The ‘Devil in Calicut’: Hindu gods in early modern European travel writing

About the author

Rania Sivaraj is a final-year History and Politics student at the University of Warwick. Her research interests lie in early modern travel writing and her undergraduate dissertation explores cultural exchange between Europeans and Native Americans in the sixteenth century via the production of captivity narratives.

The 'Devil in Calicut': Hindu gods in early modern European travel writing

In 1503, traveller and writer Ludovico di Varthema (c. 1470 – 1517) would set sail from his native Italy, spurred by his desire to ‘behold the various kingdoms of the world’. Varthema was not alone in his wanderlust. The early modern period saw an increase in the number of Europeans travelling, which led to the emergence of travel literature that was penned by those who observed and interpreted what they encountered. Varthema’s own account – Itinerario (1510) – which spans the entirety of his travels, is particularly useful in conveying attitudes held by Europeans in this period towards India and Hinduism. In addition, the effect of his writings – especially his descriptions of Hindu deities – would illustrate how the emergence of new information in the early modern period was a significant element in the development of global connectivity.

Varthema’s travels and the creation of a devil

Varthema would reach India, specifically Calicut (Kozhikode) after having already visited much of the Mediterranean world and the Middle East, leaving India for Sri-Lanka and the Maluku Islands afterwards (Fig. 1)

Printed with papal support and recounted at the Venetian Senate upon his return to Europe, Itinerario was extremely important as a key travel narrative concerning ‘Eastern’ peoples, customs and cultures. Indeed, his chapter covering the religion of the people of Calicut, in present-day Kerala, would be instrumental in doing so. In this, Varthema wrote that:

‘The King of Calicut is a Pagan, and worships the devil in the manner you shall hear… which devil they call Deumo… And the King of Calicut keeps this Deumo in his chapel in his palace… in the midst of this chapel there is a devil made of metal, placed in a seat also made of metal. The said devil has a crown made like that of the papal kingdom, with three crowns; and it also had four horns and four teeth, with a very large mouth, nose and most terrible eyes. The hands are made like those of a flesh-hook, and the feet like those of a cock; so that he is a fearful object to behold. All the pictures around the said chapel are those of devils, and on each side of it there is a Sathanas seated in a seat… placed in a ring of fire, wherein are a great number of souls… the said Sathanas holds a soul in his mouth with the right hand, and with the other seizes a soul under the waist.’

This account, and its effects, illustrate a variety of aspects of European thinking in the early modern period. Firstly, Varthema’s descriptions of the deity as a ‘devil’ due to its animalistic appearance, as well as its hellish attendants, reflected a long-standing tradition in Christian iconography. Artistic representations of the devil in Christianity have portrayed him as goatlike, and many other Biblical monsters have also taken on animalistic appearances, such as the Dragon of the Apocalypse.

Early modern echoes of Varthema's devil

In addition, Itinerario and this excerpt would have significant influence back in Europe, especially via a 1515 German edition. This edition was illustrated by artist Jorg Breu, who created forty-six woodcuts based entirely from Varthema’s descriptions (Fig. 2). His illustrations would further affect European conceptualisations of Hinduism and India as a whole, and the image was soon replicated, copied and adapted for numerous following publications – such as in Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia, where it was used to represent the region of Calicut (Fig. 3).

Varthema’s devil would also appear in another adaptation of Breu’s illustrations, namely the 1560 ‘wonder book’ Histories prodigieuses by French humanist writer Pierre Boaistuau. ‘Wonder books’ were a developing genre in the early modern period that discussed phenomena around the world, ranging from earthquakes to plague and magic. In this edition, Boaistuau discussed Varthema’s devil and included a woodcut clearly inspired by both Breu and Munster’s illustrations (Fig. 4). Retaining the animalistic features of the initial illustrations, Boaistuau’s devil also has a crown reminiscent of the papacy that indicates the author’s Protestant allegiances, highlighting the religious tensions within Europe in this period. In addition, the inclusion of fur, fangs, feline-like ears and breasts present this iteration of the monster as a man-lion, the breasts being suggestive of transgressive gender. Perhaps the most striking aspect of this image is the devilish face that emerges from its crotch reminiscent of giving birth, yet another link to European visual tradition for the Devil that displays him as corruptive, monstrous and able to create offspring. Later iterations that depicted the Devil have him wearing a turban, referencing the threat of the Ottoman Empire in this period. These features emphasised how the Devil became a symbol of threats to European and Christian practice as a whole.

There has been great debate by scholars to unmask the Devil by questioning the exact diety that Varthema came across. It is possible, as suggested by historians, that he either saw Narasimha, a man-lion avatar of the god Vishnu, or Kali, the goddess of punishment. Yet, I find that this debate rests upon another concept – the differences in depictions of divinity in Christianity and Hinduism. Indeed, unlike Christianity, Hinduism does not conflate ‘good’ and ‘bad’ with physical attributes. Kali is a destructive figure, characterised by her terrifying fangs, multiple arms, blue skin and penchant for beheading men. The mythology that surrounds Narasimha states that he emerged from a pillar and disembowelled a demon to restore “divine order”. These are appearances and behaviours more commonly associated with the demonic in Christian thought, not the divine – and it was these crucial iconographical differences that caused such an evocative reaction in Europe. Moreover, Varthema’s misinterpretation and the influence that it had on visual culture in early modern Europe highlights the impact that information from travel sources had on the constructions of places, peoples and customs in an age of discovery and in the production of knowledge about them.

Bibliography

Chadbourne, Susanne, ‘The Physical Embodiment of the “Devil in Calicut” in Pierre Boaistuau’s Histoires prodigieuses’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 22 (2022), pp. 99-112.

Jones, John Winter, Badger, George Percy, The Travels of Ludovico de Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1863)

Rubiés, Joan-Pau, Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, 1250-1625 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)

Russell, Jeffrey Burton, The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity (New York: Cornell University Press, 1987)

Spinks, Jennifer, ‘Print and polemic in sixteenth-century France: the Histoires prodigieuses, confessional identity, and the Wars of Religion’, Renaissance Studies, 1 (2011), pp. 73-96.

Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500-1800 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017)

Williams, George M., Handbook of Hindu Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Figure 1. George Percy Badger, ‘A Map Illustrative of the Route of Ludovico di Varthema’. Image provided by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester. R. 1828.32

Figure 2. Jörg Breu, ‘Devil in Calicut’ (detail), 1515, woodcut on paper. Image provided by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Rar. 894, fol. 72.

Figure 3. Unknown artist, ‘Devil in Calicut’ (detail), 1550, woodcut on paper, in Sebastian Münster, Cosmographie Universalis (Basel, 1550), p. 1087. Image provided by Universitätsbibliothek Basel, UBH EV II 1.

Figure 4. Unknown artist, ‘Prodiges de Satan’ (detail), 1561, woodcut on paper, in Pierre Boaistuau, Histoires prodigieuses, extraictes de plusieurs fameux autheurs, grecs & latins, sacrez & prophanes (Paris, 1561), fol. 1. Image provided by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library University of Manchester, C. 6659.