More copies of the Khristapurana

The last week has been particularly fertile in terms of unearthing traces of copies of Thomas Stephens' Khristapurana.

Fr Angelo Monteiro who teaches at the Rachol Seminary, Goa, told me that the current Rector of the Seminary is in contact with two people who have manuscripts of the Khristapurana, one in Mapusa, the other in Arambol. Both are, for the present, unwilling to part with or even allow copies to be made of their manuscripts. [News as of 31 January 2011: According to Fr Michael Mascarenhas, SDB, the Arambol copy has been acquired by Fr Pratap Naik, SJ, Director of the Thomas Stephens Koknni Kendr, Alto Porvorim, Goa.]

Fr Michael Mascarenhas pointed out to me yesterday that Jacome Goncalves, famous follower of Jose Vaz, had carried the Khristapurana to Sri Lanka, and had made a translation of it into Singalese, under the title Deva Veda Puranaya. Some indications are in Fr Michael's book, Storm and Tempest: Life of Jose Vaz. So Sri Lanka becomes another field of search!

"The term [purana] was also used by Thomas Stephen [sic], a missionary from England, in the title of his book Christ Purana, written in Konkani language. This important work consists [sic] 10,962 verses, and undoubtedly it influenced Fr Gonsalves' Deva Veda Puranaya." (A. Fernandopulle, Father Jacome Gonsalves: Sinhala Christian Literary Hero [Colombo: St Peter's College, 2000] 14)

Another copy of the Khristapurana: Collection of Bhaugun Kamat Vagh

One more copy of the Khristapurana, indicated in Tadkodkar's book:

[Copy, manuscript.] Collection of Bhaugun Kamat Vagh. Copy in Goa University Library: see Bibliography of Dr Pandurang Sakharam Shennavi Pissurlencar Collections, vol. II (of 3 vols.), Goa University Series No. 3, ed. B.S. Shastry and V.R. Navelkar. Cited in S.M. Tadkodkar, Goan Christian Marathi Vilapika During the 17th Century (Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 2010) 118, note 8. Tadkodkar notes that this copy is from the 19th century, and that sometimes the strophe numbers do not coincide with any of the strophe numbers in other copies mentioned by him (i.e. mainly the Central Library Panjim copy). 

Tadkodkar's Goan Christian Marathi Vilapika: a first look

Finally managed to get a copy of S.M. Tadkodkar's Goan Christian Marathi Vilapika During the 17th Century.

It contains: the texts of the 3 Paixao's / Vilapika's from the Central Library MS of Thomas Stephens' Khristapurana at Panjim, in Roman script; transliterations by T into Devanagari script; and plenty of front and back matter.

Appendix G is entitle "Texts of the Christi Vilapika" in the Table of Contents. This is misleading: it is really an Index to the Texts of the Christi Vilapika.

I wish a good copy editor had been employed!

The system of transliteration has to be checked.

The printing and the fonts used: again, unfortunately, not the best.

But a great work, a great achievement.

Not much about the authorship of the 3 texts; or perhaps it is there, but there are no clear subtitles to the effect.

The Khristapurana was printed in 1616 and 1649 at Rachol, and in 1654 at the College of St Paul, according to Schurhammer, quoted by Priolkar in The Printing Press in India, quoted at T 112.

More on Thomas Stephens

Searched for Thomas Stephens in one of the Waterloo University libraries, and found a tiny note in a French encyclopedia, whose name I forget now. The note dealt solely with Stephens' letter to his father regarding his voyage to India.

In the New York Public Library, instead, I browsed through several collections regarding rare and ancient books and manuscripts - in the UK, in Europe, in the US - but not in Portugal, unfortunately. Of course, most of the time only the collections are listed, and not the holdings in each collection. And then there is the problem of the name: the variations of Stephens' name are enormous. I found, in Graesse, the following: Thomas Estevano; Thomas Estienne de Buston; Thomas Estienne de Buten. These were new to me, except for the first.

More interestingly, I discovered a new edition of the Dictionary of National Biography: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Like the former, the latter also contains an article on Thomas Stephens. But the former was by A.F. Pollard, with its famous mention of having seen the three printed editions in the Archivo Universal in Braga, Portugal. The latter instead contains a new piece on TS, this time by our very own Charles Borges, formerly SJ, and now teaching at ... some Jesuit University in the US. Not much on the Khristapurana, though.

Nelson Falcao's publication of this doctoral dissertation has, instead, found its way into the NY Public Library.

The facilities that these people have: enviable!

I could spend weeks there.

Thomas Stephens and comparative linguistics

This is from Vincent W.J. van Gerwen Oei:

Personally I'm intruiged by the fact that Thomas Stephens was the first to recognize the relation between Indian and European languages, and thus a founder of comparative historical linguistics as a science. 


My transcription from the pertinent sentences on the last page:

Linguae harum regionum sunt et multae. Pronunciationem habent non invenustam, et compositionem latinae graecaeque similem: phrases et constructiones plane mirabiles. Literae syllabarum vim habent, quae toties variatur quoties consonantis cum vocalibus, vel mutae cum liquidis combinari possunt. (T. Stephens, letter to his brother, 1583)

Hubert Olympus Mascarenhas

One small mystery is solved: the H.O. Mascaren, author in 1951 of The Quintessence of Hinduism, mentioned in De Smet's "Sankara Vedanta and Christian Theology" turns out to be H.O. Mascarenhas, and there is quite a bit of information about this Mascarenhas on the net.

The clue turned out to be "H.O. Mascarenhas" listed by De Smet among specialists to whom he sent copies of his doctoral dissertation in 1954: see his "From the Vedas to Radhakrishnan" 1994 1.

Strangely, I think it is this same Mascarenhas who is mentioned by Jose Cosme Costa as proposing theories of pre-Portuguese christianity in Goa.

Hubert Olympus Mascarenhas was a "fiery Indian nationalist" and a priest, besides holding a doctorate and being recognized as an Orientalist, according to what I have gleaned from the net.

Primary

• The Quintessence of Hinduism: The KEY to Indian Culture and Philosophy. Bombay: Fr Bento D'Souza, St Sebastian's Goan High School, Thakurdwar, Bombay 2.
• Konkannachem Apostolik Kristanvponn. Rendered into Kannada script by A.A. Saldanha. Dabul, Bombay: Betal Prakashan, 1960.
• Interview with the Editor of New Leader, reprinted in the Silver Jubilee Souvenir of the Archdiocese of Tellicherry, 1970, see http://thenazrani.org/feasts9.htm

Secondary

• De Smet, Richard. "Sankara Vedanta and Christian Theology." Review of Darshana 1/1 (1980) 33-48 = Understanding Sankara: Essays by Richard De Smet (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, forthcoming) ch. 27.
• De Smet, Richard. "From the Vedas to Radhakrishnan." 1994. 
• Costa, Cosme Jose. Apostolic Christianity in Goa and in the West Coast. Pilar, Goa: Xavierian Publication Society, 2009.
• Gispert-Sauch, George. "Advaita as a Unique Indian Contribution to the Articulation of a Christian Vision of Reality." Relating We Journey: An Interdisciplinary Exploration. [Festschrift for Dominic Veliath.] Ed. Jose Kuttianimattathil. Bangalore: Kristu Jyoti Publications, 2012. 161-175, at 166-170: Advaita Re-discovered: Hubert Olympus Mascarenhas.

Searching for a photo, and information about the family: see 

https://groups.google.com/g/goa-book-club/c/x6p_V6qD3Uk/m/hqHe4XF8DgAJ?pli=1

General bibliography

National Library (India). A Bibliography of Indology. Calcutta 1960. Z3201.C3.
See http://staff.washington.edu/jfwhite/saref/standardfilter.php?style=langstyle.xsl&datz=saref.xml&filterby=English as of 19 May 2010.