“Opinion | Caldwell, Beschi, Ramasamy Naicker: The Unmaking of Hindu Dharma in Tamil Nadu”, News 18, April 7, 2024:
“Bishop Robert Caldwell, the Church-ordained missionary, had nearly three centuries’ worth of past masters to guide him. The first is the well-known fraud, the “Roman Brahmin,” Roberto Di Nobili (1577-1656) who used the sacred Sanatana city of Madurai for his soul-harvesting activities. But more than Nobili, it was his worthy successor, the Italian missionary Constantius Beschi (1680-1743) who decisively changed the direction, focus, and tactics of harvesting Hindu souls in Tamil Nadu.
Beschi was well-versed in Sanskrit but he consciously avoided using Sanskrit terms in his Tamil compositions in praise of St. Joseph, for example. Pompously titled Thembavani (The Unfading Garland), he describes it as an “ornament of poems as sweet as honey” (sic). It contains 3615 stanzas tracing the history of Salvation and the life of St. Joseph.
Beschi is perhaps the first Italian missionary to sow the seeds of Sanskrit destruction in the Tamil Desam. He wrote a series of Tamil grammar and linguistics, profusely praising the grandeur and greatness of this ancient language…..”
Read the full article at News18.com
