Hanxleden, Johan Ernst

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HANXLEDEN, JOHAN ERNST

Jesuit missionary in India; b. Osterkappeln, near Osnabrück (Germany) 1681; d. Palur, India, March 21, 1732. He entered the Jesuits in 1699, volunteered for the East India Mission, and went through his novitiate on the journey. He started from Augsburg on December 8, 1699, in the company of Fathers Weber and Mayer, both of whom died on the voyage. He was an eminent linguist, knowing East Syrian, Malayâlam, and Sanskrit. To Hanxleden and his confrères, Roberto De Nobili and Heinrich roth, belongs the credit of having been the pioneers among Europeans in the study of Sanskrit. Hanxleden compiled a Sanskrit-Portuguese and a Malayâlam-Portuguese lexicon. He composed numerous religious poems and songs in Malayâlam. The Carmelite Paulinus a S. Bartholomaeo brought back Hanxleden's manuscripts and made use of part of them. Most of the writings of Hanxleden are preserved only in manuscripts; a few are extant in the Vatican Library and the library of the University of Coimbra.

Bibliography: a. m. mundadan, "An 'unknown' Oriental scholar: Ernst Hanxleden," Indian Church History Review 23 (1989) 39-63.

[j. wicki]