The Madurai Mission, or Madura Mission, (1606-1773/1937-1952) was a Jesuit mission founded in 1606 encompassing the south-eastern portion of the Indian peninsula around the Coromandel coast stretching from its tip to areas slightly north of the Vellar River although it would later lose parts of its jurisdiction to the Carnatic Mission in 1776.Hull, p. 519. It was taken over by the previously mentioned mission following the dissolution of the Jesuits and was only reconstituted as a Jesuit mission again in 1929 before finally being made an independent Jesuit province in its own right in 1952.Society of Jesus, Madura Mission - A History, para. 2-3 of 4. These two missions are known as the Old Madurai Mission (1606-1773) and the New Madurai Mission (1937-1952). The mission is distinguished from earlier Christian presence by being those related to and following in the steps of Roberto de Nobili in the city of Madurai itself and spreading out across the south east of the peninsula from that point.Hull, p. 519.
Background The roots of the Madurai Mission predate its actual founding by almost a century. In 1517 the Paravars of the Pearl Fishery Coast converted en masse to Christianity as a group in order to gain the protection of the Portuguese crown from Arab traders and raiders.Sundararaj, p. 118. The Paravar population’s links with the Portuguese gave great importance to the Jesuits there, who were seen as a link with the Portuguese with whom local Indian powers could negotiate.Sundararaj, p. 118. However, for most of the 16th century, the Jesuits on the Coromandel coast had little interest in going further inland and remained on the coast with the Paravars .Sundararaj, p. 118.
This all began to change in the late 16th century during the reign of Venkata I of the Vijayanagar Empire who received the Jesuits courteously in 1593 and accepted their request to build a church and proselytise in Vijayanagar itself which gave confidence to the Jesuits regarding the possible expansion of their proselytising efforts into the interior of the subcontinent.Sundararaj, p. 119.
Portuguese period Beginnings In 1574 , who had been a former soldier serving the Portuguese in Asia before joining the Jesuits and had been tending to the Paravars since 1560, followed some Paravar migrants to Madurai to take care of their spiritual needs.Karttunen, FERNANDEZ, para. 1 of 1. Society of Jesus, Woodstock Letters, p. 31. Madurai was the capital of the Madurai Kingdom, a vassal state of the Vijayanagar Empire in the South of the Indian peninsula, and was an important Brahmin centre both culturally and economically.Sundararaj, p. 120. Fernandes would later officially be assigned to Madurai following Muthuvirapa’s, the Nayak of Madurai, request for a Jesuit father at his court in exchange for land to build a church in 1595.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 93. Fernandez built a church of St. Mary as well as a school for poor children in Madurai and began his missionary work.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 94. However, he failed to convert a single person both due to his association with the low caste Paravars and the fact that he was a Frangui (a term for Western Europeans and closely associated with the Portuguese).Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 94. When Fernandes attempted to talk to the Nayak of Madurai, he was bluntly told that if he was intending to convert people then he ought to leave and that he was not to speak of the ‘religion of the Frangui’.Sundaraj, p. 120. The failure of Fernandez to convert anyone led to Alberto Laerzio, the provincial official, to send Roberto de Nobili to replace him.
Roberto de Nobili arrived in Madurai in 1606, a date which is often given as the beginning of the Madurai Mission despite Fernandes’s decade long tenure, and quickly took note of the situation.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 94. He realised that it was due to the perception of Christianity as a religion of the lower castes and Frangui that made conversion inconceivable for the Brahmins.Sundaraj, p. 120. De Nobili thus put into practise the idea of accommodatio; he rejected his similarities with Fernandez and stated that he was both a ‘Roman raja’ (i.e. a noble) and a sannyāsi and attempted to present Christianity as something not inextricably bound to the lower castes.Strickland, p. 32. His attempts to live correctly according to Brahmin lifestyle immediately began to bear fruit and he was given some land by Erumeikatti, a local chieftain.Sundaraj, p. 121. In 1608 de Nobili was already facing hostility from the Brahmin community who opposed his preaching a lower caste religion which subsequently lead to de Nobili’s cooks abandoning him, as they did not want to lose standing by serving de Nobili.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 98. This was problematic, as the correct diet was an essential part of being a Brahmin. Luckily for de Nobili, however, in 1608 he also met Śivadharma, a Brahmin from Madurai who must’ve thought highly of de Nobili as he would be referred to by the latter as his maestro.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 98. Not only did Śivadharma prepare de Nobili’s food, he also began to instruct him on the Vedic texts and even translated them, a crime punishable by death.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, pp. 98-99. Furthermore, he also assisted de Nobili in defending against the accusation that the latter was a Frangui; thus impure and therefore restricted from preaching.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 99. In 1609 de Nobili was joined Manuel Leitão, another Portuguese Jesuit. The latter’s arrival was seen as useful by de Nobili because the former’s darker skin would allow him to integrate himself more into Madurai society.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 100. Śivadharma himself converted to Christianity and was baptised as ‘Bonifacio Xastri’,Also written as ‘sastri’. Sastra are the ‘sciences of the country’. although he would refer to himself by his birthname for the rest of his life.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 99.
One issue, which would continuously hamper the mission throughout its entire existence was both its financial upkeep and the view on the part of the local Indians that the mission itself was wealthy. Technically, the mission was to be supported by the Portuguese policy of Padroado, which gave the Portuguese crown administrative authority over overseas missions in exchange for their upkeep. However, the Portuguese crown was lax in its payments and Antonio Vico, another Jesuit missionary, paid for much of the mission’s expenses out of his own pocket.Županov, Missionary Tropics, p. 315. An issue which was further exacerbated by increasing Dutch attacks on the Portuguese Empire in Asia, particularly the later seizure of Cochin in 1662.Chakravarti, pp. 153-154. Many local lords, throughout the whole existence of the old mission, demanded wealth from the Jesuits; including Erumeikatti, who arrested some Jesuits until they gave him a velvet coat.Sundararaj, p. 122.
The Madurai Mission controversy
Relations between Fernandes and de Nobili had been continuously deteriorating since the latter’s arrival in 1606. Beyond de Nobili’s living in high society and Fernandes being consigned to the lower castes, Fernandes rejected Brahmanical traditions as pagan and religious, thus condemning both their adoption and acceptance by de Nobili through his policy of accommodatio.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 95. In 1610 the tensions boiled over and Fernandes sent a letter to Alberto Laerzio who began an inquiry into de Nobili’s adoption and permitting of Brahmin customs within the Christian sphere, a process which led to three separate inquiries (1610, 1617 and 1618).Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 96. Despite these inquiries, de Nobili came out on top and successfully defended his adoption and conservation of Brahmin practices in converting the Brahmin classes of Madurai.
Expansion In 1611, the mission’s project once again came under threat as the local Brahmins again attacked Christianity as a religion of the lower castes and stated that it would denigrate any Brahmin who was a disciple of the Frangui priest which, in turn, led to the shunning of the Brahmin who followed de NobiliTrento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 104. This deteriorating development was arrested by Śivadharma, who requested the intercession of one of the most respected Brahmins in Madurai to determine whether Christianity was indeed a low-caste religion or whether it could be practised by Brahmins. Following an affirmative response, the Christian Brahmins were readmitted into the community and their numbers grew.Trento, Śivadharma or Bonifacio?, p. 104 .
Yet this growth was minute and even where conversions were made only one in three would actually remain Christian.Chakravarti, p. 146. Furthermore, despite the recognition of Christianity as a religion separate from the lower castes, the Brahmins were extremely unhappy with having to share their faith with lower castes. When some Brahmin from Madurai, including Hindu ones, heard that some Jesuit missionaries had not only converted some untouchables but also kept working with them after the fact, they burnt some churches down.Chakravarti, p. 142. By 1622 there were only 29 Brahmin convertsChakravarti, p. 137. .In 1616 the capital of the Madurai Kingdom was also moved from Madurai to Tamilagam, which caused some issues for the Jesuits as the Madurai kings had been generally sympathetic to them in local disputes but now the Jesuits would have to deal with local officials who were often uninterested in their plight.Sundararaj, p. 122.
During the 1620s, de Nobili, and thus the Jesuits, became respected throughout southern India and he was given a royal reception, being cloaked in gold, in many local courts under the Kingdom of Madurai with many giving rights to construct churches or to move freely throughout the realm.Sundararaj, p. 122. One outcome of de Nobili’s success was the segregation of the missions’ clergy itself based on the caste system, although it would only officially be confirmed by Benedict XIV in the 18th century.Strickland, p. 65
This focus on sannyāsi and Brahmin began to change by the 1640s when Baltasar da Costa arrived.Karttunen, COSTA, para. 1 of 1. Unlike de Nobili, da Costa did not believe that successfully converting the Brahmin would cause everyone else to follow suit – especially since the Brahmin themselves were extremely reticent regarding conversion. Instead, da Costa, as a paṇṭāram priest aimed to shift the focus of the mission away from the Brahmin although he did not go as far as Fernandes in discounting de Nobili’s method of accommodatio.Chakravarti, pp. 137, 146.