Manuel de Faria e Sousa’s First European Systematic Exposition of “Hinduism” in the Second Volume of Asia Portuguesa (1640–1674)
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Abstract
Originally planned but not completed in time for the journal’s special issue in homage to Pavlo Ritter, this paper seeks to rescue the lengthy textual representation of “Hinduism” in Spanish, completed in 1640 by the Portuguese intellectual Manuel de Faria e Sousa, which was only published in 1674 by Lisbon presses. This study covers the main themes of Faria e Sousa’s dissertation, from Hindu cosmogony and myths to the religious practices observed by Catholic missionaries, especially in the Malabar region. The research highlights the sources of Sousa’s text and his literary effort to offer to a cult reader auditorium of Spanish a curious and very open systematic digest of the Hindu religion interpreted through Christian parallels and comparisons alongside some erudite mobilization of classic topoi that had been in circulation throughout the European cultural world since the Renaissance. Faria e Sousa explains in the introduction and other marginal notes that his dissertation on the “religion of India” was based on a manuscript written in Portuguese, without authorship, sent from Portugal to Madrid by an influential epochal writer, memorialist, and owner of an extensive library, Manuel Severim de Faria (1584–1655), powerful canon of the Évora dioceses. This Portuguese manuscript of 73 folios still exists in the Évora Public Library, entitled “Tratado dos deuses gentílicos de todo o oriente e dos ritos e cerimónias que usam os Malabares” (Treatise on the Gentile Gods of All the East and on the Rites and Ceremonies Used by the Malabarians), dated from 1618 and attributed to the Jesuit Manuel Barradas (c. 1570–1646), missionary in India and later in Ethiopia. This paper explains that this manuscript’s primary source of Faria e Sousa dissertation was a copy of a selected abridged version of a polemic treatise of the Italian Jesuit missionary Giacomo Fenicio (1558–1632), later receiving the title of its first chapter: “Livro da Seita dos Índios Orientais” (East Indian Sect Book). It has circulated in Portuguese among the Jesuit missionaries in India to teach them how to criticize and denounce the “Brahmins’ idolatry”. The only remaining integral manuscript copy of Fenicio’s large text belongs to the British Library (Ms. Sloane 1820) and was published in 1933 in Uppsala by Jarl Charpentier, unfortunately with numerous misreadings and gaps. Faria e Sousa’s dissertation on “Hinduism” allows the readers to rescue the non-polemic and descriptive segments of Fenicio’s largely unknown work, completing it and rebulbing its anonymous circulation among some Portuguese Jesuits and intellectuals up to reach the pages of Asia Portuguesa. Moreover, Faria e Sousa’s text is much more than a simple copy and translation of the manuscript abridging Fenicio’s treatise, adding text, comments, and remarks, thus producing an exciting digest of the religious cosmology, mythology, and practices that nowadays we commonly identify as “Hinduism”.
How to Cite
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Manuel de Faria e Sousa; Giacomo Fenicio; Manuel Barradas; Hinduism; Malabar; Christian parallels; Classic “topoi”; burlesque; folklore; religious and cultural accommodation
Manuscript sources:
Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Roma, Ms. Goa 54: Barradas M. Tratado primeiro. Do estado da Santa Fé romana em Ethiopia quando se lançou o pregão contra ella; Tratado segundo. Do reino de Tygrê e seus mandos em Ethiopia; Tratado terceiro. Da cidade e fortaleza de Adem (1634), 204 f.
Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), Roma, Ms. Goa 59: Trancoso G. F. Sumario das serimonias e modo de proceder dos brâmanes destas partes da India conforme suas lleis e doutrinas dos seus doutores, ff. 142 (Trancoso Gonçalo Fernandes. Tratado do Pe. Gonçalo Fernandes Trancoso sobre o Hinduísmo (Maduré, 1616) (1973), José Wicki (ed.), Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, Lisboa).
Biblioteca Pública de Évora (BPE) – Tratado dos deuses gentílicos de todo o oriente e dos ritos e cerimónias que usam os Malabares, [atr. to Manuel Barradas], [1618], ff. 73, [1 br.]
British Library, Ms. Sloane 1820 – LIVRO primeiro “Da seita dos Indios Orientais e principalmente dos Malavares” [ff. 1–36]; Livros II–VII “Da ley dos Indios” [ff. 37–271]; Livro VIII “Do culto dos falsos deoses dos Indios orientais” [ff. 272–340] (Fenicio G. (1933), The Livro da Seita dos Indios Orientais, Jarl Charpentier (ed.), Almqvist & Wiksells, Uppsala).
Printed sources:
Barros João de (1552), Primeira Década da Ásia, dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram no descobrimento dos mares e terras do Oriente, Germão Galharde, Lisboa.
Barros João de (1553), Segunda Década da Ásia etc., Germão Galharde, Lisboa.
Barros João de (1563), Terceira Década da Ásia etc., João de Barreira, Lisboa.
Barros João de (1613), Quarta Década da Ásia etc., ed. João Baptista Lavanha, Imprensa Real, Madrid.
Camões Luís de (1639), Lusiada de Luis de Camões principe de los poetas de España comentada por Manuel de Faria i Sousa, Cavallero del Habito de Christo, i de la Casa Real, 2 vols, Ivan Sanchez, Madrid.
Couto Diogo do (1602), Decada Quarta (Dos feitos que os portugueses fizeram na conquista e descobrimento das terras e mares do Oriente, em quanto governaram na India Lopo Vaz de Sampaio e parte de Nuno da Cunha), Pedro Craesbeeck, Lisboa.
Couto Diogo do (1612), Decada Quinta (Dos feitos... em quanto governaram na India Nuno da Cunha, Garcia de Noronha, Estevão da Gama e Martim Afonso de Sousa), Pedro Craesbeeck, Lisboa.
Couto Diogo do (1614), Decada Sexta (Dos feitos... em quanto governaram na India João de Castro, Garcia de Sá, Jorge Cabral e Afonso de Noronha), Pedro Craesbeeck, Lisboa.
Couto Diogo do (1616), Decada Setima (Dos feitos... em quanto governaram na India Pedro de Mascarenhas, Francisco Barreto, Constantino Conde de Redondo, Francisco Coutinho e João de Mendonça), Pedro Craesbeeck, Lisboa.
Quevedo y Villegas Francisco de (1912), El siglo del cuerno. Gracias y disgracias del ojo del culo y otros trabajos festivos, Imp. Feliu y Susanna, Barcelona.
Sousa Manuel de Faria e (1666), Asia Portuguesa, Vol. I, Henrique Valente de Oliveira, Lisboa.
Sousa Manuel de Faria e (1674), Asia Portuguesa, Vol. II, Antonio Craesbeck de Mello, Lisboa.
Sousa Manuel de Faria e (1675), Asia Portuguesa, Vol. III, Antonio Craesbeck de Mello, Lisboa.
Sousa Manuel de Faria e (1695), The Portuguese Asia, 3 vols, Translation by John Stevens, C. Brome, London.
Sousa Manuel de Faria e (1945), Ásia Portuguesa, 3 vols, Livraria Civilização, Porto.
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