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{{short description|French Indianist and missionary}}
{{refimprove|date=May 2014}}
'''Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ʊər|ˈ|d|uː}}; {{lang-fr|Cœurdoux}} {{IPA-fr|kœʁdu|}}; 18 December 1691, [[Bourges]], France – 15 June 1779, [[Pondicherry]], [[French India]]) was a French [[Jesuit]] missionary in South India and a noteworthy [[Indology|Indologist]].

==Early training==
Cœurdoux entered the novitiate of the Jesuits in 1715, was ordained in 1725, and made his final religious profession as a Jesuit in 1731, at Orléans. Shortly afterwards he left for India, arriving at the [[Madurai Mission]] (now in [[Tamil Nadu]] in southern India) in 1732.

==Career as a missionary and religious superior==
Cœurdoux first studied [[Telugu language|Telugu]], a major language of the [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] group, in order to work in the region of present [[Andhra Pradesh]], in particular Krishnapuram, Bukkapuram, and Darmavaram Madigubba (1736 to 1737). In 1737, for health reasons, he had to return and remain in [[Pondicherry]]. He was the superior of the mission at [[Karnataka]] from 1744 to 1751 while he was serving the 4,000 Catholic Tamils in Pondicherry. As superior, he was obliged, against his own inclinations, to enforce the very restrictive decree of [[Pope Benedict XIV]] (12 September 1744 ) on the "[[Malabar rites]]". Convinced of the importance of the contemplative life, he brought together a number of Tamil girls and founded a [[Carmelites|Carmelite]] [[convent]] with them in 1748.

==Contributions to Indology==
Cœurdoux is best known today as an Indologist. Talented at languages, he composed a Telugu–French–Sanskrit dictionary which is still authoritative. A disciple of the Jesuit philologist [[Jean Calmette]], whom he knew personally in India, he was particularly interested in [[comparative linguistics]]. [[Max Müller]] called him the father of [[Comparative linguistics|comparative philology]]. He was in contact with the French Indologists [[Anquetil Duperron]] and Joseph Nicolas de l'Isle. In a ''Mémoire'' sent to the ''[[Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres|Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres]]'' (France) in 1767, he demonstrated the similarity between the [[Sanskrit]], [[Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]], and even [[German language|German]] and [[Russian language|Russian]]. His observations were later compiled and published by others in Europe. He never returned to his homeland. Anquetil Duperron published a whole chapter after the [[French Revolution]].<ref>See:
* Anquetil Duperron (1808) [https://books.google.com/books?id=It67j8ZjoZwC&pg=PA647#v=onepage&q&f=false "Supplément au Mémoire qui prècéde"] (Supplement to the preceding memoir), ''Mémoires de littérature, tirés des registres de l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres'' (Memoirs on literature, drawn from the records of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-lettres), '''49''' : 647–697.
* John J. Godfrey (1967) "Sir William Jones and Père Coeurdoux: A philological footnote," ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', '''87''' (1) : 57–59.</ref> Abbé Dubois also used them, passing them off to the British East India Company in Madras as his own work (1808). It was only in the late 20th century, thanks to the work of J.J. Godfrey and Sylvia Murr (see Bibliography), that Cœurdoux's role in the discovery of the relationship between Sanskrit and the ancient languages of Europe had been re-established.<ref>[[Richard De Smet]], Review of Sylvie Murr, Vol. 1: ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777): Un inédit du père G.-L. Cœurdoux, S.J. dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx''. Vol. II: ''L’indologie du père Cœurdoux'' (Paris: Ecole française d’extrême-orient, 1987), ''Indian Theological Studies'' 27 (1990) 371–373.</ref>

==Bibliography==
* ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens.'' Ed. N.-J. Desvaulx. 1777.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Armenteros, Carolina. [https://brill.com/view/journals/jjs/6/3/article-p439_439.xml "The Enlightened Conservatism of the Malabar Missions: Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux (1691–1779) and the Making of an Anthropological Classic"], ''Journal of Jesuit Studies'', 6 (2019): 439–66.
*DE SMET, Richard. Review of Sylvie Murr, Vol. 1: ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777): Un inédit du père G.-L. Coeurdoux, S.J. dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx. Vol. II: L’indologie du père Cœurdoux'' (Paris: Ecole française d’extrême-orient, 1987). ''Indian Theological Studies'' 27 (1990) 371–373.
*FERROLI, Domenico. ''The Jesuits in Malabar.'' 2 vols. Bangalore, 1939/1951.
*GODFREY, J.J. "Sir William Jones and Père Cœurdoux: a philological footnote." ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'' 87 (1967) 57–59.
*MURR, Sylvie. ''L'Inde philosophique entre Bossuet et Voltaire – I. Moeurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Un inedit du père G.-L. Cœurdoux, S.J. dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx''. Vol. 1. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: Ecole française d'extrême-orient, 1987. 247 pp.
*MURR, Sylvie. ''L'Inde philosophique entre Bossuet et Voltaire – II. L'indologie du père Cœurdoux. Stratégie, apologétique et scientificité''. Vol. 2. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: Ecole française d'extrême-orient, 1987. 250 pp. {{ISBN|2-85539-746-4}}

==See also==
*[[William Jones (philologist)]]

{{portal bar|Biography|Catholicism|France|India}}
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[[Category:1691 births]]
[[Category:1779 deaths]]
[[Category:French Indologists]]
[[Category:18th-century French Jesuits]]
[[Category:People from Bourges]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in India]]
[[Category:Jesuit missionaries]]
[[Category:French expatriates in India]]

Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux - Revision history

>Onel5969 at 13:21, 23 December 2020