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Babba Prabhu: The Dutch and a Konkani Merchant in Kerala

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Hugo K.S' Jacob
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Extract

The Konkani Brahmin Babba Prabhu served the Dutch in Kerala as a merchant, broker and envoy for many years. Nevertheless, the Dutch were divided in their opinion of him. Rijcklof van Goens trusted him in 1663 as a competent merchant, but a year later Hustaert called him a roguish Brahmin. He was alternately praised and blamed, until in 1691, when Hendrik Adriaan van Reede visited Malabar as a commissioner, he was charged with several difficult tasks and was granted rather exceptional privileges. However, after Van Reede's departure pressure was put on him to repay his debts to the Company. Admittedly we can only trace the changing Dutch opinions of Babba and not his opinion of them. No sources other than the Dutch archives are available to us. But they contain a mass of factual information. From these we will reconstruct Babba's relations with the Dutch.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 1985 , pp. 135 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1985

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References

Notes

1. De Nederlanders in Kerala 1663–1701. De memories en instructies betreffende het commandement Malabar van de Verenigde Oost-lndische Compagnie. s'Jacob, H.K., ed. ('s-Gravenhage 1976) 13,29. ( R. G. P., kleine serie 43).Google Scholar

2. Nederlanders in Kerala, XLVII.

3. Ibid., LXXXV.

4. Ibid., LVIII.

5. Ibid., XXV-XXVII.

6. Algemeen Rijksarchief Den Haag (ARA)-Verenigde Oostlndische Compagnie (VOC 1242, fol. 1077ro.

7. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXI.

8. Conlon, Frank F., A caste in a changing world. The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans 1700–1935 (U. of California Press, Berkeley etc. 1977) 14–28.Google Scholar

9. Nederlanders in Kerala, 13.

10. Ibid., 29.

11. Ibid., 35.

12. ARA-VOC 1252, p. 491–492.

13. Ibid. 1245, fol. 579vo-580ro; 521ro-522ro.

14. Ibid. 1253, p. 491–494.

15. Ibid. 1251, p. 1724.

16. Ibid. 888, p. 407; 1252, p. 479–482.

17. Ibid. 1256, fol. 369ro, 265vo; Nederlanders in Kerala, 54.

18. ARA-VOC 1265, fol. 926ro-vo; 1261, fol. 832ro-vo.

19. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXIX.

20. Ibid., LXX.

21. Ibid., LXXI.

22. Ibid.

23. ARA-VOC 1299, fol. 74ro-79vo; 1313, fol. 400ro; 1323, fol. 569ro-573vo.

24. Ibid. 1307, fol. 688vo-689vo.

25. Ibid., fol. 695ro, 704vo.

26. Ibid. 1308, fol. 737vo; 1333, fol. 438ro-vo; 1349, fol. 1533ro-vo.

27. Ibid. 1308, fol. 751ro; 1329, fol. 1417vo-1418ro; Nederlanders in Kerala, 204.

28. ARA-VOC 1340, fol. 1492ro; 1349, fol. 1535vo.

29. Ibid. 1352, fol. 285ro-vo.

30. Ibid., fol. 309ro; 904, p. 1415–1417.

31. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXXIII.

32. ARA-VOC 904, p. 1418; 1352, fol. 283ro-285ro.

33. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXIII.

34. ARA-VOC 1370, fol. 2272ro-2273vo; 1388, fol. 1970vo-1971ro; Nederlanders in Kerala, 201–204, 212.

35. ARA-VOC 321, fol. 243vo-254ro, 307ro-vo.

36. ARA-VOC 1382, fol. 485ro; 1431 fol. 275vo

37. Ibid. 1410, fol. 634vo-635ro.

38. Ibid. 1431, fol. 275ro-vo.

39. Ibid. 1434, fol. 243ro; 1454, fol. 1278vo; 1474, fol. 365ro-vo, 366ro, 367ro-vo.

40. Ibid. 1441, fol. 307ro-308vo; 1449, fol. 609ro-610ro.

41. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXIII-LXIV.

42. Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-lndicum. Heeres, J.E., ed. Vol. 2 ('s Gravenhage 1931), 323–326Google Scholar ; ARA-VOC 1464, fol. 309ro-vo, cf. Corpus Diplomaticum 3 ('s Gravenhage 1934) 498Google Scholar.

43. Madras/India-Tamilnadu State Archives (TSA), Dutch Records 9778–27, Diary 1689, 3–219 passim; the presents to Babba on p. 127.

44. ARA-VOC 1474, fol. 512ro-514vo, 775ro.

45. Ibid. 1478, p. 1582.

46. Ibid. 1527, fol. 66vo, 225ro.

47. Madras/India-TSA 9783–32, p. 25–26.

48. ARA-KA (not renumbered?) 1368, p. 1228.

49. Nederlanders in Kerala, 226–229, 236.

50. Ibid., 248–249.

51. Ibid., 250.

52. Ibid., 252–255; ARA-VOC 1527, fol. 108vo-109ro.

53. ARA-VOC 1527, fol. 102vo-103vo; 1528, fol. 23ro-38vo.

54. Ibid., fol. 408ro-409vo.

55. Ibid., fol. 397vo-400ro, 659ro-660vo.

56. Madras/India-TSA 9790–39, p. 399–401; ARA-VOC 1528, fol. 298ro-299vo; 1527, fol. 45ro.

57. ARA-VOC 1528, fol. 355ro-356vo; Madras/India-TSA 9789–38, p. 30–31.

58. Nederlanders in Kerala, LXXVI-LXXVII, 268–270.

59. Ibid., 271, 278–279.

60. Madras/India-TSA 9836–85, p. 156–157.

61. Nederlanders in Kerala, 283, 337–339, 343.