrine of the Sri Murukan temple at Tiruchendur.

22 The best secondary sources on the Sri Minaksi-Sundaresvare temple are, among others: Fuller, C.J., Servants of the Goddess: The Priests of a South Indian Temple (Cambridge 1984)Google Scholar; Hudson, ‘Śiva, Mīnāksi, Visnu - Reflections on a Popular Myth in Madurai’, 107–118; Breckenridge, Carol A., ‘The Sri Mīnāksi Sundaresvarar temple: Worship and Endowments in South India, 1833 to 1925’ (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1976)Google Scholar; Vadarajan, M. ed., Matturait Tirukkoyil The Madurai Temple Complex (Madurai 1974).Google Scholar The best surveys on the Sri Ranganatha temple are: Rao, V.N. Hari, History of the Srirangam Temple (Tirupati 1976)Google Scholar; Rao, V.N. Hari ed., Koil Olugu: The Chronicle of the Srirangam Temple with Historical Notes (Madras 1961).Google Scholar

23 See: Dessignane, R., Pattabiramin, P.Z., and Filliozat, J. eds, La légende des jeux de Çiva à Madurai d'après les textes el les peintures (Pondicherry 1960)Google Scholar; Aiyangar, S. Krishnaswami, ‘Madurai-Talavaralu’ (An account of the temple of Madura), Proceedings of the Indian Historical Records Commission 6 (1924) 104–116Google Scholar; Shulman, D., Tamil Temple Myths: Sacrifice and Divine Marriage in the South Indian Saiva Tradition (Princeton 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hari Rao, Koil Olugu.

24 Paul Younger, ‘Singing the Tamil Hymnbook in the Tradition of Ramanuja: The Adyayanotsava Festival in Srirankam’ in: Spencer, George W. ed., Temples, Kings and Peasants: Perceptions of South India's Past (Madras 1987) 179–180.Google Scholar

25 Rao, Koil Olugu, passim; Rao, History of the Srirangam Temple, 6–7; Younger, ‘Singing the Tamil Hymnbook’, 181.

26 Rao, Koil Olugu, 175–192; Rao, History of the Srirangam Temple, 178–199. The Nayaka rulers were all Saivites, the religion of the majority of the people of Madurai during this period, but at times did not fail to sponsor other religious groups as well.

27 Fuller, C.J., ‘Gods, Priests, and Purity: On the Relation between Hinduism and the Caste System’, Man (ns) 14 (1979) 464 and 469CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Appadurai, A. and Breckenridge, Carol Appadurai, ‘The South Indian Temple: Authority, Honour and Redistribution’, Contributions to Indian Sociology (ns) 10/2 (1976) 190 and 193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 ARA, VOC 1177, OBP 1651, fl. 424r, Dagreg. koopm. Isebrant Groes gedurende de Tuticorinse voyage, 13–1–1650 – 24–1–1650; VOC 1179, OBP 1651, Generale missive, 10–12–1650; Somasundaram, J.M., Tiruchendur: The Sea-Shore Temple of Subrahmanyam (Madras 1948) 19–20, 47Google Scholar; Padmanabhan, S.P., Tiruchendur (Nagercoil 1978) 6Google Scholar; Gurusamy, M.P., Lord Muruga of Tiruchendur (Tiruchendur 1980) 21 and 27.Google Scholar

29 The argument for the emergence of an alternative hedonistic ideology of Sudra kingship at the seventeenth-century Nayaka courts of Tamilnadu is unconvincing not only because its very proponents seem to limit the ramifications of their own statements, but also because there is ample evidence that the Nayaka rulers continued to emulate the cultural model of Puranic kingship. See: Rao, , Shulman, , and Subrahmanyam, , Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamil Nadu (Delhi/Oxford/New York 1992) 57–58, 67, and 79.Google Scholar On rajadharma, see: Derrett, Duncan M., ‘Rajadharma’, Journal of Asian Studies 35/4 (1976) 597–609Google Scholar; Dirks, Nicholas B., ‘Political Authority and Structural Change in Early South India’, Indian Economic and Social History Review 13/3 (April-June 1976) 125–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Price, Pamela G., ‘Raja-dharma in 19th Century South India: Land, Litigation and Largess in Ramnad Zamindari’, Contributions to Indian Sociology (ns) 13/2 (1979) 207–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 ARA, VOC 1187, OBP 1652, fl. 511v, Extract dagreg. De Vogel, gedurende de expeditie van Tuticurin, 31–1–1649 – 1–3–1649; VOC 1329, OBP 1678, fl. 1270v, Rapp. boekhr. Caperman aan commt Huijsman, commandant der Madurese kust, 13–5–1677; VOC 1370, OBP 1682, fls. 1569v-1570r, Miss, gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 19–4–1681; VOC 1468, OBP 1691, fls. 289v-291r, 297r, Rapport asst. Welter aan Van Vliet en raad van Tutucorijn, 9–9–1689. For a similar pragmatic stance of the Tevar of Ramnad, Raghunatha Setupati, vis-à-vis the island shrine of Ramesvaram, see: VOC 1282, OBP 1672, fl. 1008r, Miss. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 15–4–1671.

31 James Ford Bell Library, Minneapolis, Minn., B 1738 Mos., Manuscript papers relating to Dutch trade in India, fls. 53–54 and 67, Beschrijving van de oorsprong der Naijken van Madure, 23–11–1677.

32 ARA, VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fl. 408v, Miss, gouvr. Van der Meijden en koopm. Ooms van Tuticurin aan superint. Van Goens, 5–3–1659; VOC 1282, OBP 1672, fl. 1133r, Rapp. opp.k. Pijl der presente gestalte van Madura, 27–9–1671; VOC 1304, OBP 1675, fl. 324v, Rapp. opperh. Huijsman van Madura betr. de Madurese kust, 29–3–1674; VOC 1315, OBP 1677, fls. 346r–346v, Contract van de landregent Commare Suami Modeljaar, 2–7–1676; James Ford Bell Library, B 1738 Mos., Manuscript papers relating to Dutch trade in India, fls. 68, Beschrijving van de oorsprong der Naijken van Madure, 23–11–1677; VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fls. 405v-406r, Contract van alliantie met de neik van Madure, 29–7–1690 – 6–8–1690;Heeres, J.E. ed., Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum III, 1676–1691 (The Hague 1931) 31 and 529.Google Scholar For the actual revenues: VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fl. 371r, Miss, commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 18–10–1684; VOC 1446, OBP 1689, fls. 393v–394r, Miss, opp.h. Van Vliet en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 11–12–1688.

33 Reconstructed on the basis of VOC records and the traditional accounts on the history of Madurai.

34 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fls. 1172r et seq., Rapp. Van Rheede aan Van Goens, 2–7–1668.

35 Dirks, The Hollow Crown, 42–52; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, chapter 2. It should be noted here that the Nayakas of Madurai never based their sovereignty solely on their relationship with Vijayanagara but also on their capacity to set themselves up as successors of the Pandyans.

36 Wagoner, Philip, Tidings of the King: A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rayavacakamu (Honolulu 1993) 22.Google Scholar See also: Dirks, The Hollow Crown, 42–52 and 96–106; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, passim.

37 Dirks, The Hollow Crown, 49. For the vision of the Nayaka of Madurai at this juncture see the 1646 relation by Balthasar da Costa in: A. Saulière, The Revolt of the Southern Nayakas’, Journal of Indian History 42 (1964) 97 and 104; ARA, VOC 1161, OBP 1647, fls. 948r and 963v, Journaal Kasteel Geldria, 23–9–1645 – 19–9–1646.

38 Primary sources for the Nayaka vision are the Telugu court chronicles Rayavacakamu (Tidings of the great king’) written c. 1600, and the early eighteenth-century Tanjavuri andhra rajula caritra (a later Tamil version called ‘History of the Carnataca governors who ruled over the Pandiya mandalam’ is probably derived from the Telugu original). See: Wagoner, Tidings of the King, Taylor, William, Oriental Historical Manuscripts in the Tamil Language II (Madras 1835) 3–49.Google Scholar The Telugu original is discussed in Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, passim; the Tamil version is discussed in Dirks, The Hollow Crmon, 96–106.

39 Compare Dirks, The Hollow Crown, 42–43.

40 ARA, VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fls. 424r-426r, Transl. artikelen neik van Madura, 11–3–1658; VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fl. 85, Miss, comms. Van Goens van Colombo aan Batavia, 13–5–1659. See also: VOC 1233, OBP 1661, fl. 160v, Miss. adml. Van Goens en gouvr. Van der Meijden aan Batavia, 2–4–1660.

41 ARA, VOC 1158, OBP 1646, fls. 219r-220v, Transl. kaul neik van Madura, June 1645. Published in: Heeres ed., Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum I, 455–457; VOC 1252, OBP 1666, fl. 828, Miss, gouvr. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 15–6–1665; VOC 1254, OBP 1666, fls. 1111–1114, Res. gouvr. Van Goens en raad van Colombo, 6–7–1665; Idem, fl. 1192, Memorie der Engelse goederen bekomen op Outkaijl, 20–10–1665; VOC 1253, OBP 1666, fls. 1635–1636, Miss. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 23–20–1665; VOC 1446, OBP 1689, fls. 452r-452v, Miss, residenten van Manapaar aan opp.h. Van Vliet, 28–10–1688; VOC 1468, OBP 1691, fl. 315v, Rapp. Welter aan Van Vliet, 9–9–1689; Foster ed., The English Factories in India, 1661–1664, 360–361; Foster, The English Factories in India, 1665–1667, 90–91 and 129.

42 Bayly, Saints, Goddesses, and Kings, 80 and 323–324; Hornell, James, The Indian Pearl Fisheries of the Gulf of Mannaar and Palk Bay, Madras Fisheries Bureau, Bulletin 16 (Madras 1922) 25.Google Scholar

43 ARA, VOC 1158, OBP 1646, fls. 219r-220v, Transl. kaul neik van Madura, June 1645; Heeres ed., Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum I, 455–457.

44 Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 110; Saulière, The Revolt of the Southern Nayakas’, 91. In January 1647, the Junior Merchant Pieter van Bart at Kayalpatnam informed Governor Maetsuijcker of Ceylon that he had decided not to provide him with the horses Maetsuijcker had asked for ‘since the breed is too small and too weak to be of service’. VOC 1165, OBP 1648, fl. 88r, Miss, gouvr. Maetsuijcker van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 13–4–1647.

45 The fullest expression of the various interests of the aranmanai in the pearl-fishery can be found in an interview the Company Senior Merchants Rutgert de Heijde, Thomas van Rhee, and Junior Merchant Joan van Vliet had in March 1679 at Tuticurin with the representatives of the new governor of Tiruvallur ‘Calitiappa Pulle’, ARA, VOC 1343, OBP 1680, fls. 228r-232r, Rapp. De Heijde, Van Rhee en Van Vliet aan gouvr. Van Goens dejonge, 19–4–1679.

46 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fl. 1157r-l 157v, Memorie der vrijgelaten stenen en vaartuigen, 27–6–1668; Idem, fl. 1158v, Monture der thonijs, stenen en personen in de parelvisserij van Tuticorijn, 27–6–1668; VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fl. 1196, Miss. gouvr. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 13–7–1668; VOC 1266, OBP 1669, fl. 867v, Rapp. commr. Van Goens de jonge over de staat van Ceijlon aan bewindhebbers, 15–8–1669. Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 109–111; Subrahmanyam, S., The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India, 1500–1650 (Cambridge 1990), 85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Arasaratnam, Dutch Power in Ceylon, 153–154. For criticism regarding the estimations of the value of the pearl fishery by the Van Goenses: VOC 906, BUB 1681, fl. 927, Miss. raden van India aan gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon, 4–10–1681.

47 ARA, VOC 1264, OBP 1668, fl. 518r, Rapp. commr. Vosch van Jaffna, opp.k. De Vogel, opperh. van Manaar en secunde van Jaffnapatnam, koopm. Pijl, opperh. van Tuticurin, in de Manaarse parelvisserij, 27–5–1667.

48 ARA, VOC 1304, OBP 1675, fl. 325r, Rapp. Huijsman wegens de presente stand der zaken van Madure, 29–3–1674. See also: VOC 1231, fl. 85, Miss. comms. Van Goens van Colombo aan Batavia, 13–5–1659; VOC 1233, OBP 1661, fl. 160V, Miss. adml. Van Goens en gouvr. Van der Meijden van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 2–4–1660. It was only during the Madurai-Mysore war in 1682 that the VOC was able to erect stone walls around its factory at Tuticurin.

49 For a description of the dual fiscal system of Madurai: Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 97–104; ARA, VOC 1321, OBP 1677, fls. 827r-828r, Relaas commr. Huijsman aan Van Goens dejonge, 11–4–1676.

50 James Ford Bell Library, B 1738 Mos., Manuscript papers relating to Dutch trade in India, fl. 39, Beschrijvinge van de oorsprong der Naijken van Madure, 23–11–1677. Two lists of the kumara varkham and the seventy-two Nayaka, Kallar, and Maravar chieftains can be found in: Taylor, Oriental Historical Manuscripts II, 160–167. The best entries into the worldview of the palaiyakkarars are their vamcavalisor family histories, such as the Maravar Cati Vilakkam (‘Light on the Marava Caste’). In Indian Muslim theory, the term ‘fitna’ or sedition has been used to describe a state of perpetual conflict in which supposed tributaries are constantly rising up against their overlords. See: Wink, André, Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya (Cambridge 1986) chapter 1.1Google Scholar; Wink, André, ‘Sovereignty and Universal Dominion in South Asia’, The Indian Economic and Social History Reviati 21/3 (1984) 265–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the clearest example of the opposing views of the Nayaka and the Tevar in Company sources: ARA, VOC 1251, OBP 1666, fls. 743–746 and 753–754, Rapp. Van Rheede aan superintendent Van Coens, 7–10–1665.

51 Kadhirvel, History of the Maravas, esp. 15–37; David Shulman, ‘On South Indian Bandits and Kings’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 17/3 (1980) 283–306; Vanamalai Pillai, The Setu and Ramesvaram; Arasaratnam, “Commercial Policies of the Sethupathis’, 251–256.

52 Reconstruction based on VOC records and the traditional accounts of Marava history: Kadhirvel, History of the. Maravas, 21–50; Vanamai Pillai, The Setu and Ramesvaram, passim; Ramaswami, A. ed., Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers 6: Ramanathapuram (Madras 1972) 78–88Google Scholar; Sathyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayaks of Madura, 122–203; Nelson, The Madura Country III, 121–210.

53 Dirks, The Hollow Crown, 53. See also: Dirks, , ‘Political Authority and Structural Change in Early South Indian History’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 13/2 (1976) 125–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dirks, , ‘The Structure and Meaning of Political Relations in a South Indian Little Kingdom’, Contributions to Indian Sociology (ns) 13/2 (1979) 169–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dirks, , ‘The Past of a Palaiyakarar: The Ethnohistory of a South Indian Little King’, Journal of Asian Studies 41/4 (1982) 655–683CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Shulman, David, ‘On South Indian Bandits and Kings’, The Indian Economic and Social History Revieio 17/3 (1980) 283–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 Kadhirvel, History of the Maravas, 21; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 266, 276; Carol Appadurai-Breckenridge, ‘From Protector to Litigant: Changing Relations between Hindu Temples and the Raja of Ramnad’ in: Stein, B. ed., South Indian Temples: An Analytical Reconsideration (New Delhi 1978) 88–94.Google Scholar

55 Nelson, The Madura Country III, 137–138;Sathyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayaks of Madurai, 126; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 276; Ramaswami ed., Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers 6, 82–84.

56 Nirmalatevi, I. ed., Muttu Vicaya Rakunata Cetupati mitu Cokkanatak Kavirayar patiya Panavitu tutu, Publication of the International Institute of Tamil Studies 20 (Cennai 1980)Google Scholar; Kadhirvel, History of the Maravas,35; Sathyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayahs of Madura,184–225; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 276; Ramaswami ed., Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers 6, 85–88.

57 ARA, VOC 1268, OBP 1669, fl. 1173r, Rapp. Van Reede, 2–7–1668.

58 ARA, VOC 1383, OBP 1684, fls. 552r-566r, Rapp. Van Vliet aan gouvr. Pijl ran Ceijlon, 1–7–1683.

59 The ritual significance of Ramesvaram was recognized by all the local rulers in the area. Prior to the actual attack, for example, the Company received warnings from Muttu Virappa Nayaka III of Madurai and the Maratha ruler of Tanjavur Sahaji Bhonsle not to attack the island, being ‘a holy place in the centre of the world’. Both rulers, however, did not act upon their threats of military reprisals against Dutch settlements in their respective territories.

60 Subrahmanyam, Sanjay and Bayly, Chris, ‘Portfolio Capitalists and the Political Economy of Early Modern India’ in: Subrahmanyam, Sanjay ed., Merchants, Markets and the State in Early Modern India (Delhi 1990) 242–265; Arasaratnam, Merchants, Companies, and Commerce, 224Google Scholar; s'Jacob, H.K., ‘State Formation and the Role of Portfolio Investors in Cochin, 1663–1700’, Itinerario 18/2 (1994) 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Subrahmanyam and Bayly, ‘Portfolio Capitalists’, 260–262. It would be interesting to compare and contrast the careers of the contemporaries the Periya Tambi Maraikkayars at Kilakkarai, Timmarasa Aya Nayaka at Jaffnapatnam, and Carpa Chetti at Melur, operating from Tevar, Dutch, and Nayaka-controlled bases, respectively.

62 Sarkar, J.N., The Life of Mir Jumla, the General of Aurangzeb (New Delhi 1979)Google Scholar; Varma, D.C., History of Bijapur (New Delhi 1974) 142–143, 146, 155, and 191Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, Companies Merchants and Commerce, 222–224; Raychaudhuri, Jan Company in Coromandel, 45–74; s'Jacob, , ‘Babba Prabhu: The Dutch and a Konkani Merchant in Kerala’ in: Ross, Robert and Winius, George eds. All of One Company: The VOC in Biographical Perspective (Utrecht 1986) 135–150.Google Scholar

63 Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 264ff; Arasaratnam, ‘A Note on Periathamby Marikkar’, 51–57. Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam identify three individuals belonging to this family invested with the title Periya Tambi, but Company sources make it clear that there were four.

64 The best entries to recreate the worldview of Abd al-Qadir (Citakkati) and his relatives are the eulogy-lamentations and laudatory verses by such poets as Namaccivayappulavar and Pattikacuppulavar. See: Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 267–274.

65 ARA, VOC 1410, OBP 1686, fls. 247r-248r, Artikelen van de vrede met de Teuver, 15–3–1685; VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fls. 400r-402r, Conditien tot contract van vrede tussen de Comp. en Regnade Catta Teuver, 7–9–1690. See also: Heeres ed., Corpus diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum III, 377–380 and 531–536.

66 Some of the more recent works on the Paravas and the pearl fishery are: S. Subrahmanyam, ‘Noble Harvest from the Sea: Managing the Pearl-Fishery of Mannar, 1500–1925’ in: B. Stein and S. Subrahmanyam eds, Institutions and Economic Change in South Asia, 1500–1990 (Delhi forthcoming); Bayly, Saints, Goddesses, and Kings, 321–369; Roche, Patrick A., Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast: A Social Study of the Paravas of the Coromandel (Delhi 1984)Google Scholar; Kaufmann, S.B., ‘A Christian Caste in Hindu Society: Religious Leadership and Social Conflict among the Paravas of Southern Tamilnadu’, Modem Asian Studies 15/2 (1981) 203–234CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Arunachalam, S., The Hislory of the Pearl Fisheries of the Tamil Coast (Ananmalai 1952).Google Scholar

67 Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 67–68, 71–72, and 124–125.

68 ARA, VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fls. 419r-420r, Miss. toepas moor Andre de Morais te Punecaijle aan adml. Van Goens, 10–12–1658. Joāo da Cruz had been deposed in mid-1657 at the orders of the Portuguese Captain Antonio de Amaral.

69 ARA, VOC 1506, OBP 1693, fls. 798v-799r and 860r-860v, Dagregister gouvr. Van Rhee, 12–8–1692 – 8–9–1692.

70 Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 17–31.

71 Arunachalam, The History of the Pearl Fishery, 87–93; Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, 265ff, Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, 79ff; Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 36–40.

72 ARA, VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fl. 13v, Miss. gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon aan Bat., 3–7–1684. See also: VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fls. 332r-333v, Miss. commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 14–2–1684; Idem, fls. 407r-416v, Res. commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin, 21–3–1684; Idem, fls. 168v-178r, Res. gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon, 3–4–1684; Idem, fls. 179v-184v, Res. gouvr. Pijl en raad van Ceijlon, 9–4–1684; Idem, fls. 307r-310r, Extract miss. commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 13–4–1684; VOC 1405, OBP 1685, fl. 1839r, Transl. ola Teuver aan Timmersa, 26–4–1684; VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fls. 310r-311r, Extract miss. opp.k. Van Rhee en koopm. Fauconnier van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 28–4–1684; Idem, fls. 335r-335v, Miss. commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 19–5–1684.

73 Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 38. ARA, VOC 1270, OBP 1670, fls. 153r-154r, Redenen en oorzaken Madurese oorlog, 19–12–1669. The Portuguese attempt to incorporate the Paravas as a client community bears close resemblance with the alliances the Nayakas of Madurai and the Tevars of Ramanathapuram forged with the Maraikkayars of Kayalpatnam and Kilakkarai, respectively.

74 Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, 325; Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 42–43 and 54–59.

75 Kaufmann, ‘A Christian Caste in Hindu Society’, 204; Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 56.

76 Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, esp. 341–347; Kaufmann, ‘A Christian Caste in Hindu Society’, 210–213; ARA, VOC 1479, OBP 1691, fl. 559r, Dagelijkse aantekening van de parelvisserij op de kust ran Madure door opp.k. Alebos en kapn. De Theil, 20–6–1690. For a discussion of the fused Hindu-Christian beliefs of Tamil Christians in the interior, such as the Alampuram Nadars (Shanars), low-ranking palmyra cultivators and petty traders in Ramanathapuram, see: Mosse, David, ‘Catholic Saints and the Hindu Village Pantheon in Rural Tamil Nadu, India’, Man (ns) 29 (1994) 301–332CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mosse, David, ‘Roman Catholicism and Hindu Village Society in Tamil Nadu, India’ in: Stewart, Charles and Rosalind, Shaw eds, The Politics of Religious Synthesis (London/New York 1994) 85–107.Google Scholar

77 Letter from Father Pierre Martin, missionary of the Company of Jesus, to Father Charles le Gobien, 1–6–1700. Cited in: le Gobien, Charles ed., Lettres édifiantes et curieuses écrites des missions etrangeres par quelques missionaires de la Compagnie de Jesus V (Paris 1708) 100.Google Scholar

78 van Goor, J., Jan Kompenie as Schoolmaster: Dutch Education in Ceylon, 1690–1795 (Groningen 1978) 7–37Google Scholar; Boudens, R., The Catholic Church in Ceylon under Dutch Rule (Rome 1957) 73–88Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, S., ‘Oratorians and Predikants: The Catholic Church in Ceylon under Dutch Rule’, Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies 1/2 (July 1958) 216–222.Google Scholar

79 Ibid., 103–104. In November 1659, Van Goens informed Batavia of ‘a prominent and sensible pattangattim’, who had himself instructed by the predikant Almeida and eagerly frequented the Protestant church and catechization at Tuticurin. ARA, VOC 1230, OBP 1660, fl. 133r, Miss. adml. Van Goens aan Batavia, 12–11–1659.

80 Markus Vink, ‘The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of the Fishery Coast: The Portuguese-Dutch Struggle over the Parava Community of Southeast India, 1645–1691’ (Paper presented at the American Historial Association, 111th Annual Meeting, New York City, 2–5 January 1997).

81 Foster ed., The English Factories in India, 1661–1664, 254–255.

82 Roche, Fishermen of the Coromandel Coast, 48ff; Bayly, Saints, Goddesses and Kings, 327ff. For the independent-mindedness of the Paravas, see for example the letter of the jati talaivan Dom Henrique da Cruz and the other Parava headmen of January 1659 to Admiral Van Goens. ARA, VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fls. 417r-4177v, Brief principaalste Paravas aan adml. Van Goens, 23–1–1659; VOC 1308, OBP 1676, fl. 560v, Nadere consideration commt. Huijsman aan gouvr. Van Goens de Jonge, 23–12–1675.

83 Lach, Donald F. and van Kley, Edwin J., Asia in the Making of Europe III: A Century of Advance. Book one: Trade, Missions, Literature (Chicago/London 1993) XXXIX–XLIII.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

84 ARA, VOC 1270, OBP 1670, fl. 151r, Redenen en oorzaken van de Madurese oorlog, 19–12–1669;James Ford Bell Library, B 1738 Mos., Manuscript papers relating to Dutch trade in India, fls. 58 and 112–113, Beschrijving van den oorsprong der Naijken van Madure, 23–11–1677. These views were shared by other Europeans, such as Walter Travers, the English factor at Alvar Tirunagari, Emmanuel Martinz, Superior of the Madurai Mission, and the Jesuit Frei Fernao de Queyroz. See: Foster ed., The English Factories in India, 1661–1664, 252; Bertrand, La mission du Madure II, 394–395; De Queyroz, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon I, 80, 91–94, and 173.

85 Using Hippocrates’ theory of the four humours and the Aristotelian notion of the ‘golden mean’, Bodin argued that the inhabitants of the southern and northern regions suffered from extremes (black bile and yellow bile, respectively), while those of the middle region (which included Asia) were superior, enjoying a proper blending of the elements.

86 Montesquieu, , The Spirit of the Laws (Cambridge, N.Y., 1989) esp. Book XIV, chapters IIVGoogle Scholar; Inden, Ronald, ‘Orientalist Constructions of India”, Modern Asian Studies 20/3 (1986) 416, 421–423, and 441CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine, ‘Introduction: Les yeux fertiles de la mémoire. Exotisme Indien et représentations Occidentales’ in: Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine ed., L'Inde et l'imaginaire: India in Western Imagination, Collection Purusartha 11 (Paris 1988) 19–20.Google Scholar A subsequent article in the same volume unfortunately does not go beyond the Renaissance but contains a number of observations valid also for the post-Renaissance era. Geneviève Bouchon, ‘L'image de l'Inde dans l'Europe de la Renaissance’ in: Weinberger-Thomas ed., L'Inde et l'imaginaire, 69–90.

87 ARA, VOC 1270, OBP 1670, fls. 151r-151v and 159v-160r, Redenen en oorzaken Madurese oorlog, 19–12–1669.

88 Ibid.

89 Tracy, James D., ‘Introduction’ in: Tracy, James D. ed., The Political Economy of Merchant Empires (New York 1991) 9–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Raben, R., ‘Facing the Crowd: The Urban Policy of the Dutch East India Company, 1600–1800’ in: Mathew, K.S. ed., Mariners, Merchants and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History (New Delhi 1995) 209–246.Google Scholar

90 For a summary of the argument: Colenbrander, H.T. ed., Jan Pieterszoon Coen: Bescheiden omtrent Zijn Verblijf in Indië VI (The Hague 1934) 333ff and 451–474.CrossRefGoogle ScholarMeilink-Roelofsz, , Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague 1962) 196–202Google Scholar; Arasaratnam, S., ‘Monopoly and Free Trade in Dutch-Asian Commercial Policy: Debate and Controversy within the VOC’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 4 (1973) 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

91 The best way of recreating the Van Goenses' imperialist vision is by reading their letters to the Heeren XVII, especially between 1670 and 1675, and their ‘memories van overgave’ of 1663, 1675, and 1679.

92 For the Company policy vis-à-vis the Paravas and Roman Catholic population of Jaffnapatnam in this period, compare van Goor, J., Jan Kompenie as Schoolmaster (Groningen 1978)Google Scholar; Boudens, R., The Catholic Church in Ceylon under Dutch Rule (Rome 1957)Google Scholar; Boudens, R., ‘Attempts of Catholic Missionaries to Enter Ceylon in 1681–1683’, Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (ns) 4 (1955–1956) 35–44Google Scholar; Arasaratanam, Dutch Power in Ceylon, 215–236, and esp. note 78.

93 ARA, VOC 1252, OBP 1666, fl. 841, Miss. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon aan Batavia, 15–6–1665. This argument was the driving force behind the attempt to control the trade between southern India and Ceylon (1670–1695).

94 The request for permission to build a fortification at Tuticurin is a constant in the ‘imperialist’ correspondence with the High Government at Batavia and the Directors at home and one of the key demands in the successive embassies to the Nayaka court of Madurai.

95 The best and most recent book on this topic is Gaastra, Femme, Bewind en Beleid bij de VOC, 1672–1702 (Zutphen 1989).Google Scholar Gaastra distinguishes the Orangist Valckenier and the Pro-regent Reynst-Van Vlooswijck-Tulp factions at Amsterdam, and the Orangist Thibault- Huyssen and Pro-regent Veth-Van Reygersberge factions at the Kamer Zeeland. Van Goens was probably associated with the Amsterdam faction led by Gillis Valckenier.

96 The most extreme reformer by far was the Amsterdam regent and burgomaster Coenraad van Beuningen, who was placed under legal restraint in 1688 for reasons of insanity.

97 Although the Company correspondence of the 1670s is full of this ‘soul-searching’ debate, the best entries on the mercantile vision are the so-called generale missiven or letters from Batavia to the Directors between 1670 and 1675.

98 ARA, VOC 889, BUB 1665, fl. 461, Miss. GG en R aan gouvr. Van Goens en raad van Ceijlon, 13–9–1665.

99 ARA, VOC 1396, OBP 1685, fl. 308r, Miss. commt. De Heijde en raad van Tuticurin aan gouvr. Pijl, 13–4–1684.

100 ARA, VOC 1470, OBP 1691, fls. 883r-883v, Miss. comms. Van Reede aan gouvr. Pijl en geeligeerd gouvr. Van Rhee van Ceijlon, 4–10–1690.

101 See, for example, A.Th. van Deursen, ‘De Wereld van de Gouden Eeuw’ in: Beliēn, Van Deursen, and Van Setten eds, Gestalten van de Gouden Eeuw, 20–22; J.L. Price, ‘De Koopman’ in: Beliēn, Van Deursen, and Van Setten eds, Gestalten van de Gouden Eeuw, 49–59.

102 Having written this tract, Heurnius actually served as a predikant at Batavia from 1624 to 1634.

103 The best contemporary sources for the vision of the predikanten are the tracts of Dutch theologians in the Republic, such as Heurnius, Walaeus, and Voetius, and the published accounts of Rogerius and Baldaeus. Recent works on the predikant position towards Islam and Hinduism are, respectively: Steenbrink, Karel, Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam: Contacts and Conflicts, 1596–1950 (Amsterdam/Atlanta GA 1993) esp. 11–75Google Scholar; van Goor, Jurrien, Kooplieden, Predikanten en Bestuurders Overzee: Beeldvorming en Plaatsbepaling in een Andere Wereld (Utrecht 1982) esp. 109–134Google Scholar; Goor, Jurrien van, ‘Een Groninger Predikant op de Kust van Coromandel’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 87 (1972) 205–215.Google Scholar See also: Niemeijer, H.E., Calvinisme en Koloniale Sladscultuur: Batavia 1619–1725 (Almelo 1996) 123–143Google Scholar; Koolen, G.M.J.M., Een Seer Bequaem Middel: Onderwijs en Kerk onder de 17e Eeuwse VOC (Kampen 1993) passim.Google Scholar

104 J.R. Heurnius, De legatione evangelica ad Indos capessenda admonitio (Leiden 1618). For a summary of this rare book see: Callenbach, J.R., Justus Heurnius, eene Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis des Christendoms in Nederlandsch Oost-Indië (Nijkerk 1897) 52–53.Google Scholar

105 Antonius Walaeus, Het Ampt der Kerckendienaren (Middelburg 1615); Antonius Walaeus, Opera Omnia (Leiden 1647); Joosse, L.J., Reformatie en Zending, Bucer en Walaeus, Vaders van Reformatorische Zending (Goes 1988)Google Scholar; de Lind van Wijngaarden, J.D., Antonius Walaeus (Leiden 1891)Google Scholar; Borsius, J., ‘Antonius Walaeus in Zijn Leven en Zijne Verdiensten’, Nederlandsch Archief voor Kerkelijke Geschiedenis 19, serie 2, 8 (1848) 1–55Google Scholar; Koolen, Een Seer Bequaem Middel, 71–72;. Steenbrink, Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam, 46–49.

106 Gisbertus Voetius, ‘De Muhammedismo’ appeared in his Selectae disputationes theologicae II (Utrecht 1655); van Oort, J. et al., De Onbekende Voetius (Kampen 1989)Google Scholar; Andel, H.A., De Zendingsleer van Gisbertus Voetius (Kampen 1912)Google Scholar; Duker, A.C., Gisbertus Voetius (Leiden 1897)Google Scholar; Koolen, Een Seer Bequaem Middel 65–82; Steenbrink, Dutch Colonialism and Indonesian Islam, 49–54.

107 Caland, W. ed., De Open-deure tot het Verborgen Heydendom door Abraham Rogerius, Werken uitgegeven door de Linschoten Vereeniging 10 (The Hague 1915) XXXIX"–XLIIGoogle Scholar; Philippus Baldaeus, Naauwkeurige en Waarachtige Onldekking en Wederlegging van de Afgoderye der Oosl-Indische Heydenen, Malabaren, Benjanen, Gentiven, Bromines en meest alle Andere Oost- Indianen […] (Amsterdam 1672) 2–3. For an annotated, albeit abridged, version of this third part of the ‘Naauwkeurige Beschryvinge van Malabar en Choromandel’: de Jong, A.J. ed., Afgoderye der Oost-Indische Heydenen door Philippus Baldaeus (The Hague 1917).Google Scholar De Jong, however, left out the polemical sections arguing that they ‘are of no concern to us’ (sic). De Jong ed., Afgoderye, LIX.

108 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III. Book one, 478–479 and 493–494; Idem, Book two, 911–918, 995–996, 1030 and 1056.

103 Caland ed., De Open-deure, 22 and 57; Baldaeus, Afgoderye, 47.

110 Baldaeus, Afgoderye, 8 and 173; Caland ed., De Open-deure, 39–40, 57, 77–80, and 93.

111 Caland ed., De Open-deure, 118 and 126; Baldaeus, Afgoderye, 166.

112 For comparison, see the anti-Catholic sentiments of the Madras Reverend William Isaacson, who in January 1660 protested against the presence of the French Capuchin Friars Ephraim de Nevers and Zenon de Baugé. F. Penny, The Church in Madras I, 27–28; H.D. Love, Vestiges of Old Madras I, 179–181; Foster ed., The English Factories in India, 1655–1660, 403–405; Foster, The English Factories in India, 1661–1664, 59.

113 See, for example, Baldaeus, Naauwkeurige Beschryvinge, 150; ARA, VOC 1231, OBP 1660, fls. 421r-422r. Miss. Baldaeus van Tuticurin aan Van Goens, 15–3–1659; VOC 1320, OBP 1660, fl. 322v, Miss. Bongarts int jacht Coilangh aan H. XVII, 4–2–1660; VOC 1329, OBP 1663, fls. 1130v-1131r, Miss. Bongarts in Jaffna aan Batavia, 13–3–1660.

114 VOC 1329, OBP 1663, fl. 1130v, Missive dominee Bongarts aan Batavia, 13–3–1660.

115 See, for instance, Von der Behr's slighting comments on the behaviour of Governor Maetsuyker of Ceylon (‘Herr Mattzūcker’) and the commanding officers (‘die Grandes’) during the 1649 punitive expedition against Madurai with those of Saar on the actions of Admiral ‘Richlof von Guntz’ and the ‘Herrn Officiers’ following the conquest of Jaffnapatnam in 1658. L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 4, 111–113 and 116; L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 6, 163–164.

116 Zupanov, Ines, ‘Aristocratic Analogies and Demotic Descriptions in the Seventeenth-Century Madurai Mission’, Representations 41 (Winter 1993) 123–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar I thank Sanjay Subrahmanyam for this reference.

117 See Zwitzer, H.L., ‘De Militie van den Staat’: Het Leger van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden (Amsterdam 1991) 39–61Google Scholar; H.L. Zwitzer, ‘De Soldaat’ in: Beliën, Van Deursen, en Van Setten eds, Gestalten van de Gouden Eeuw, 175–176; Lucassen, Jan, Migrant Labour in Europe, 1600–1900: Tlie Drift to the North Sea (Beckenham 1987) esp. 133–156Google Scholar; Bruijn, J.R., Gaastra, F.S., and Schōffer, I., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries I, RGP Grote serie 165 (The Hague 1987) 154–155Google Scholar; Bruijn, J.R. and Lucassen, J., Op de Schepen der Oost-Indische Compagnie: Vijf Artikelen van J. de Hullu (Groningen 1980) chapter 1 and app. 3Google Scholar; Bruijn, J.R., ‘De Personeelsbehoefte van de VOC Overzee en aan Boord; Bezien in Aziatisch en Nederlands Perspectief’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 91/2 (1976) 234–236.Google Scholar

118 Krantz, E.U., ‘The Journey to the Far East: Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century German Travel Books as a Source Study’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 54/1 (1981) 65–87Google Scholar; Kirsch, Peter, Die Rose nach Batavia: Deutsche Abenteurer in Ostasien 1609 bis 1695 (Hamburg 1994) 9–14Google Scholar; The travel accounts of Von der Behr, Herport, Saar, and Schweitzer have been reissued in modern editions by L'Honoré Naber, compare Naber, L'Honoré ed., Reisebeschreibungen, volumes 4, 5, 6, and 11 (The Hague 1930-1931).Google Scholar

119 L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 4, pp. 66 and 115–116.

120 Idem 5, pp. 118–125.

121 Idem 6, p. 128.

122 Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III. Book two, 957; L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 11.

123 L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 11, pp. 56–59.

124 James D. Tracy, ‘Asian despotism? The Views of European Sojourners in the Muslim Empires, 1500–1800’ (unpublished paper); Gungwu, Wang, ‘The Hokkien Sojourning Communities’ in: Tracy, James D. ed., The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750 (Cambridge 1990) 405.Google Scholar

125 Godefridus Carolinus, Het Hedendaagsche Heidendom, of Beschrijving van den Godtsdienst der Heidenen […] (Amsterdam 1661). Struck by disease, Carolinus set out on his imaginary ‘odyssey’ as he explained: ‘[Having read these disparate accounts], I realized that until now nobody had put together all the heathen religions ex professo. Therefore, I became disposed to see (besoeken) what I could get from the accounts on this topic.’ De Jong ed., Afgoderye der Oost-Indische Heydenen, LXII-LXIII.

126 Olfert Dapper, Asia: of Naaukeurige Beschrijving van het Rijk des Grooten Mogols ende Groat Gedeelte van Indien […] (Amsterdam 1672); De Jong ed., Afgoderye der Oost-Indische Heydenen, LXXV-LXXXIII. A work instrumental in recreating the transfer of knowledge on Asia (along with Lach) in early modern Europe is: Landwehr, John, VOC: A Biography of Publications Relating to the Dutch East India Company, 1602–1800 (Utrecht 1991).Google Scholar

127 L'Honoré Naber, Reisebeschreibungen 3, pp. 54–55.

128 Dibbits, H. and Rooijakkers, G., ‘Materiële Cultuur tussen Zee en Vasteland: De Diffusie en Receptie van Asiatica in de Republiek’ in: Davids, K. et al. eds, De Republiek tussen Zee en Vasteland: Buitenlandse Invloeden op Cultuur, Economie en Politiek in Nederland, 1580–1800 (Leuven/Apeldoorn 1995) 123–148Google Scholar; M. Barend-van Haeften, ‘Reisteksten over de Oost’ in: Davids et al. eds, De Republiek tussen Zee en Vasteland, esp. 112–113; Paasman, B., ‘Lof van Oost-Indiën: Liedjes uit de VOG-tijd’, Indische letteren 6 (1991) 1–17Google Scholar; Idem, , We Wil d'r Mee naar Indië Varen? Liedjes uit de Compagniestijd (Amsterdam 1991) esp. 150–163Google Scholar; Hartkamp-Jonxis, E. ed., Sits: Oost-West Relaties in Textiel (Zwolle 1987) 42–105Google Scholar; C.A. Davids, ‘De Zeeman’ in: Beliēn, Van Deursen, en Van Setten eds, Gestalten van de Gouden Eeuw, 97–99. Adam Knobler has even suggested the concept of the ‘marketing of empires’ in early modern Europe, ‘Popular Imperialisms in the Early Modern Period: Mass Culture and European Expansion’ (Paper presented at the Forum on European Expansion and Global interaction. First meeting, Minneapolis, April 19–21, 1996).

129 Bassingh himself mentions neither Rogerius nor Baldaeus, but in his discussion of Hinduism merely refers to ‘complete works published in our language’. James Ford Bell Library, Minneapolis, Minn., B 1738 Mos., Manuscript papers relating to Dutch trade in India, fl. 90, Beschrijving van de oorsprong der Naijken van Madure, 23–11–1677; Also published in François Valentijn, Ouden Nieuw Oost-Indiën V (Dordrecht 1724–1726) 296. Both versions are incomplete and inaccurate transcriptions of the lost original.

130 Schwartz, ‘Introduction’ in: Schwartz ed., Implicit Understandings, 6; Lach and Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe III. Book one, 301–305.