The Tamil Máquina do bramanismo (Brahmanical Machine) as 'Religious Other' in Seventeenth-Century Portuguese Jesuit Documents

Religions, like cultures, are dynamic phenomena constantly re-codified, rewritten, and re-shaped byapermanent process of translation. Moreover, translation is never a one-way process, but rather a process of exchange and negotiation of linguistic and cultural grids. In the 17th century South Indian missionary context, the Jesuits Roberto Nobili (1577–1656) and Gonçalo Fernandes (1541–1619), translated the religious practices and religious exponents of the Tamil Hindu community of Madurai mission into Latin and Portuguese. Inmypaper, I apply an analytical toolkit, a sort of methodological package with a selection of theories from translation studies (Eugine Nida, Lawrence Venuti, André Lefevere). The toolkit unravels the multiple dimensions and levels of the translation in a more differentiated way than can be done when translation is used only as a metaphor. By this analysis, I can unearth different local actors and political structures that are involved in the process of translation. Comparing and tracing the receptions of these different translations enlightens a better understanding of the construction of religions and cultures.