The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c24.39

v1.c24.39

This was neither the only, nor the main cause of such an aversion towards the Catholic priests. On account of a fatal misunderstanding the Paravas and their missionaries were called Pranguis; and the missionaries themselves, unaware of the real meaning of this word, had accepted it, and even called the Catholic Religion, ‘the Religion of the *Pranguis*’. Christianity had been wrongly identified with *Pranguism*¹. De Nobili, after a careful study of the meaning which the people attached to this word, realized the great mistake of his predecessors. “The word *Prangui*”, he wrote some years later in his *Apology*, “does not, in the mind of this people, signify either Portuguese, or European, or Christian; for they do not exactly know either the one or the other. It means a vile class of people, despicable to a degree not far removed from the beasts—people without virtue and modesty, given to drink, feeding on unclean meat and even human flesh, incapable of science, divinity or religion. The Hindus”, he continues, “have seldom met men of the illustrious Portuguese nation... The men who come here (from the Portuguese possessions) may be reduced to two classes. They are either men who, being born in India, have no Portuguese blood in them whatsoever, yet think that, when they have learnt by heart four Portuguese words and have dressed themselves like the Portuguese, they have changed their race and have become Portuguese; these we call *Topazes*², and the Indians call them *Pranguis*; hence it is clear that it is not only white men whom they call *Pranguis*, but anyone who, whatever his colour, dresses as a Portuguese. Or they are men who were born Jews, but came to some agreement with the Portuguese, and travel on business. These also the people of Madura call *Pranguis* without any qualification. Now anyone who has to deal with them knows the nobility, the reliability and the cleanliness of these two classes! No wonder then that the *Pranguis* are held most vile”³.