The First Firangis - Jonathan Gil Harris

 Abhinay gifted this remarkable book about the first firangis - not necessarily the marauding ones but others who came with completely different ideas and stories and how they became Indian or how India became them. Gil Harris makes it a point to stress that their bodies, minds and souls change with their experience of India. There's an incredible amount of research and detail but I'll go by what I remember of these remarkable stories. Jonathan himself is a firangi who has now made India his home and he makes references to how to become Indian one needs to understand things like - arriving, running, renaming, re clothing, surviving, weathering, being interrupted etc.

He starts with two dacaits - firangis actually - who rob another firangi whose master has died and elft him alone to take care of his possessions. Then we realise that not all firangis were rich and many had to survive poverty and took to dubious means (some took the high road of dacoity like the East India company). There's Garcia da Orta, the hakeem of Bombay and Ahmad Nagar, who wrote some kind of a book on surviving India (also interestingly most firangis were considered doctors and many took advantage of that notion and learned on the fly). There's Thomas Stephens a priest who lived in Goa and wrote in Marathi and Konkani and all sorts of languages and was known as the Patri Guru. Then there's Malik Ayaz, the naval chief of Diu. Chinali, some Chinese connection of Kotakkal. Malik Ambar, the slave king of Aurangabad makes an impressive entry with his credentials further enhanced as he is given the credit for teaching the art of guerrilla warfare 'bargi giri' to Shivaji's father Bhonsale. Malik Ambar rises impressively, rules magnificently and remains a thorn in the Moghul flesh all his life, remaining unconquered and having established Aurangabad. Then there's Mandu Firangi who is supposed to have painted pictures from the Ramayan which adored the Mughal courts, Augustin Hiriart, the dubious jeweller who had great skill and perhaps contributed to the Taj Mahal.

There's Bibi Juliana Firangi, the Begum of Lahore and then there's this slave girl Juliana da Costa who rose quickly in the Mughal court and ended up quite wealthy. The most interesting is Odd Tom, or Thomas Coryate, an odd ball, writer of the book Crudities, actor, performer, who wants to touch the tomb of Timur and walks - to India. He is called the Fakir of Ajmer where he begs Shahjahan for money, having lost all his possessions and where he eats khichdi at the dargah and sustains himself. Said Sarmad Kashani and his disciple and partner Abhai - the naked yogi qualandar who is said to have magical powers and who earns the wrath of Aurangazeb but chooses to remain naked. Then there's Tibau, raja of Sandwip islands near Chittagong and of course, Niccolo Manucci, the Siddha Vaidya of Madras who lived and died in Madras.

Fascinating bunch of characters - brave, quick thinking, carrying death on their palms. It's interesting how they waded into India and how India also accepted them. Many of them married in India, settled down, and died here. Most fascinating read. Thanks Abhinay.