16th century European contacts with Hinduism

[Steve Farmer]

Valerie Roebuck writes:

> Does anyone know what Hindu religious and philosophical ideas would have
> been accessible in Europe by about 1585?  For example what were the 'works
> of Veaso (Vyaasa)', and other Hindu 'doctors and masters' translated for
> the Jesuits and brought to Rome c. 1559 (D. Ferroli, 'The Jesuits in
> Malabar', Bangalore, 1939, Volume 2, page 402)?  And what did the
> Franciscans and Dominicans (active in S. India from the early 1500s) send
> back to Europe?

I don't know the answer offhand; let me pass this inquiry on to 1000+
Renaissance scholars in a closed forum that I participate in. I'll
report back their responses in a few days.

Preliminarily, I can pass on one curious reference to discussions of
India (involving an Indian traveler in Europe!) that took place four
years *before* Vasco da Gama landed in Calcutta. By chance, I stumbled
over the reference  yesterday. A 1494 letter from the philologist
Angelo Poliziano ("father of philology" to Renaissance scholars, who
never heard of Saakalya, Yaaska, Panini, or Patanjali, etc.) to the
great Renaissance syncretist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94)
apologizes for not visiting Pico that morning, as he had promised, "to
hear the Indian stranger converse with you on the affairs of his
native country." For the letter, see Lillius Gregorius Giraldus,
_Dialogi duo de Poetis suorum temporum_ (Florence 1551, Basil 1580, etc.).

There can be no doubt that Pico interviewed the Indian visitor about
intellectual and not political affairs. In 1486, Pico had proposed a
debate in Rome before the Pope and Cardinals "on everything knowable"
(de omni re scibili), including materials (broken down into 900 topics
and 28 traditions) drawn from "the wise Chaldeans, Arabs, Hebrews,
Greeks, Egyptians, and Latins" -- all the major "nations" (gentes) of
thinkers then known. And here, 8 years later, we find him interviewing
our Indian stranger! More than of passing interest to me (see my book
on Pico's 900 theses, _Syncretism in the West_ [1998 [1999]).

I didn't know about the Ferroli article -- thanks for pointing it out!
Back in a few days, after I check with the Renaissance crowd.

Steve Farmer