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HISTORY OF TINNEVELLY.
Cuapteu X. Paul Rottari, S.J., by the Rev. N. Pouget, S.J. They have never yet, so far as I am aware, appeared iu English.
Coustantius Beschi was born at Castiglione in Italy on the 8th
November 1680. On the 21st October 1698, being eighteen years
of age, he entered the Society of Jesus.
His native biographer states that he arrived in India in 1700, but Fr. Pouget shows that this was impossible. He must have
passed two years in novitiate and then engaged in theological
studies for four years. No member of the Society of Jesus is
He ordained priest before he is twenty-five years of age.
cannot,
therefore, have sailed for India before 1706. The voyage at that
time occupied at least six months; and after he reached Goa it
would be considered necessary, according to the custom of the time,
that he should remain there one or two years learning Tamil, the
language of the district to which he was to be appointed. It seems
probable, therefore, it is said, that he did not commence his missionary career in Tinnevelly before 1710. For my own part,
accepting the data that have been mentioned 1708 seems the latest
date that can be assigned for his arrival in Tinnevelly. His Tamil
biographer says that he spent five years in learning Tamil. It
might be said, doubtless, with still greater truth of so devoted a
scholar that he was learning Tamil as long as he lived. In whatever year his career as a missionary actually commenced, it cannot
now be doubted that it commenced in Tinnevelly, and it is equally
certain that it was to Tinnevelly that he came to breathe his last.
Beschi's stations.
"We pass out of the region of probabilities into that of certainties when we mention that Brandolini, who founded the congregation
at Vadakankulam in Tinnevelly in 1714, states that in the years
3714, 1715, and 1716 Beschi was stationed at Kamaiyanayakanpatti in Tinnevelly, from which place he often visited Kaittar.
Kaittar, then a more important place than it is now, is situated on
the road from Palamcotta to Madura, 18 miles from Palamcotta.
Kamaiyanayakanpatti lies to the north-east, in the Ettiapuram
Zemindari. Beschi was imprisoned by the Brahmans at Gurukkalpatti, and they were about to put him to death, when he was
rescued by the Christians of Kaittar. Gurukkalpatti is a village
His life in danger.
near Alankulam in the Sangaranainarkovil Taluk. . Beschi himself relates this incident in a letter to the General Superior of the
Society dated Kamaiyanayakanpatti, 12th January 1715. I felt
doubtful at first whether it could be true that Brahmans could have
really intended to put him to death, but I find that there is a
distinct tradition to that effect surviving amongst the Native
Christians in all these villages. The village of Gurukkalpatti belongs to Brahmans and is inhabited partly by Brahmans. Thoy
themselves admit that they have heard that their forefathers pulled
down a matha erected by Beschi and drove him out of their
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