The Open Door to Hidden Paganism

Abraham Rogerius’s Account of South Indian Hinduism (1651): Critical Introduction, Dutch Text, and Annotated English Translation

Author: Benjamin Leathley

Omslag CGH Hidden Paganism Leathley indd

About this book

This book is due to be released in March 2024, it is now available to back order.

This book presents the first-ever English translation of ‘The Open Door to Hidden Paganism’, one of the earliest and most detailed studies of South Indian Hinduism. Written in 1651 by Abraham Rogerius, a Dutch East India Company clergyman and missionary, it offers an unexpectedly balanced account of the customs and traditions of the South Indian Brahmins. This made it a cornerstone of early European Indology.

In addition to the Dutch original, this edition includes a full English translation, along with the extensive footnotes provided by an anonymous Dutch editor who contextualised Rogerius’s account for a seventeenth-century audience. Text and footnotes together uncover a so-far hidden religious and philosophical conversation of global dimension. Equipped with a rich introduction and detailed endnotes, this comprehensive edition of ‘The Open Door’ dives into the fascinating intersection of missionary agendas, ethnography, and antiquarianism that created this unique work.

Benjamin Leathley is a PhD candidate at the Università di Bologna and Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona. His research interests include early modern travel writing and ethnography and its reception in Europe, as well as the conceptualisation of paganism and idolatry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Available on backorder

Format: Paperback

Pages: 743

Illustrated: Black & White

ISBN Print: 9789087284602

ISBN ePDF: 9789400604971

Published: 19 March 2024

Language: English

Reviews

Joan-Pau Rubiés
“This edition and translation will be particularly valuable, and indeed will mark a turning point, because the author has decided to emphasize the early modern intellectual dimensions through an analysis of the anonymous annotator. … This is a well-focused, original and coherent project that will facilitate the appreciation and study of this fundamental text.”
Joan-Pau Rubiés
“This edition and translation will be particularly valuable, and indeed will mark a turning point, because the author has decided to emphasize the early modern intellectual dimensions through an analysis of the anonymous annotator. … This is a well-focused, original and coherent project that will facilitate the appreciation and study of this fundamental text.”

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