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LiteratureEast India Company rule

Abbe Dubois's account of south Indian customs published

· Madras Presidency

Abbe Dubois's account of south Indian customs published
CtrlFreak578, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Abbe J. A. Dubois's account of south Indian customs and institutions appeared in London in an English translation.

The French Catholic missionary Jean-Antoine Dubois spent the years 1792 to 1823 working in south India. In 1807 Lord William Bentinck, Governor of Madras at the time, acquired his French manuscript on behalf of the East India Company, paying eight thousand rupees. London saw the publication of an English version in 1816 under the title Description of the Character, Manners and Customs of the People of India. Scholars later established that Dubois had relied on an earlier manuscript by the Jesuit G.-L. Coeurdoux. An expanded French edition by Dubois followed in 1825.

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