Background
lieutenant is possible Abraham was born in Haarlem, like his brother Jacobus, also a chaplain, who went to the Indies.
lieutenant is possible Abraham was born in Haarlem, like his brother Jacobus, also a chaplain, who went to the Indies.
The Calvinist Rogerius (anglicized as Roger), studied in Leiden under Antonius Walaeus.
His first trip was to Batavia (1631) and then Surat (1632). From 1633 he worked as a chaplain in Pulicat, the capital of Dutch Coromandel. Rogerius authored Open Door to the Secrets of Heathendom, which begins with ten years of ministry among the Tamil people in the Dutch colony of Pulicat near Madras, India.
His knowledge came from three Brahmins whom he met regularly.
In 1642 he went back to Batavia and became the manager of an orphanage/school and promoted the use of Portuguese during church services. In 1647 he returned to the Dutch Republic.
The book has two parts. The first deals with the Brahmins life and customs, while the other describes their faith and worship.
Rogerius seems to have been the first published a translation of aphorisms in Sanskrit by Bhartṛhari, (Hundred aphorisms on the path to heaven by the heathen Bhartṛhari, famous amongst the Brahmins on the Coromandel coast) which forms the third part of the book