An Austrian-born Carmelite who spent more than a decade on the Malabar coast in the 1770s and 1780s, Paulinus describes the land, climate, trade, castes, temples, festivals, marriage rites and languages of southern India. He was one of the first European scholars of Sanskrit, and his notes on Hindu worship and dress are detailed and learned, if coloured by a missionary’s outlook.
A valuable early European witness to Kerala before British rule, translated into English in 1800. Download the free EPUB.