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Father Philippus Baldaeus, Baelde or Philip Balde (October 1632, Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

 – 1672, Geervliet) was a Dutch minister. He went to Jaffna
Jaffna
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna district located on a peninsula of the same name. Jaffna is approximately six miles away from Kandarodai which served as a famous emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical...

, Ceylon
Dutch period in Ceylon
Ceylon was a governorate of the Dutch East India Company between 1658 and 1798 on the island currently known as Sri Lanka.In the early 17th century, Sri Lanka was partly ruled by the Portuguese and the Sinhala kingdom, who were constantly battling each other...

 with an invading Dutch force during 17th Century. As the first European he documented the life, language and culture of Tamil people
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...

, living in the north of the island. It is a great historical record, similar to Mahawamsa, and it was immediately published in Dutch and German (with several beautiful pictures).

Life

Baldaeus had a Flemish
Flemish
Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....

 origin. His ancestors had left Ypres
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...

 in 1584. Baldaeus lost both his parents, when he was four years old. His uncle Robertus Junius was a missionary on Dutch Formosa. After studying Oriental languages in Groningen (1649) and theology in Leiden (1650), and discussions with Arnoldus Montanus
Arnoldus Montanus
Arnoldus Montanus was a Dutch teacher and author. He published books on theology, history, and geography of both Holland and far-away countries....

, he preached from 1655 at Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Jaffanapatnam and Point de Galle, either in Dutch or Portuguese (language). From 1657 he served under Rijklof van Goens
Rijckloff van Goens
Rijckloff van Goens was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1678-1681. He wrote extensively about his travels to Ceylon and India....

, occupying the Coromandel
Coromandel Coast
The Coromandel Coast is the name given to the southeastern coast of the Indian Subcontinent between Cape Comorin and False Divi Point...

 and Negapatnam in 1658. Cornelis Speelman
Cornelis Speelman
Cornelis Speelman was Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1681 to 1684.Cornelis Janzoon Speelman was the son of a Rotterdam merchant. He was born on 2 March 1628. In his 16th year, he left aboard the Hillegersberg for the India. He was employed as an Assistant in the service of the...

 became its first governor. By 1660 the Dutch controlled the whole island except the kingdom of Kandy
Kingdom of Kandy
Kingdom of Kandy was an important independent monarchy of Sri Lanka, located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century...

. When the Dutch occupied the coast of Malabar
Dutch Malabar
Malabar, also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between 1661 and 1795, and is part of what is today collectively referred to as Dutch India...

 in 1661, Baldaeus took part. Around 1662 he returned to Ceylon and Baldaeus learned Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 and studied Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

.

The company objected to Baldaeus' suggestions for improving religious education and converting the natives, and ruled that funds should be raised from fines levied in the enforcements of school rules. Philippus Baldaeus refused to conform and was nearly accused by the Governor of dishonest financial dealings. He could not continue his linguistic studies because the Church, bound by the state, thought it a waste of time.

In 1666 he returned to the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

 and preached in Geervliet from 1669 until his death at the age of 39 or 40. He left behind a full and faithful account of the civil, religious, and domestic condition of the countries through which he travelled. In this, he introduced also an interesting account of the Hindu mythology
Hindu mythology
Hindu religious literature is the large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism, notably as contained in Sanskrit literature, such as the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. As such, it is a subset of Nepali and Indian culture...

, and some specimens of the Tamil language
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, including the translation of the Lord's Prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...

: defective enough it is true, but remarkable as the first treatise, printed in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, on any Indian language. The title of the whole work is Description of the East Indian Countries of Malabar, Coromandel, Ceylon, etc. (in Dutch, 1671) The book is dedicated to the bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...

 Cornelis de Witt
Cornelis de Witt
Cornelis de Witt was a Dutch politician.-Biography:Cornelis de Witt was a member of the old Dutch patrician family De Witt. He was born on 15 June 1623 in Dordrecht, Holland, Dutch Republic...

.

Legacy

The Tamils and the Kandyan Kingdom collaborated and conspired with the Dutch rulers of Batavia (today's Jakarta in Indonesia). The Dutch invasion brought religious freedom for Tamils and Muslims.

The Dutch and the later colonial English ruler reigned approximately three centuries in length with each ruling for approximately 150 years. The Jaffna Tamil has several Portuguese and Dutch words still in usage.

The islands of Palk Strait
Palk Strait
Palk Strait is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Mannar district of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with the Palk Bay and thence with the Gulf of Mannar in the southwest. The strait is wide. Several...

 are renamed during Dutch rule in Leiden, nowadays Kayts
Kayts
Kayts , is one of the important villages in Velanai Island which is a small island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the North of Sri Lanka. There are number of other villages within the Velanai Island such as Allaipiddy, Mankumpan, Velanai, Saravanai, Puliyankoodal, Suruvil, Naranthanai and...

 and other cities of the Netherlands, like Delft
Delft
Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam and The Hague....

. Still at the Point Pedro Market Square a granite stone inscription marks the place where Rev. Baldeus has preached to the Tamils under a big tamarind
Tamarind
Tamarind is a tree in the family Fabaceae. The genus Tamarindus is monotypic .-Origin:...

 tree. This tamarind tree was uprooted during the cyclone
Cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone is an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate anticlockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. Most large-scale...

 of 1963.

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