THE PERIOD OF ZIEGENBALG 1706–19

On 9 July 1706 the first Protestant missionaries to India, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plütschau, arrived at Tranquebar on the Coromandel Coast about 150 miles south of Madras. A new epoch in the history of the Christian mission had begun.

The Danes had been in Tranquebar (Tarangambādi, ‘the dashing of the ocean waves on the shore’) since 1620. The area which they rented from the king of Thañjāvur (Tanjore) was no more than five miles by three in extent. Then as now Tranquebar was a small, agreeable port-town, with no good harbour, and a population which was reckoned at 15,000. There was one other village, almost large enough to be called a town, Poreiyār, and fifteen smaller villages. The Danes were more careful than some other powers of the spiritual welfare of their subjects. The establishment in their Indian outpost included two resident chaplains; these held no permanent appointment, and, when one of them was due to return to Denmark, his place was usually taken by the chaplain of one of the ships which periodically arrived from Europe. There are occasional references in official documents to the duty of converting the non-Christians; but nothing seems to have been done, the chaplains confining themselves strictly to their statutory duties as ministers to the European residents of the colony.

When the missionaries arrived, there was no committee of reception to greet them.