Ezour-Védam
Europe’s Illusory First Glimpse of the Veda
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v2i1.23Keywords:
francis Whyte ellis, Ezour-Védam, Jesuits, natural religion, Rammohun Roy, Veda, VoltaireAbstract
A text in french with the title Ezour-Védam was proclaimed by Voltaire as a sample of ancient indian wisdom. it was soon suspected of coming from a missionary source, and this view has prevailed. in 1817, francis ellis studied and described the collection of texts in Pondicherry to which it belonged, and in 1984 ludo Rocher published the french text with a study of its possible origins. the present article examines the text again, relating it to european thought and Jesuit missionary methods. its reception by Voltaire and others, the meaning of the title, the common description of it as a forged Veda, and a misunderstanding concerning Rammohun Roy, are also discussed.
References
Anquetil Duperron, Abraham-Hyacinthe. 1771. Le Zend-Avesta. 2 vols. Paris.
Banerjea, Jitendra Nath. 1974. The Development of Hindu Iconography. 3rd edn; reprint of 2nd, 1956. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Besterman, Theodore. 1969. Voltaire. London: Longmans.
— 1972a. Correspondence and Related Documents: Definitive Edition, XXII. The Complete Works of Voltaire, vol. 106. Banbury: The Voltaire Foundation.
— 1972b. Correspondence and Related Documents: Definitive Edition, XXIV. The Complete Works of Voltaire, vol. 108. Banbury: The Voltaire Foundation.
Castelnau-l’Estoile, Charlotte de. 2006. ‘The Uses of Shamanism: Evangelizing Strategies and Missionary Models in Seventeenth-century Brazil.’ In O’Malley, John W., SJ and others (eds.), The Jesuits II: Culture, Sciences and the Arts 1540-1773: 616-37. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Castets, J., SJ. 1935. L’ezour védam de Voltaire et les pseudo-védams de Pondichéry. Pondichéry: Société de l’histoire de l’Inde française.
Colebrooke, H. T. 1858. ‘On the Védas or Sacred Writings of the Hindus.’ In Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus: 1-69. 2nd edn. (First published in Asiatic Researches: 8, 369-476. Calcutta 1805).
Dahmen, Pierre. 1934. ‘Extraits de lettres inédites du P. Jean Calmette, S.J. missionaire dans l’Inde.’ Revue d’histoire des missions 17: 109-25.
Ellis, Francis (Whyte). 1822. ‘Account of a Discovery of a Modern Imitation of the Vedas, with Remarks on the Genuine Works.’ Asiatic Researches 14: 1-59.
EV. Ezourvédam, as printed in Rocher 1984: 107-206).
Figueira, Dorothy M. 1993. ‘The Authority of an Absent Text: The Veda, Upangas, Upavedas, and Upnekhata in European Thought.’ In Patton, Laurie L., (ed.), Authority, Anxiety and Canon: Essays in Vedic Interpretation: 201-33. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Filliozat, Jean. 1954. ‘La naissance et l’essor de l’indianisme.’ Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises 29: 256-96. Reprinted in Filliozat. 1974. Laghuprabandha: choix d’articles d’Indologie. Leiden; Brill.
Hawley, Daniel S. 1974. ‘L’Inde et Voltaire.’ In Mason, H. T., (ed.), Studies on Voltaire and the XVIIIth Century, vol. 110. Oxford: Taylor Institution.
Hough, James. 1839. Christianity in India. 2 vols. London.
Ith, J. n.d. (1779). Uebersetzung und Commentar über den Ezour-Vedam. Oder die Geschichte, Religion und Philosophie der Indier. 2 vols. Leipzig: Wolff.
Killingley, Dermot. 1993. Rammohun Roy in Hindu and Christian Tradition. Newcastle upon Tyne: Grevatt & Grevatt.
— 2003. ‘Hinduism.’ In Ridgeon, Lloyd, (ed.), Major World Religions: 8-58. New York: Routledge.
Lafont, Jean-Marie. 2000. Indika: Essays in Indo-French Relations, 1630-1796. Delhi: Manohar.
Lagrée, Jacqueline. 1991 La raison ardente: religion naturelle et raison au XVIIe siècle. Paris: Vrin.
Majumdar, J. K. 1941. Rammohun Roy and the Progressive Movements in India. Calcutta: Art Press.
Murr, Sylvia. 1983. ‘Les conditions de l’émergence du discours sur l’Inde au siècle des lumières.’ Purusartha: 7, 233-84.
— 1986. ‘Les Jésuites en l’Inde au XVIIIe siècle: Praxis, utopie et préanthropologie.’ Revue de l’université d’Ottawa 56: 9?26.
— 1987. L’Inde philosophique entre Bossuet et Voltaire. 2 vols. Paris: École française d’extrême-orient. Vol. I: Moeurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Vol. II: L’indologie du Père Coeurdoux: stratégie apologétique et scientificité.
Omont, Henri. 1902. Missions archéologiques françaises en orient aux xviie et xviiie siècles. 2 vols., paginated continuously. Paris: Imprimerie nationale.
Rocher, Ludo. 1984. Ezourvedam: A French Veda of the Eighteenth Century (Edited with an introduction). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
— 1986. The Puranas. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Sainte Croix, Guillaume de Clermont Lodève, baron de. 1778 (anonymously published). L’Ezour-Vedam ou ancien commentaire du Vedam, Contenant l’exposition des opinions religieuses et philosophiques des Indiens, Traduit du Samscretam par un Brame. 2 vols. Yverdon: De Felice.
Sen, S. P. 1958. The French in India. Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyay.
Singh, Iqbal. 1958. Rammohun Roy: A Biographical Enquiry into the Making of Modern India, vol. I. Bombay: Asia Publishing House.
Sonnerat, Pierre. 1782. Voyages aux Indes orientales et à la Chine, fait par ordre du roi depuis 1774 jusqu’en 1781. 2 vols. Paris.
Voltaire. 1963 (begun as Nouveau plan d’une histoire de l’esprit humain, 1745; then Essay sur l’histoire générale et sur les moeurs et l’esprit des nations depuis Charlemagne jusqu’à nos jours, 1756; then Essai sur les moeurs 1769). Essai sur les moeurs et l’esprit des nations et sur les principaux faits de l’histoire depuis Charlemagne jusqu’à Louis XIII. Ed. Pomeau, René.2 vols. Paris: Garnier.
— 1984 (1767). La Defense de mon oncle à Warburton. Ed José Michel Moureaux (ed.). Oxford: Taylor Institution.
— 1994 (various editions from 1764, culminating in La raison par alphabet, 1769). Dictionnnaire philosophique. Ed. Mervaud, Christiane, et al. Oxford: Taylor Institution.
Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine. 1983. ‘Les Mystères du Véda. Spéculations sur le text sacré des anciens brames au siècle des lumières.’ Purusartha: 7, 177-231.
Witek, John W., SJ. 1982. Controversial Ideas in China and in Europe: A Biography of Jean-Francois Foucquet, S.J. (1665-1741). Rome: Institutum Historicum S[ocietatis] I[esu].
Young, Richard Fox. 1981. Resistant Hinduism: Sanskrit Sources on Anti-Christian Apologetics in Early Nineteenth-century India. Publications of the Di Nobili Research Library, 7. Vienna: Gerold.
Zürcher, Erik. 1996. ‘Renaissance Rhetoric in Late Ming China: Alfonso Vagnoni’s Introduction to his Science of Comparison.’ In Masini, Federico, (ed.), Western Humanistic Culture Presented to China by Jesuit Missionaries (XVII-XVIII Centuries). Rome: Institutum Historicum S[ocietatis] I[esu].
