The 'Contribution of The Catholic Church in Tamilnadu in rrhe 17th -19th Centuries to an Understanding of Christ
D. JEYARAJ, S.J. With the colonial expansion of the Portuguese, Christianity came into the Tamil country. St Francis Xavier inaugurated the Catholic church in Tamilnadu. Henrique Henriques, a disciple of Xavier was· working in the fishery coast for fifty years till his death in 1600, at Punnaikayal. In the interior, Robert de Nobili, the Italian Jesuit, founded the famous Madurai Mission in 1606. His missionary adaptations and life had profound influence for the spread of the faith;. his writings continue to nourish the faith of the catholics even today. John de Britto spread the faith, particularly in the Marava country;. but we have no books written by him. With the coming of Beschi, the Catholic church in Tamilnadu awakened to a new sense of pride and dignity. Beschi was a poet, a scholar and .an apologist for the catholic church. After him; missionaries like Rossi, who worked in Marava from 1736 for 38 years, Abbe Dubois, a French Foreign Missionary who worked in South India from 1792 for 31 years, Fr. J. B. Trincal (1845-1892) who translated the entire Bible into Tamil, helped the Church to grow. Of all the missionaries in Tamilnadu it can be said without hesitation, the influence of De Nobili has been profound and enduring. Before we treat the Christological contributions of these missionaries' it will be proper to know their background. Most of the early missionaries were Jesuits, products of the Counter-reformation in the Church; they had humanistic training in literature and philosophy; they were committed to defend orthodoxy in doctrine. De N obili, for example, had said: 'First, it is obvious that the preacher must be a man of irreproachable life and bearer of a doctrine which, by its very soundness, will be a refutation of error'.l As foreigners, unfamiliar with the nuances of the language, customs and religious practices, they groped their way cautiously and slowly. DeNobili, for example, corrected Henrique Henriques' usage of certain terms: Moksha for heaven, rather than' Swarga which is associated with the pleasures of the senses; Sarvesuran, a better word for God than Thambiran; several other foreign words like Meesai for Mass (in Tamil
1 Rob ert d e Nobili, On Adaptation, ed. S. Rajamanickam, De N. Research Institute, Palayamkottai 1971 , p. 9.

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Meesai means moustache) were corrected and given new Tamil words. 1 'Nobili coined the terms for Christian theology and prepared a proper vehicle for conveying Christian ideas. He christianised certain words and infused into them a new meaning: Prasadam for instance signified .a gift from the temple. That he uses for grace, the gift from God ... The Christian message became incarnate in Tarnil thanks to his efforts'.3 The missionaries wrote books mostly for the converts from Hinduism, to nourish and strengthen their faith and to show how they were once living in darkness. The books were meant for common people rather than for scholars; the catechists and the new missionaries were presented with these books to spread the faith. A hundred years later Ziegenbalg would write appreciatively about these pioneers: 'They had the best mission in Madurai country. They were mostly Jesuits ... they have to be praised more than the others, because they have learnt the language of these heathens and have taught them in this language and also have left to them many books in this language .. ." De Nobili knew the wisdom of the people whom he instructed and