We have heard about the Portuguese and their atrocities against Hindus and their destruction of Hindu temples. The genocide committed in the name of Christianity is well documented in history under the Goa Inquisition. But what about other invaders from Europe, the Dutch, the French and the British? Were they saints who propagated Christianity through love and compassion? History, as taught to us, doesn’t highlight the outrages committed by the Christian Church and clergy against Hindus, their temples and culture, in their frenzy to convert entire Bharat to Christianity. And the colonial Christian rulers either looked the other way or actively connived with the evangelists in their aggression.
One such destruction occurred at the ancient and most revered temple of Vedapureeswarar (Shiva) in Puducherry under French rule in 1748, when Joseph Francois Dupleix reigned as the Governor-General of French India. The bigotry of the Jesuit priests of St. Paul Church in Puducherry and the active connivance of Governor General J. Dupleix, as well as his wife Jeanne Albert, in destroying the Vedapuri Iswaran temple would not have seen the light of history if not for the meticulous recording by Ananda Ranga Pillai, Chief Dubash (Translator), in his very detailed diary. The Private Diary of Anand Ranga Pillai, translated from Tamil into English by Rev. J. Frederick Price and K. Rangachari, sheds light not only on the administration, trade, and war of those times but also on the evangelical excesses committed by the Jesuit priests against the Hindu populace.
Pillai had fastidiously documented the happenings date-wise, a rarity amongst Hindus. From these diary notes, we learn about the ill-treatment of Hindus in the French territories, particularly in Puducherry, where Pillai’s ancestors, a family of merchants, had moved at the invitation of the French to build their trading empire. Talking about the extremities of the religious policy followed by the French rulers, the editor of the English translation notes:
“…It appears to have been ordered that no temple should be repaired; Nainiyappau was ordered to be converted within six months under pain of losing his post as Chief Dubash; Hindu festivals were prohibited on Sundays and the principal Christian feasts, even when these regulations had caused the greater part of the town to be deserted; the Jesuits urged a temple should be pulled down instead of conciliatory measures being employed (Ref. 1). ….this zealous proselytising policy was one of the reasons why Pondicherry was far inferior to Madras as a commercial centre; and perhaps the same cause also contributed to the absolute failure of Dupleix’s efforts to induce the Madras merchants to settle under the French.”
As it almost always happened with renowned and celebrated temples, the St. Paul Church was built, too, provocatively, adjacent to the Vedapuri Iswaran temple in Pondicherry. The clergy also obtained an order from the King of France to destroy the Hindu temple, but the Governors of French territory hesitated to execute that order, for the fear of antagonising the majority Hindu population and also out of the apprehension that the Hindu merchants may leave Pondicherry, resulting in loss of edge to the British in Madras. However, this did not stop the Christian priests from desecrating the temple often, with the administration looking the other way. Further, the clergy received active support from an important person who effectively ruled from behind the scenes, Madame Jeanne Dupleix, a Christian of mixed European and Indian descent, also called Joanna Begum by native Indians.
For fifty years, they tried to destroy the temple, but could not. However, they never tired themselves of desecrating the temple and provoking Hindus. The sacrilegious incident happened for the first time on 17th March 1746 as recorded by Pillai in his diary: “On Wednesday night at 11, two unknown persons entered the Iswaran temple carrying in a vessel of liquid filth, which they poured on the heads of the Gods, around the altar and into the temple, through the drain of the shrine of Iswaran; and having broken the pot of dirt on the image of the God Nandi, they went away through a part of the building which had been demolished.”
As the report of this sacrilege spread, Hindus, “from the Brahman to the Paraiah,” held a public meeting. When the Governor Dupleix heard of it, he sent his chief peon to disperse the meeting. The peon “Struck a Chetti on the cheek” and ordered the people to go away. The people, however, defied the order and protested, “You better kill us all.”
Another sacrilege happened on December 31, 1746 as recorded by Pillai in his diary: “… to-night at 7, that an earthen jar, filled with filth, was thrown from within the grounds of the Church of St. Paul, into the temple of Vedapuri Iswaran. It very nearly fell on the head of Sankara Aiyan, who was at the shrine of God Pillaiyar (Vinayaka) …. When the jar struck the ground and broke to pieces, the stench emitted was unbearable.” Pillai further records that although the Governor was convinced, he took no action against the Jesuits of St. Paul’s Church, doubtless, under pressure from the Jesuits and also from his wife.
Though the Governor did not hold the Jesuits in an exalted position in his opinion, under pressure from them and his wife, he advised Pillai to meet the Superior at the St. Paul Church to reconcile, as they held some grudge against him. When Pillai met Father Coeurdoux on September 20, 1747, he records that the Jesuit Father tried to entice him to become a Christian: “… if you had been a Christian, many others would have become so too”. When Pillai protested, the priest laced the inducement with a mild threat: “…I am sure that all will become Christian if only you would set the example. We should be quite satisfied with you as the Chief Dubash if you were a Christian. As you are not, we have had several times to urge M. Dupleix to appoint one. We have written to Europe, and we will write again. We shall do our utmost, we will speak in the Council, for we have got a letter from the King that the post must be reserved for Christians.” .
The British troops had surrounded Puducherry in September 1748, and fearing war, most of the Hindus had migrated out of the town in distress. The note in the diary on September 7 narrates the happenings: “This morning, tents were pitched around St. Paul’s Church and two hundred soldiers and a hundred Sepoys were quartered there. The Governor Dupleix, M. Paradis and others went thither and desired that a mortar be mounted there. But they asked that the Iswaran temple should be pulled down. … so, as this is a time of war, a council was held and the priests were told that the Iswaran temple would be demolished.”
That Pillai was frustrated with these developments is echoed in his diary. He wrote, “The Governor has dishonoured himself. Firstly, he has listened to his wife’s words and allowed her to manage all affairs and give all orders… The priests of St. Paul’s Church have been trying for the last fifty years to pull down the Vedapuri Iswaran temple; former Governors said that … they would earn dishonour if they interfered with the temple, that the merchants would cease to come here, and that the town would decay; they even set aside the King’s order to demolish the temple. But the Governor listens to his wife and has ordered the temple to be destroyed, thereby adding shame to his dishonour.”
Pillai continued in his Diary of September 8, “Yesterday, 200 soldiers, 60 or 70 troopers and Sepoys were stationed at St. Paul’s Church. This morning, M Gerbault (the Engineer), the priests with diggers, masons, coolies and others, 200 in all, with spades, pickaxes and whatever is needed to demolish walls, began to pull down the southern wall of the Vedapuri Iswaran temple and the outhouses…” (Ref. 9). Pillai alleges that the Governor had been working to demolish the temple since his appointment and he tried to get Muttayya Pillai to do it in May or June 1743, but the latter would not consent, though the Governor threatened to cut his ears off and beat him publicly and even to hang him.”.
Pillai noted, “The Governor allowed the Brahmans to depart, because ten or twenty of them might be bold enough to suffer death……; but he ordered that those who went should not be readmitted, thus taking advantage of the war to get rid of the Brahmans, though other caste people might return. … Besides, he has posted soldiers to frighten away even fifty or a hundred persons, should so many come to speak on behalf of the Brahmans. The four gates of the fort have been closed by reason of the troubles, and he has ordered the destruction of the temple.”
So Pillai advised the Brahmans to remove and transfer the Murtis and other sacred items to the Kalahasti Iswaran temple. But they did not agree and expressed their readiness to die instead. Pillai tried to impress the Hindus “I heard just now that the southern wall and the outhouses had been pulled down, and that they were demolishing the Arthamantapam and Mahamantapam. …. The St. Paul’s priests will send the European soldiers, Coffrees (Kaffir), Topasses and even their Parish converts with clubs into the temple to carry away, break and damage all they can. If you complain, they will only beat you. So you will lose not only the temple, but also the articles, the images used in the festivals, the Pillaiyar and all other images….. I cannot describe the boundless joy of the St. Paul’s priests, the converts, Madame Dupleix and M. Dupleix. In their delight, they will surely enter the temple, and will not depart, without breaking and trampling underfoot the idols and destroying all they can. So go quickly and remove all the articles.”
Pillai adds, “Just then, news was brought that Father Coeurdoux, the Superior of St.Pauls’s Church, had kicked the inner shrine with his foot and had ordered the Coffrees (Kaffir) to remove the doors, and the Christians to break the Vahanams” (Ref. 14). Pillai further records: “…I heard that the priests of St. Paul’s Church told the Coffrees, soldiers and Pariahs to beat the Heads of Castes when they went to the temple to remove the articles. They were scarcely suffered to approach the temple, and when they were removing the Vahanams, shoulder-poles and temple documents, each man was beaten twenty or thirty times. It was with extreme difficulty that they rescued the idols used in the processions and the Pillaiyar.”
“Then Father Coeurdoux of Karikal came with a great hammer, kicked the Lingam, broke it with his hammer, and ordered the Coffrees and the Europeans to break the images of Vishnu and the other Gods. Madame went and told the priest that he might break the idols as he pleased. He answered that she had accomplished what had been impossible for fifty years, and she must be one of those Mahatmas who established the religion (Christianity) in old days…” Then Valram also kicked the great Lingam nine or ten times with his sandals in the presence of Madame and the priest and spat on it, out of gladness, and hoping that the priest and Madame would regard him also as a Mahatma… I can neither write nor describe what abominations were done in the temple. … The priests, the Tamil Christians, the Governor and his wife are more delighted than they have ever been before….”.
Pillai came to know later that “the temple had been levelled with the ground and that the whole people were troubled at the heart”. He added, “The wise men will say that the glory of an image is as short-lived as human happiness. The temple was destined to remain glorious till now, but now has fallen.”.
The temple site was encroached upon. In a letter (in French) dated December 20, 1952, Frere L Faucheux wrote to historian Yvonne Gabele: “The map of Pondicherry made by de Fer and published in 1705 placed the Vedapurisvara Pagoda at the east end of today’s Nida-Rajappa-Ayyer Street. I presume that all the land east of the missionaries’ cemetery, the land of the Mission’s printing press, and the stretch of the Mission Etrangères Street contiguous to them, belonged to it. The pond of the Pagoda took up almost all the land between the Mission Etrangere Street, the continuation of Nida-Rajappa-Ayyer Street, and the compound of the Sisters of Saint Louis-de-Gonzague. Its southern part encroached on half the breadth of Saint Ange Street”.
The Vedapuri Iswaran temple, though razed and obliterated with no trace left behind and its holy land encroached upon, resides in the memory of every Hindu even today, just as many other temples that were lost to the swords and hammers of the frenzy religious bigots and foreign invaders for over a thousand years. All that those bigots could destroy were our temples and nothing more; they miserably failed in their attempt to destroy our spirit, our culture, our plurality and the essence of Hindutva.
