admitted that he had only basic skills ("he knew probably not much more than the alphabet”). He was quite different from the Jesuits who learned Tamil so well that they confound even the Tamil pundits in language competitions with their language proficiency. He was not comparable to the Jesuit priests in his knowledge of Tamil as they were better scholars of Tamil. Jesuits even shamed the Tamil pundits in language competitions with their language skills. The Jesuit priest, Veeramamunivar Constanzo Beschi who stunned the Tamil pundits of Sangam Academy with his knowledge of classical Tamil even wrote his classical work in Tamil called Thembavani. Baldaeus' book created the long-held belief that origin of European civilization started in India with Hindu and Buddhist origins. He was the first who told the wider European audience about Krishna mythology and the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. German philosophers continued his task and analyzed all the Oriental religions as a philosophy. References External links Short bio A Description of the East-India Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel and also of the Isle of Ceylon with their Adjacent Kingdoms & Provinces by Philip Baldeus (translated from the High-Dutch printed at Amsterdam 1672 Digital Library for Dutch Literature (DBNL) International Institute for Asian Studies 1632 births 1672 deaths 17th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers 17th-century Dutch explorers People from Delft Dutch Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in Sri Lanka Dutch Reformed Church missionaries Dutch East India Company people