Jean-Antoine Dubois

Dubois was baptized on 10 January 1766 at Saint-Remèze, in Ardèche, now in south-central France. He was ordained in the diocese of Viviers in 1792, and sent for India that same year, as an MEP missionary. ==Career==

In India In India, Dubois was at first attached to the Pondicherry mission, and worked in the southern districts of the present Madras Presidency. After the fall of Srirangapatna in 1799, he went to Mysore to reorganize the Christian community. Rev. Elijah Hoole of the Wesleyan Mission records meeting Abbe Dubois on Saturday 4 August 1821 at Seringapatam. He describes the Abbe as being dressed in Muslim or Turkish clothes. The Abbe complains about many of his followers being forced to convert to Islam by Tipu Sultan. Having gained proficiency in local languages and customs, the Abbe gained respect among the locals. In his conversation with Elijah, the Abbe expressed the view that India was incapable of accepting Christianity and advised Elijah to return to England at the earliest. Later career Dubois left India in January 1823, with a special pension conferred on him by the East India Company. On reaching Paris, he was appointed director of the Missions Étrangères de Paris, of which he afterwards became superior (1836-1839). He translated into French the Panchatantra, a famous book of Hindu fables, and a work called The Exploits of Guru Paramartha. ==Writings on Indology==

Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies His most notable work was Hindu manners, customs and ceremonies. Although Dubois disclaimed the title of author, his collections were not so much drawn from the Hindu sacred books as from his own careful and vivid observations, and it is this, united to a remarkable prescience, that makes his work so valuable. The book contains three parts: • a general view of society in India, and especially of the caste system • the four states of Brahminical life • religious practices — festivals, feasts, temples, objects of worship Other writings Of much interest was his Letters on the State of Christianity in India, published in London in 1823, in which he asserted his opinion that under existing circumstances, there was no possibility of "overcoming the invincible barrier of Brahminical prejudice" so as to convert the Hindus to any sect of Christianity. He acknowledged that low castes and outcastes might convert in large numbers, but of the higher castes, he wrote: "Should the intercourse between individuals of both nations, by becoming more intimate and more friendly, produce a change in the religion and usages of the country, it will not be to turn Christians that they will forsake their own religion, but rather ... to become mere atheists." ==Abbe Dubois Chapel, Srirangapatna==

File:Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Abbe Dubois Chapel, Srirangapatna File:Memorial Plaque - Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Memorial Plaque File:Bell Tower - Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Bell Tower File:Church Bell at the Abbe Dubois Chapel, Seringapatam.JPG|Church Bell ==Citations==