The Translucence of the Missionary Translation in Seventeenth-Century South India: Cultural Filters, Translation Policies, Textual and Conceptual Grids

Abstract

This article investigates how religions are based on the process of translating religious concepts and practices, and how different translations have brought about different understandings and representations of religions in the past and may continue to do so in the present. Proceeding from the notion that the construction of religions is based on a constant process of translation, the focus of the analysis is on the translation process itself. I examine the translation of religious concepts and practices in the missionary context of South India in the sixteenth century, employing “cultural translation” as an analytical tool. In order to analyze the translation process, I apply a theoretical ‘tool kit’—a combination of theories from different translation studies, to a pivotal source, Roberto Nobili’s (1577–1656) Informatio. This Latin treaty was composed for the purpose of translating and accommodating the Tamil Sanskrit Brahmanism of South India so as to explain it to a Latin-speaking Roman audience.