Scholar, interpreter, arbitrator, citizen: The many lives of Maridas Pillai

This article examines afresh the life and works of the eighteenth-century Indo-French intermediary Maridas Pillai from Pondicherry. He is known primarily for his French translation of the Bhagavatam, the earliest translation of the text in a European language. Yet many aspects of his life remain obscure. Drawing on new sources, the article shows that Maridas was much more than just a translator of the Bhagavatam. He was also a court translator and interpreter in Pondicherry, an arbitrator of individual and group disputes, and a man of letters who mediated knowledge about India for the benefit of French audiences. In studying these neglected dimensions of Maridas Pillai’s activities, the article argues that he was a different kind of intermediary than the well-known dubashes or commercial brokers. Carefully fashioning himself as a bridge between the French government and its Indian subjects, his work focused on mediating non-commercial, cultural, legal and societal knowledge. His life, therefore, reveals hitherto little-known dimensions of the Indo-French encounter.