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.