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'''Abbe J.A. Dubois''' or '''Jean-Antoine Dubois''' (January 1765 – 17 February 1848) was a French Catholic [[missionary]] in [[India]], and member of the '[[Missions Etrangères de Paris]]'.he was called Dodda Swami by the local people. In his work Hindu manners, customs and traditions he presented Indian cultures, traditions, thoughts and varnasrama system in his work. After some years he returned to France, and authored the book ''Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies,'' a valuable work of [[Indology]]. He is remembered locally for having adopted the way of life, clothing, food (vegetarianism) and language typical of a Hindu monk or [[Sanyasi|renunciate]], and to have thereby earned the trust and respect of the local people. However, he failed in his mission of converting Indians to Christianity, and often expressed the opinion, in writing and in conversation, that the project of bringing the Indians to Christ is doomed to failure.

==Early life==
Dubois was baptized on 10 January 1766 at [[Saint-Remèze]], in [[Ardèche]], now in south-central [[France]]. He was ordained in the [[diocese of Viviers]] in 1792, and sent for India that same year, as an [[Missions Etrangères de Paris|MEP]] missionary.

==Career==

===In India===
In India, Dubois was at first attached to the [[Pondicherry (city)|Pondicherry]] mission, and worked in the southern districts of the present [[Madras Presidency]]. After the fall of [[Seringapatam]] in 1799, he went to [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore]] to reorganize the Christian community.

He abjured European society, adopted the native style of clothing, and made himself in habit and costume as much like a [[Hindu]] as he could. He used to go around in the garb of [[sanyasi]] and abstained from eating meat for many years.

He was credited with the founding of agricultural colonies and the introduction of vaccination as a preventive of [[smallpox]]. He also caused a church to be built in [[Srirangapatna|Seringapatam]], known in his honour as the "Abbe Dubois Chapel."

He was known as ''Fraadh [[Sahib|Saaibh]]'' to the parishioners of the [[Holy Cross Church, Cordel]] in [[Mangalore]], among whom he ministered, and as ''Dodda [[Swami]]-avaru'' in the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysore region]].<ref>{{harvnb|D'Souza|2004|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aAli0XqprNMC&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q&f=false 60]}}</ref>

Rev. [[Elijah Hoole]] of the [[Wesleyan Mission]] records meeting Abbe Dubois on Saturday 4 August 1821 at [[Seringapatam]]. He describes the Abbe as being dressed in Muslim or Turkish clothes. The Abbe complains about many of his followers being forced to convert to Islam by [[Tipu Sultan]]. Having gained proficiency in local languages and customs, the Abbe gained respect among the locals. In his conversation with Elijah, the Abbe expressed the view that India was incapable of accepting Christianity and advised Elijah to return to England at the earliest.<ref name=Hoole>{{cite book|last1=Hoole|first1=Elijah|title=Madras, Mysore, and the South of India: or, A personal narrative of a mission to those countries, from 1820 to 1828|date=1844|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans|location=London|pages=155–157|edition=Second|url=https://archive.org/download/MN41597ucmf_2/MN41597ucmf_2.pdf|accessdate=2 December 2015}}</ref>

===Later career===
Dubois left India in January 1823, with a special pension conferred on him by the East India Company. On reaching Paris, he was appointed director of the [[Missions Étrangères de Paris]], of which he afterwards became superior (1836-1839). He translated into [[French language|French]] the famous book of Hindu fables called ''Panchatantra'', and also a work called ''The Exploits of the Guru Paramartha''.

==Writings on Indology==

===''Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies'' ===
His most notable work was ''Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies''. Although Dubois disclaimed the title of author, his collections were not so much drawn from the Hindu sacred books as from his own careful and vivid observations, and it is this, united to a remarkable prescience, that makes his work so valuable. The book contains three parts:

* a general view of society in India, and especially of the caste system
* the four states of Brahminical life
* religious practices — festivals, feasts, temples, objects of worship

[[Lord William Bentinck]] purchased Dubois's French manuscript for eight thousand [[rupee]]s for the [[British East India Company]] in 1807. In 1816 an English translation was published, and about 1864, a curtailed reprint of this edition was issued. The Abbé, however, largely recast his work as ''Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l'Inde'' (published in Paris in 1825), and in 1897 this revised text (now in the India Office) was published in an edition with notes by H. K. Beauchamp.

Sylvie Murr has claimed that Dubois' ''Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies'' derived from [[Gaston-Laurent Cœurdoux]]'s original manuscript, ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens'', now lost.<ref>See ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Un inédit du Père G.-L. Cœurdoux, SJ, dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx''. Vol. 1. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. ''L'Indologie du Père Cœurdoux''. Vol. 2. Éd. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. See also [[Richard De Smet]], Review of the two volumes of Murr, ''Indian Theological Studies'' 27 (1990) 371-373.</ref>

===Other writings===
Of much interest was his ''Letters on the State of Christianity in India'', published in London in 1823, in which he asserted his opinion that under existing circumstances, there was no possibility of "overcoming the invincible barrier of [[Brahmin]]ical prejudice" so as to convert the Hindus to any sect of Christianity. He acknowledged that low [[caste]]s and [[outcaste]]s might convert in large numbers, but of the higher castes, he wrote:

<blockquote>
"Should the intercourse between individuals of both nations, by becoming more intimate and more friendly, produce a change in the religion and usages of the country, it will not be to turn Christians that they will forsake their own religion, but rather ... to become mere [[atheism|atheists]]."
</blockquote>

==Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam==
<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Abbe Dubois Chapel, [[Seringapatam]]
File:Memorial Plaque - Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Memorial Plaque
File:Bell Tower - Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Bell Tower
File:Church Bell at the Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Church Bell
</gallery>

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==References==

===Primary===
*''Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India, and of their Institutions, religious and civil''. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1816. Derived, as Sylvie Murr shows, from G.-L. Cœurdoux's original manuscript, ''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens'', now lost. See De Smet, Review of the two volumes of Murr, ''Indian Theological Studies'' 27 (1990) 371–373.
*''Letters on the state of Christianity in India, in Which The Conversion On The Hindoos Is Considered As Impracticable. To which is added a vindication of the Hindus, male and female, in answer to a severe attack made upon both by the Reverend ****''. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1823. Reprinted by Asian Educational Services [?].
*Hough, James. ''A Reply to the Letters of the Abbé Dubois on the State of Christianity in India''. London: L.B. Seeley & Son, 1824.
*Townley, H. ''An Answer to the Abbé Dubois in which the various wrong principles, misrepresentations and contradictions, contained in his work, entitled "Letters on the State of Christianity in India" are pointed out; and the Evangelization of India is, both on sound principle and on solid fact, demonstrated to be practicable''. London, 1824.
*[Refutation of the letters of Abbe Dubois]. ''The Friend of India'' (Calcutta) (1825).
*''Mœurs, institutions, et cérémonies des peuples de l'Inde''. Enlarged edition of the 1816 work. Paris, 1825, 2 vols.
*''Exposé de quelques-uns des principaux articles de la théogonie des Brahmes''. Paris, 1825.
*[Reply to criticisms.] ''Bulletin des Sciences'' (May 1825).
*''Le Pantcha-tantra ou les cinq ruses, fables du Brahme Vichnou-Sarma''. Paris, 1826.
*''The Exploits of the Guru Paramarta.''
*[Reply to criticisms.] ''Asiatic Journal'' vol. 1 (1841).
*''Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899.
*''Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies: The Classic First-Hand Account of India in the Early Nineteenth Century''. Ed. Henry K. Beauchamp. Courier Dover, 2002.

===Secondary===
*''Mœurs et coutumes des Indiens (1777). Un inédit du Père G.-L. Cœurdoux, SJ, dans la version de N.-J. Desvaulx''. Vol. 1. Éd. Sylvie Murr. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. Pp. 247.
*''L'Indologie du Père Cœurdoux''. Vol. 2. Ed. Sylvie Murr. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1987. Pp. 250.
*De Smet, Richard. 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: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1987). ''Indian Theological Studies'' 27 (1990) 371–373.
*{{Citation
|last= D'Souza
|first= Edwin J. F.
|title= V.J.P. Saldanha (Makers of Indian literature)
|year= 2004
|publisher= Sahitya Akademi
|isbn= 978-81-260-2028-7}}.
{{EB1911|wstitle=Dubois, Jean Antoine|volume=8|page=624}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubois, Jean-Antoine}}
[[Category:1765 births]]
[[Category:1848 deaths]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in India]]
[[Category:People from Ardèche]]
[[Category:French expatriates in India]]

Jean-Antoine Dubois - Revision history

>ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ at 06:49, 31 December 2020