Antique Print of Inhabitants of Malabar by Baldaeus (1672)

Description: Plate page 193: This plate deals wit the native inhabitants of Malabar and their language. Dutch Malabar, also known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between 1661 and 1795, and is part of what is today collectively referred to as Dutch India. This original antique print originates from 'Naauwkeurige beschryvinge van Malabar en Choromandel der zelver aangrenzende ryken en het machtige eyland Ceylon. Nevens een omstandige en grondigh doorzochte ontdekking en wederlegginge van de afgoderye der Oost Indische heydenen', by Philippus Baldaeus, published in Amsterdam in 1672 by Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge & Johannes van Someren.

Artists and Engravers: Philippus Baldaeus, Baelde or Philip Balde (1632 - 1672) was a Dutch minister. He went to Jaffna, Ceylon with an invading Dutch force during 17th Century. As the first European he documented the life, language and culture of Tamil people, living in the north of the island. It is a great historical record, similar to Mahawamsa, and it was immediately published in Dutch and German.